I
LOVE to shop. Give me a chance to spend money and 98% of the time I will do it. But I also love saving money and seeking out a bargain! My main difficulty when it comes to shopping is that our nearest shopping towns are 20-25 miles away either way, so I end up spending my much-needed retail therapy budget on fuel and parking (yawn).
Anyhow - here are a few of my great money saving tips that I use when shopping (mainly online) - enjoy!!
Cashback Websites
Head to
Quidco or
Topcashback to earn cashback and find discount codes when shopping online. Even if it is travel insurance policy or a hotel break you're booking, see if you can get some money back. No better way to treat your other half than finding you can get 12% cashback on a £150 per night hotel room - that means more money for a nice meal!
Nectar Loyalty Card
Nectar is the biggest loyalty card scheme within the UK which launched in 2002 . It includes over 400 online retailers and points can be collected online and often in store. If you're not with Nectar already - please do get on there and sign up! This is my favourite money saving method because of the simplicity. It's as easy as this:
Log on to Nectar, find your retailer, click 'shop now & collect points'
And BOOM! Points added a few weeks later.
A lot of retailers often do a double points period too, so the money saving can really add up. Now the fun part: redeeming the points :-) I usually let my points add up for about 9 months, by which time I might have around £50 to spend. You can then spend these points online at
Sainsburys for your weekly shop,
Pizza Express or even
Easyjet, as well as many others. If you love to travel, consider spending them with
Easyjet - we're heading to Venice in a couple of months' time and it's only costing us £30 each return - bargain!!
Your Bank
You will also find a lot of banks are starting their own reward schemes too. I'm with
Halifax and they have a cashback scheme running , so I can log on to my account, see what offers there are from several retailers, and just by using my bank card I can earn cashback which goes straight to my account! If your bank isn't yet offering a money saving scheme then it wouldn't hurt to shop around, some banks offer you an instant cash reward for just joining them
.
Email Sign Up
Browse your favourite shops and join their mailing lists - you sometimes get offered a discount just for signing up and it means you get regular emails from your faves so you never miss out on something new and fabulous, plus make some great money saving bargains. I never buy anything online at
Dorothy Perkins unless I have a voucher code and always manage to get a free delivery discount code by searching Google (plus free returns if you change your mind!).
In Store
You find your perfect top in a store, and they only have one in your size. BUT there's a terrible make-up stain on it! What do you do? - No you don't put it back and wander off miserable. You ask for a discount. The worst they will say is there isn't one, but chances are nobody else will want it at full price either. Best case scenario - you get a love 20% discount off it (more if you're lucky)!
Supermarket Schemes and Mysupermarket
Head to
MySupermarket and do your normal shop with your normal supermarket, and it will tell you if you're missing out on bigger savings elsewhere. This website compares the following shops so you know you're getting a good comparison:
And let's not forget the supermarket schemes on offer - Waitrose has the
MyWaitrose card, Boots has a
Boots Advantage card and Tesco has the
Tesco clubcard plus all the others available. With the Tesco scheme we save up our vouchers and use them towards the cost of airport parking (which double up the value) or cinema trips, so they no longer have to cost a fotune.
I hope these money saving tips can help you save a good sum, or collect some point to spend on a luxury treat. Shopping around is the key to the best ways to save money and it's totally worth it - why pay more, if you don't need to?!
