How much do you save on your shopping using coupons?

Felicity

Thanks for all of your replies, it's really interesting to see how everybody gets on with this.

I am also doing an experiment this month to see how much I will save. I've done 17 supermarket shops already (large and small amounts) and have saved 69% which I am really pleased with. Yes, I AM keeping a spreadsheet and my till receipts.

I am getting a good idea now about which supermarkets accept which different types of coupons and will post more at the end of the month, so please keep your replies coming (no abusive posts though, or posts shouting 'greed')!

My best single shop yet (in terms of largest actual amount saved) was £64.36 worth of goods, £58.05 of coupons accepted, £6.31 actual spend. 90% saved.

My best percentage saving was £28.02 worth of goods, £26.76 worth of coupons accepted, £1.26 actual spend. 96% saved.

My worst was 0% accepted, but fortunately that was only a spend of £5.96.

If the replies to this are positive I will keep posting more, if not, I will just disolved into the background!!!!!!!!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

hi..coupon-mad....how you doing?.....the tescos that accept all my vouchers is a an average size one, not a tesco extra.....as isay when they first opened not many people were going there ,as there was a lot of unrest with the locals as we allready had a somerfield.. lidle and a big local shop...they built the tesco just outside the village,, and there was outrage by the villagers, saying it would shut down shops etc... but the council still went a head with it...so this tescos has been very slow off the mark so to speak....and only now 18 months down the line...you can see it being busy.......
even though i hand over a pile of coupons...i know i am being cocky by handing them over, but at the end of the day, they can allways hand me back
any ones that they will not take.....
i also have started to write down how much i have spent on buying vouchers , and how much i have had taken off my bill. and since 22 may
i have had £69.10 worth of vouchers taken off my shopping bill....and have spent £15.95 on vouchers...and have still got a pile left.....
but at the end of the day... as it was said earlier...they get a handling fee as well it might only be 1 or 2p per voucher, but just imagine all those pennies addes up over the week in your local supermarket.....i wouldnt say no to them........

dollywops

WELSH-DRAGON wrote:

Hiya Felicity, I used to do the same as you but have found now that I am recognised in my local stores !! funny thing is I have NEVER seen anyone else using vouchers whilst I have waited at the till.

However, the one supervisor will confirm that I can use my vouchers and will sometimes check what I am handing over to see if I am giving them any duplicates, in which case she will reject them. Ages ago there was a lady on here who was banned from her local Tescos for using vouchers so I do try to be discreet and not hand over bundles at a time. What I do is sometimes stagger my shopping so I can use some at a time rather than all in one go.

What I save varies - usually between £10-25 depending on how many times I have been there etc. As you probably know as avid voucher hunters Ramblers newspaper thread is one to check daily as for example today the Daily Mail has a voucher for £1.30 off so that's 85p profit on each paper bought and you can use the voucher at tescos without buying the item.

welshy xxx

Is it possible for you to post the link to ramblers newspaper thread. If not, perhaps you could pm it to me.

Thanks.

Coupon-mad

dollywops wrote:

Is it possible for you to post the link to ramblers newspaper thread. If not, perhaps you could pm it to me.

Thanks.

I have the link to this as I've just checked it, as I do every morning:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=212116&highlight=newspaper+June

I normally find it by searching the Chat forum for 'newspaper June' but this doesn't always find it (if 'June' has been spelt with no capital letter etc.!) so failing that, I just look at latest morning posts on 'Discount Codes & Vouchers' each day.

Anyone else find the newpaper thread hard to find sometimes? :rolleyes:

There is also usually a weekly magazine coupon summary but can't find one this week yet.

Coupon-mad

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote:

hi..coupon-mad....how you doing?.....the tescos that accept all my vouchers is a an average size one, not a tesco extra.....as isay when they first opened not many people were going there ,as there was a lot of unrest with the locals as we allready had a somerfield.. lidle and a big local shop...they built the tesco just outside the village,, and there was outrage by the villagers, saying it would shut down shops etc... but the council still went a head with it...so this tescos has been very slow off the mark so to speak....and only now 18 months down the line...you can see it being busy.......
even though i hand over a pile of coupons...i know i am being cocky by handing them over, but at the end of the day, they can allways hand me back
any ones that they will not take.....
i also have started to write down how much i have spent on buying vouchers , and how much i have had taken off my bill. and since 22 may
i have had £69.10 worth of vouchers taken off my shopping bill....and have spent £15.95 on vouchers...and have still got a pile left.....
but at the end of the day... as it was said earlier...they get a handling fee as well it might only be 1 or 2p per voucher, but just imagine all those pennies addes up over the week in your local supermarket.....i wouldnt say no to them........

