Do you throw money away - literally?

sulkisu

OH does this all the time, I wondered if he is alone.




I was going shopping yesterday and asked OH for the brand match money off coupon that he had been given on his last visit to Sainsburys. His response was that he had probably thrown it away, it was only for 47p! A few weeks ago I found a cheque dated 2012 that he hadn't bothered to pay into his account as it was only for £1.11. He does it all the time. When he shops, he keeps the receipt and throws the rest away even though places like Boots and Sainsburys often give money off vouchers with their receipts. If we buy something with a money off coupon on the packet, he throws the packet away - even though it is something that we buy regularly. He is loathe to return items that he has bought which don't work/stop working, unless they were expensive. If it is a cheap item, he generally won't bother. Likewise, he was overcharged in one supermarket recently (he was charged full price for a discounted item) but didn't bother to contact them as it was only 60p. I could understand if it meant going out of his way and possibly sending more money to go back to the shop, but these things can usually be resolved with a phone call (free on his contract) or an email. Perhaps I am taking the whole money saving thing too far, but it makes me want to scream sometimes. Rant over.

victory

Oh no I am with you on the wastefullness, it is not in my DNA to not keep every coupon, money off your next purchase, all vouchers greatfully recieved:D:D

My DS once was walking along the street and out of his pocket popped onto the pavement a few coins, I was so outraged he could not be bothered to pick it up as it was 'only a few pennies' he got such a talk at:rotfl: he never did it again and now he always takes with him the harvester deals if he goes out or the pizza ones, he comes home with vouchers he has found on the floor in the supermarket 'just in case', the other day it was £4.20 off your next shop, that is a lot for someone to get off for free (obviously the previous shopper never bothered to look at the voucher)

Oh yes can't abide waste:D

picklekin

I sympathise, my OH is always throwing away coupon and offers, though he usually just shoves them at me to deal with. But then, I actually find it fun, a game if you will, to save little bits of money here and there. He doesn't get this and thinks its "cute".

Be careful using other peoples receipts, there was a post about someone getting barred for life from ASDA for doing that

Transformers

I've got a big pot on a shelf and every time I use a voucher I put the equivalent cash in the pot. This is my "treats" pot. I can spend this money with a clear conscience as someone else has footed the bill :D.

victory

picklekin wrote: »

I sympathise, my OH is always throwing away coupon and offers, though he usually just shoves them at me to deal with. But then, I actually find it fun, a game if you will, to save little bits of money here and there. He doesn't get this and thinks its "cute".

Be careful using other peoples receipts, there was a post about someone getting barred for life from ASDA for doing that

Mine wasn't a receipt it was a voucher price match off your next purchase print out thingy:D

daisiegg

Yes I throw coupons and vouchers away. The reason is we go to actual shops so rarely (do everything online) that it is fairly certain I won't be back in the shop again before the coupon/voucher expires.

SternMusik

I throw those coupons away too. I go shopping in irregular intervals, and in a number of different shops. They will have expired when I next go to the shop.

Also, I hate stuff filling up my wallet. If Sainsbury really wanted me to have money off a pack of tea bags or something, they'd put the offer on my nectar card so it'll scan through automatically.

InsideInsurance

You have to balance the value of your time against the value of what it is you have to cash/ return etc.

Saturday morning in our local bank is going to be at least a 20 minute queue plus time to get there and back. For £1.10 I wouldnt be making a special trip either but I can count on one hand how often I go into branch in a year so it may well get forgotten about. Roll on the ability to deposit cheques electronically by photo!

Vouchers I will try and use but again its a matter of remembering I have them and not wanting to have a wallet that has a novels worth of paper in it in my pocket every day on the offchance I go to a particular shop and buy a particular item.

Its reward/ loyalty cards that are my particular bugbear. Too many shops have them and realistically I dont regularly shop in many stores to warrant carrying an extra 50 credit card sized pieces of plastic around with me all the time. Spent a long weekend in Dublin last month and the Mrs managed to get 5 new loyalty cards from stores she is never likely to ever go into again. Evidently if you are making a very significant purchase then even for a one off it can be useful, esp if they allow transfer to other schemes.


To get onto my soap box, my main issue with these, particularly the "we charged you too much" ones is that all of this costs money to do and run. The overall cost would be less if they simply charged less in the first place. Instead they intentionally overcharge to buy your loyalty/ repeat business via these schemes and we as consumers are normally really happy that we've been conned because we got a 20p coupon to use next time

HPoirot

Yes OP I am exactly like your OH, life is too short. Whatever floats your boat really.

hazyjo

I wish they found a way of 'crediting' it to your loyalty card. I HATE carrying vouchers round with me, but ALWAYS do. I wasted several mins in Boots the other day to get 30p off a meal deal and double points (2 vouchers). The newbie couldn't get either to scan, then typing the numbers in didn't work... just such a pain.

I have vouchers for my local fish & chip shop, vouchers for Tesco (which thankfully are there automatically if you shop online), vouchers for just about everywhere (as well as freebie/comp wins for little things like a free beer, or a free chocoate bar).

Co-op annoys me. I buy something in there most days on the way home. The most I spend in there is around £25 (although usually around £5-10), but I'm often getting "£8 off" vouchers (if you spend £80). I don't want to spend £80 in the Co-op! I did last Christmas, but that was the one and only time. Hate binning them! Oh, and nobody else can use them. Only allocated to my card.

There must be another way in this day and age...

One card they can all be credited to? Or just your store card? Or debit/credit card? So many little 'bits' filling my purse. Drives me mental.

Jx

InsideInsurance

hazyjo wrote: »

One card they can all be credited to?

That in theory was sort of the idea behind Nectar.

Assuming you mean just one card rather than just one scheme then the issue is getting all the merchants to agree to at a minimum a numbering scheme to avoid number clash which would involve a big change at every merchant that wanted to become part of it.


Of cause you are then also missing part of the beauty of these schemes and the vouchers - they give them a strong marketing message but there is a significant amount that never use/ are lost etc and this factored into their pricing. If you create a new mechanism where take up of promotion goes from 20% to 90% (no ideas the numbers) then you will suddenly find the promos go down and so the marketing messages are weakened.