This happened to me almost every week, I am still learning,
but I want to show you what I am learning; because it has blown my mind and
really opened my eyes. You can pretty much get money back for EVERYTHING you
buy. Insurance, Electricals, Pet Food, Food Shopping.
There are websites and apps you can use to build this money
up, you can then either save it for a rainy day, or collect it monthly to boost
income. You just have to be careful that you don’t buy something just because
it is on the app or because you get cashback for it. You’re only going to see a
benefit if you’d have bought that item anyway.
Quidco - Sign up here and get £1.25
I will start with Quidco, this website is a cashback site.
Do you order takeaways using just eat? You can get cashback on that! Buying a
new appliance, you can get cashback on that too. You basically sign up and then
say for example you wanted to buy a new television or fridge-freezer… You search
for the retailer (currys or the like) and then Quidco will bring their page up
and direct you to the website. Once you complete payment then the money will
track into your account, it can be anywhere up to 10% (so for a £299 TV you’d
get £29 cashback). Some companies offer as little as 1%, but regardless, its
better in your pocket than theirs… I have a colleague who lets hers build up
over the year and then she withdraws it just before Christmas to buy presents
with. Some companies offer a Cash incentive, ironically my car insurance is due for renewal. My best offer through compare the market was for Hastings Direct, and if I sign up to Hastings Direct Insurance through Quidco they offer £55 cashback….
Mysupermarket - Link
I suggest using Mysupermarket to check your
shopping bills. The budget supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl are fab for certain
things, but there are also some things that we just don’t substitute in our
house (chocolate, condiments and alcohol mainly). So it pays for us to buy
things like Pasta, Veg, beans and fruit etc from Aldi or Lidl, but we also go
to the big supermarkets to get other bits. I use mysupermarket and fill my
basket with what I would like and it then shows where sells the items cheapest.
So for example Heinz Tomato Sauce may be £3 in Asda, but in Morrisons it is on
offer for £2… I literally make a huge list, then separate it out as to where
has it cheapest and plan my shop around these places. I use this alongside the cashback
apps to make the most out of things (for example Birds Eye Chicken Chargrills/breasts
are £1 in Asda, you can get 40p cash back for them and claim up to 6 times, so
instead of 12 bits of chicken costing £6 they come in at £3.40 for 12 bits, and
they’re frozen.. doesn’t matter when you get around to using them).
ClickSnap – ClickSnap Web Link
This is an app that you can download on Android
and Apple devices, I don’t think it is available for Windows phones
unfortunately. It is also a part of Quidco, so the money tracks and gets paid
through there. This app gives you offers for money off certain products at
certain supermarkets. You can filter to view a specific supermarket but this
app (as well as CheckoutSmart which I will come to later) can bag you freebies.
It is mainly offers of 50p of a purchase or 75p etc, but sometimes they give
you money £2 for buying a certain item (for example Richmond Sausages 16 pack
was £4 in Asda, and they offered £2 off, but in Morrisons they were on offer
for £2) You just have to be mindful of which supermarkets the offers are
available in. You basically buy the items, go into ClickSnap and mark where you
shopped and where, then select which offers you have used and upload your receipt.
It then tracks within a few days and is available for withdrawal usually the
same week (though it takes 3-5 days to transfer out).
CheckoutSmart – Web Link
The same as above, it is available on
Android and Apple devices but not windows as far as I am aware. This does the
same as the above, but you sometimes get offers like “Win a £100 shop” you just
upload your receipts as you do with ClickSnap, this one will only pay out if
you have a minimum of £5 saved up, and you pay 5% fee on withdrawals under
£19.99 – I prefer to use ClickSnap but sometimes check this app too as they may
have a different offer. If you are wondering whether you can submit the same receipt
on both apps – you can’t; I did try because I am a cheeky bugger, but it seems
that once the receipt goes through it deactivates it so it can’t be submitted
twice to different apps…
Shopitize – no link, only available on your App Store.
I loved this App, but dispise it at the same
time. There used to be tons of offers on here, but this app liked you to scan
the barcode on your item, then upload your receipt too. It offered 40p of a
supermarket own brand lettuce for example that cost 49p. But it would never
read the barcode so I couldn’t scan it in. I ended up having to submit a
support request regularly. But I persevered and generally got the money back. I
have noticed recently though that they only have one or two offers on at a
time, and they are not usually as good as they used to be… but every penny
counts doesn’t it.
RecieptHog – Link
Another app that I think is available on both
Apple Store and Android. With this, you photograph literally every receipt you
get, fuel/dog food/clothing, and the little piggy eats them and turns them into
coins, you get extra coins for doing certain activities and then when you’ve
collected enough coins it gets transferred into either Paypal or you can get
amazon vouchers. I am new to this one but will let you know how I get on with
it.
Pampers Club – Link
One just for the mummies or daddies out there, you can sign up for free samples of new and improved nappies
– If you’re buying the nappies in a shop you may as well upload the receipt, as you get
so many points per pound spent, and they all add up, you can use the points for
money of vouchers against large boxes of nappies, or you can use it on toys,
magazine subscriptions (or now that we no longer have sky, Baby Tv Subscriptions)!!
One word of advice though - they only let you print your coupons once, I have just tried to print out 6 coupons for £1 off nappies and my printer wasn't connected, its failed. But the website thinks they have printed... so now I have no coupons and no way of getting any more :( - I have contacted customer support regarding this.
It can be a bit of hardwork to figure it all out, put your
lists together and then actually go do the shopping, but if you have a list of
what you need and stick to it you can reduce the cost of the weekly shop.