Hello again COOLTRIKERCHICK, hope you are well today, I am! Just thinking about another trip to Mr T's for some last minute bits, cake etc. for one of my son's birthdays tomorrow. I also have some of those till-spit coupons to use by the weekend for more lovely points!

Totally agree with your approach to coupons, I always feel I put the ball in their court when I ask if they can possibly scan any......I expect my savings would be similar to yours but I don't write it all down (don't have time now that I've been known to go to Tesco twice in one day and sometimes spend 2hours there... making sure I spend enough on toiletries to get the points, enough in total to use a Sainsbury's money-off voucher and searching for particular items named in my extra points coupons as well as possible R&R opportunities tipped off by the Tesco misprices thread!).

And that's without the time finally spent scanning the tills surreptitiously for a sure-fire voucher-scanning lad, followed by a trip to CS if I have spotted any misprices on my receipt! Then there's the 'wombling' slow walk out to the car via the scenic route, picking up any receipts that may have unused points on!

OMG I am obsessed but it's so great to save so much on food shopping and collect points which I'm now saving for our family's first holiday abroad (hopefully) next year!

:T

Penny-Pincher!!

Our local Asda and Tesco wil normally accept £3-£4 off a £10 shop, so thats 30-40% so I think thats pretty good.

PP
xx

Coupon-mad

Penny-Pincher!! wrote:

Our local Asda and Tesco wil normally accept £3-£4 off a £10 shop, so thats 30-40% so I think thats pretty good.

PP
xx

Yes, that's a good percentage!

Also, I think that small shops like this seem more likely to generate a till-spit coupon for Clubcard points, etc. Tills are also churning out the occasional '£4 off a £40 shop' till-spit now too apparently (was told this by someone who spent just a few quid...I think I will try splitting my shopping into one large and one small transaction 'for my Mum' to test this).

Make sure you spend just over £10 per transaction to get the football gamecard though (then take it home unopened and hold it up to a light to see if there's a winning side...if one side says 'sorry' and one says 'unlucky' then open the 'unlucky' side as that will be the coupon or Tussauds offer etc). Thanks to another thread for this tip.:o

Dormouse

Felicity wrote:

My best single shop yet (in terms of largest actual amount saved) was £64.36 worth of goods, £58.05 of coupons accepted, £6.31 actual spend. 90% saved.

My best percentage saving was £28.02 worth of goods, £26.76 worth of coupons accepted, £1.26 actual spend. 96% saved.

:shocked: :shocked: :shocked:

Wow, that's incredible - how did you do it?

A word of warning, though - there have been instances of MSErs being banned for excessive coupon use, so be careful not to attract too much attention!

Felicity

Yes, I've seen that, thanks for the warning! I saw on Bobs that somebody was arrested in Boots for using internet coupons, she was actually taken to the police station and put in a cell overnight, apparently the police told her she was effectively printing her own money! That's bonkers!

I don't see how they could ban me though if their staff accept the coupons and tell me they have a policy for as many coupons as you have, but yes I will be careful.

rozeepozee

Felicity wrote:

I am also doing an experiment this month to see how much I will save. I've done 17 supermarket shops already (large and small amounts) and have saved 69% which I am really pleased with. Yes, I AM keeping a spreadsheet and my till receipts.

I am getting a good idea now about which supermarkets accept which different types of coupons and will post more at the end of the month, so please keep your replies coming (no abusive posts though, or posts shouting 'greed')!

If the replies to this are positive I will keep posting more, if not, I will just disolved into the background!!!!!!!!

Felicity, I'm AMAZED at your savings and think you are sensible, not greedy - BUT, I still can't get my head round this thing - it seems too good to be true.

Can I just ask you expert to confirm if I've got this right:

Supermarkets will accept vouchers from other supermarkets?

They will accept vouchers for items you haven't even bought? (sometimes limiting the amount you can use?)

So, I have this month's Somerfield Mag (freebie) and it has 9 vouchers for soft drinks, one 80p, one 50p and mostly less. If I take this into Somerfield, they'll accept the vouchers even if I haven't bought any of the soft drinks? Could I use them at other supermarkets?

I've also got a load of Pampers and Huggies vouchers as I'm due to have a bub soon and have registered with them. Can I use these vouchers (mostly £1 and 75p) at the supermarkets even though I'm not buying the products they relate to (they're disposable nappies and wipes and I intend to be more eco-friendly and MS than this!)

I often get Supersaver vouchers from Somerfield but then do my next shop at Tesco and by the time I go to Somerfield again, the voucher has expired. Could I have used it at Tescos and got the money off there?

Apologies again for the essay and seemng so dim but I just can't believe these money off techniques are available and I didn't know about them (what else don't I know - the mind boggles!!!!:rotfl: )