A DAD has revealed how his family-of-four have cut down their supermarket bill to just a fiver a month.
Jim Parums, from Altrincham, Manchester, says they rely on foraging for all their meals and only buy pasta and olive oil.
The 32-year-old has taught his wife Kat, 35, and two daughters, three and one, how to forage.
Jim discovered the art of searching for wild food resources at a young age after watching his grandma, Anne, 84, forage for mushrooms.
He says every meal they eat at home is now cooked with ingredients grown in their garden and foraged from their local woods.
Their meals even include birds left behind from pheasant shoots during that season.
In January 2020 Jim tried giving up weekly food shops after becoming sick of processed, frozen and expensive meals.
And the family loved their new way of life so much they stuck with it and continued to source fresh produce from the environment around them.
The family now save more than £100-a-week by living from their land and only need to go to the supermarket for a few basics- spending just £5 a month.
Jim, who has worked as a professional forager since October 2019, said: "Some of the tastiest ingredients are waiting outside your doorstep.
'With a little bit of guidance, foraging can be used in every meal, and that expensive weekly shop can be reduced drastically.
"'My family and I rarely visit our local Tesco because we have everything we need in our garden or outside."
After a childhood of adventures with grandma, Anne, Jim discovered his talent for foraging after easily identifying mushrooms with just a glance as a young adult.
At university, Jim continued his passion by foraging for berries and making wine for his friends.
Jim then met Kat in 2015 and introduced her to his love for foraging.
he said: ''At first Kat was confused by my obsession with fungi, but after cooking her a full three course meal that was fully foraged she was blown away.
''Even our eldest daughter can distinguish mushrooms by their spots at just aged three.''
The family of foragers will spend their morning harvesting various fungi, berries and plants to use to create their breakfast, lunch and dinner.
For breakfast, they will have homemade jam from foraged berries, black, red and wild with freshly baked bread.
Jim's typical lunch for the family will include a variety of fruits harvested from their garden and their dinners will change with each season.
He said: "We grow a number of fruits and vegetables in our garden, but it all depends on the seasons.
"Our friends and family love the foraging lifestyle with some of them even learning a few helpful tips and tricks.
''While people spend £10 on their fruit and veg every week, we are growing and foraging for nothing.
"No food is wasted, we use what we need and recycle and compost our leftovers."
