Why you are over-paying for your groceries every week!
Whether you realise it, or not, chances are that you are likely paying too much for your groceries every week. You might think that I’m about to tell you to switch from Tesco to Aldi and it will save you £100s a year, because whilst it might that doesn’t work for everyone.
Not all of us are closer to the discounted German powerhouses that are Aldi and Lidl, or may simply prefer to shop at one of the other major supermarkets for quality, convenience, loyalty, or many other factors. Despite the abundance of reasons, you have probably noticed that the cost of our groceries in the UK has shot up over recent years and it can seem impossible to combat without cutting back.
However, there is a way to save on your food shop every single time and it is easier than you might think.
Shopping with gift cards
Gift cards are often reserved for birthdays or other special occasions where you don’t want to give someone cash, but something a little more thoughtful. Well, this is no longer the way you will view them once I tell you about this money saving tip that could save you £1,000s over a lifetime!
Companies LOVE gift cards because it means that they get guaranteed cash upfront and as such sell gift cards to third parties for less than their face value. This is where cashback apps come into play because they will sell gift cards to us and pay us some of the difference as cashback.
Hopefully this is making sense so far, but you are likely thinking that we are talking tiny amounts of cashback here but believe it or not you can actually make some serious cashback using these apps (I’m talking about 4% cashback on each and every shopping trip!).
Why this matters
Realistically this might seem like a faff, but we need to think long-term here. If we are averaging 4% cashback on every shop, that means that after 25 shops, you will have enough cashback to make the 26th one free! And with 52 weeks in a year, that is 2 free shopping trips each year without even thinking about loyalty points or anything else.
It does take a few minutes to purchase the gift card but just think what that extra cash could do for you and your family, and surely you’d much rather the money be sat in your pocket than in the profits of the multi-billion pound supermarkets!
How to use the gift cards
You can either purchase gift cards in the apps in rounded amounts (say £50) which can be really good to help you stick to your budget. Or you can purchase a gift card at the till for pretty much the amount you’ve spent in the shop (just be patient as it can take a few minutes).
Each time you buy a gift card, you will pay the face value of the card (£10 costs you £10) but then accumulate cashback in the relevant apps which can be withdrawn at specific points.
Then, instead of paying with your debit or credit card at the till (or online checkout) you simply use the gift card by scanning it or entering the code.
Supermarket Cashback Apps
Since the start of 2024, the number of the cashback apps that offer cashback on gift cards has increased exponentially, and luckily for us they are all competing to have the best rates so you should probably create an account for all of the following apps/ sites (click through each one for detail on them!)
I will be posting a weekly summary of which place has the best cashback rates on Instagram so that you don’t have to do the legwork to figure out which is the best deal for your chosen supermarket!