How would you spend £100 of Waitrose vouchers? :)

MrsCautious

Hello, I've been in such a money saving frame of mind recently and am now being sent £100 of Waitrose vouchers for taking part in something through my work.

Ordinarily I would have just said 'wahay, we deserve a treat' and blown them on a load of indulgent posh treats but my recent approach is making me a little bit jumpy about this!

Would you do that or would you be much more sensible about it? I reckon it could be good to try and buy two lots of around £50 worth of groceries for two weeks worth of shopping for me and my children, substituting that for my usual food bill -- I've been shopping in Aldi, making the most of my Nectar points at Sainsbury's, meal planning and batch cooking

Or, as they are John Lewis vouchers, could I look at some worthwhile kitchen gadget to further my MSE ways?? (A breadmaker perhaps?!)

I need to get out more as I am even weighing up the cost of petrol to get to said John Lewis or Waitrose. . .

I'm not in any debt but I have been saving money due to not wanting to waste it and having lost my husband, and having our on-going household more than halved, it has been a real focus all of a sudden. I will have to repay some child tax credit from April but have savings to do that from if I decide that's a good idea -- really not convinced it is and I should carry on in my newly-acquired thrifty ways.

Thanks for reading, interested to see what other people's approaches would be -- I know it's not a massive "dilemma" but a nice challenge to have. x

System

Get your normal shopping there. That way you are effectively saving £100 cash because the money would have been spent in Tesco/Asda anyway but you are not spending anything there for 2 weeks

but...I think its good to enjoy some treats too so would probably spend £10-£15 on waitrose treats that you wouldn't be able to get normally

MrsCautious

Thank you Berbastrike I think that's the option I need to go for -- just trying to get my head round the fact the fruit and veg will cost so much (which is odd as I won't be paying...) I suppose I could still get that from Aldi and stock up on things that aren't perishable.

gallygirl

Go on mysupermarket.co.uk and look on the Waitrose page. Look under the Offers tab at the savvy buys - this shows their offers which are 30% lower than their average over the past year. For example, Findus fishfingers are on offer at £2 at the mo (same as Tesco's offer). (Though they may be up to 60% seahorse . ) Branston Baked Beans £1.27 for 4.

I would spread them out over a few months to stock up on bargains, as long as not too far away to travel.

Nice dilemma though .

MrsCautious

Thank you Gallygirl, I have never used that website so that's really useful, loving your seahorse reference x

Edwardia

I shop at Ocado and Waitrose and if you eat bacon I would definitely recommend a breakfast or bacon butty which includes Duchy Originals from Waitrose organic unsmoked back bacon for 3.99 as it was a gold medal winner in the 2012 Taste Awards and definitely worth it.

My mother and husband bond over Waitrose freshly baked bread and an organic baguette is 99p (longer than Tesco ans Sainsbury's ones too).

The deli stuff is always pretty good, also the cheese and fish. My mother loves their fresh pasta eg ravioli.

British veal is no longer reared in crates and Waitrose sells some fantastic veal.

Its a lovely dilemma to have !

i_wanna_save_money!

If you use them at JL you will get the change from the vouchers in cash. I won some vouchers, so used each £50 voucher to buy a small item like a birthday card and got £48 cash change each time.

MrsCautious

Hi Edwardia, lovely to have such specific and thoughtful recommendations, I usually buy Sainsbury's Taste the Difference bacon at 3 packets for £6 so it will be very nice to try something on a different level. I've bought Aldi Essentials bacon as well, I suppose it must be good to try so many

My nearest Waitrose is around 10 miles away, my memory is terrible but I think the last thing I bought from there was some mussels in white wine sauce and some gratin dauphinois potatoes. I suspect I may be pursuing a French theme.

I really can't remember the last time I ate veal, we may be talking 30 years.

Thanks very much.

MrsCautious

i_wanna_save_money! wrote: »

If you use them at JL you will get the change from the vouchers in cash. I won some vouchers, so used each £50 voucher to buy a small item like a birthday card and got £48 cash change each time.

Oh thank you for pointing that out, I read something about that and assumed it would only be okay if there was only a little bit of change. My nearest JL is around 35 miles away but I do have to head that way for work sometimes, so not out of the question to give it a go x

Fire_Fox

Does your Waitrose do online shopping and can you use the vouchers that way? Most places will give you change even if that is in the form of more vouchers so you could spend them slowly on good deals, I can't imagine John Lewis just saying 'tough' you lose everything you don't spend in one hit.

I don't know what you normally purchase but some of their free range meat is reasonably priced - corn fed or standard free range whole chicken roughly the same per kilo as Tesco, free range pork mince (actually lean) and even the organic pork mince (also lean) £1 to £2 a kilo LESS than Tesco regular lean pork mince! And obviously the meat comes on offer as anywhere.

MrsE_2

I use waitrose a lot. There essentials range (value range) is fab. Their bacon from the value range is good & if you don't mind it thick cut the deli counter is lovely. They do a crunchy cheddar ". The bread is the best. The fruit & veg lasts longer. If you go later you can get brilliant reductions on meat & fill your freezer, far better reductions than the big 4. They do nice dressings, jams, chutneys, pickles & sauces too.