Are you a savvy shopper?

[ViaRia01]

I think I’m too disorganised for this really but I was wondering if there are things I could do better to be savvy with vouchers, loyalty schemes, subscriptions, etc.

What are your favourite / most valuable savvy spending tips?

I have the cards to get members’ pricing for Sainsburys, Tesco, Coop. It really annoys me when I occasionally go to Morrisons and I don’t have their card and everything is ‘full priced’ but at the same time I don’t want to sign up at every single supermarket in case I need to pop in there one day! Big household spends go on the Amex card, saving points for flights/ rewards, although we haven’t been able to make use of them in the last four years as no holidays abroad!

Do you have a tight routine like ‘I collect points at x shop and then buy myself a brand new y’

which schemes are actually worthwhile?

No. I have a My Waitrose card, they give weekly vouchers on things I buy frequently like butter and yoghurt and I use those. But otherwise I can't be bothered - I'm sure there are savings to be made if you have the time. I don't.

I'm very cynical about things like 'ClubCard Price' - aren't they just putting the price up to make it look as if you're getting a discount.

Everup cashback app, to buy online supermarket etc. vouchers... the cashback builds up surprisingly fast!

everup.onelink.me/9lgD/hwibnd5n

Boots £10 Tuesday is one of my favourites. Great deals on plenty of everyday items and then you can use the Advantage Points to get free items. What’s not to like?

You’re missing a trick… there are plenty of savings to be made using the Tesco Clubcard and Sainsbury’s Nectar card.

@JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn i do feel that the nectar prices often are legitimately a good deal whereas in morissons the regular price of some of their products is just ridiculous and you really get screwed over without their membership card.

it’s all the little vouchers the till spits out in Sainsburys… maybe I need a better system but I just put those straight in the bin because the few times I have recrivied something I might find useful, I forgot to use or it it expires by the time I remember to use it!

@ginnib1 thanks for the tip. To save me downloading the app and trying to figure it out would you be able to say how does this actually work? I sign up for free (?) and then instead of going to, say, Argos.com directly I open the app, go to Argos section, then browse as normal for whatever I am buying…?

I buy most things through a cashback gift card app. I use cheddar. I make about £50 a month on shopping I'm doing anyway. You can use tesco club card or whatever with it

I use Quidco for online purchases to get cashback and have a Blue Light Card and Teachers Discount Card so always check if I can get money off. I rarely buy online without at least 10% off by shopping around for discount codes.
Tesco club card and Nectar definitely.
My credit card is Tesco so I collect club card vouchers from that - they aren’t quite as good as they used to be but I’ve used them to get a free railcard or for money off days out.

I use topcashback and airtime rewards. Also all loyalty cards and discounts online. It pains me when I can't find one !

I have loyalty cards for every supermarket and keep them digitally in my Apple wallet

I rarely use the apps except Waitrose to do an online order.

I rarely go in Morrisons but if I do I have a card if I do.

Top cashback - I stopped using quidco as I found them not reliable. TC also do an offer where you can get £2 back on a £10 spend. I buy a sainsburys gift card off their site and use it for food shopping.

airtimes rewards - I don’t get as much as I used to but the plus point is you don’t need to remember to do anything - you just log your card and it just tracks automatically.

last week I found nectar arcade games - you can get nectar points for playing games. It pains me I only just found it as one of the games is one I play all the time 😄

the edge browser in my laptop will automatically search for discount codes and also pops up if it’s TC eligible in case u forgot to go via that first.

sign up on websites - you usually get a free birthday thing - my daughter then goes out on her birthday getting bits of free drinks and food everywhere! They usually send birthday money off vouchers as well.

Just sign up to the Morrisons card if you shop there. I have all my loyalty cards in my Google wallet.

However, I don't generally chase points/vouchers and most of our shopping comes from Aldi (cheapest, simplest and convenient) and the rest from M&S (also convenient, also good for yellow stickers, basics actually well priced). I get quite a lot of M&S vouchers either discounted/extra value by converting Quidco cashback or Amex points or incentives from changing broadband or similar.

For the things we don't get from M&S or Aldi (have access to nearly all supermarkets close by/on way home from work) I generally stock up if there's something non perishable that we like (eg Waitrose own brand tonic water and microwave pilau rice) so only go every couple of months - I'll check if there's any offers or if it's worth spending for a £x off £y spend deal.

There's a whole list of things that you can avoid paying full price for by keeping a stock when they're on offer, eg we use Heinz pasta sauce, so will buy a dozen jars when half price.

If you buy the same things from the same supermarket each week, that's probably the most expensive way to shop, unless you only use Aldi or Lidl. Even little things like buying a 4 pack of tinned tomatoes every month instead of a single can each week is likely to save money and of course if you do this for a few things, it will add up significantly over time.

Buy cheaper fruit and veg. Normal broccoli instead of sprouting. Whatever is in season. Cabbage instead of sprouts. Every time I buy a cabbage it takes forever to use - several meals of veg/salad.

I believe that the idea behind the original Tesco Clubcard was that as a supermarket you know what people are buying because it goes through the tills as stock. The Clubcard meant that they could find out who was buying it and what things they were buying every week.

The Clubcard deal pricing now is because they are getting your marketing information so they reward that. My credit card company knows where I shop, how often I shop etc, I get cashback on that.

Every week when I do my supermarket shop (not Tesco as not close by) Google Rewards asks me to take a photo of my receipt and I get money for that. In fact every place I shop or even walk into Google is tracking my phone and asks me questions like did you buy anything? You can also choose not to upload a photo of the receipt. Dh goes to the gym everyday but it picks up the local business next door so he gets pence per day but it adds up.

These small amounts and asking for my opinion on things means I can buy audiobooks through the Play Store.

We have a Blue Light card so check that every time we go to shop for something, can we get it discounted from another place? We shop in bulk too and divide food up and freeze it. Even my bank account costs me a monthly fee but the cashback on the account means I cover that and more so I end up with over £100 at the end of the year just for having that bank account.

Now if you want to swap banks they pay you money to do it and they transfer all the direct debits even your wages go to the new account, you literally do nothing, just sign up to a new bank.

Happy to hear all the ways people are making savings, big and small.

There is absolutely no way I am switching banks. I love that for you, that it is doing “literally nothing” but for me that sounds the like more frustrating admin aggro that I could really do without. I do get the nationwide £100 fair share payment each year though so I suppose that helps to balance out any insensitives offered by the others for switching.

I don’t object to having a morissons card… I just haven’t got around to signing up and I shop there so infrequently that it never feels like an urgent task…until the next time I’m there and I pay £8 for bakes bean or something.

If you use coupons and vouchers do you have a system for sorting out the vouchers you will/ won’t use, store them somewhere (a folder in the car?), and remember to take them with you when you next shop?

these cash back sites seem popular so I’m going to take a look at those.

I think also getting access to my husbands’ work perks/ rewards would be good. Obviously it’s his account but I am often the one doing to the household buying/ shopping around for deals, so I might be missing out on deals there. It’s not blue light card, but a similar thing.