Waitrose "free" newspaper + subscriber coupons = double dip!

jamesbrownontheroad

Hello everyone.

Just a tip I wanted to share with everyone that I don't think has been covered here before. Apologies if it has been discussed before, please don't flame me for sharing the savings!

This is for anyone who subscribes to a newspaper that provides coupons redeemable in-store and who shops at Waitrose.

It's a well known perk that members of myWaitrose can get a "free" newspaper from a selection of national titles with a £10 minimum spend.

The word "free" is in inverted commas because the newspaper is not actually free. On your receipt, you will see that you have paid for it and had the equivalent cost deducted from the other items in your basket. This is important for the newspaper publishers because free newspapers cannot be counted towards Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) sales totals. Therefore for the promotion to work the newspaper has to be paid and the discount has to be on other shopping.

What I've noticed is that the £10 minimum spend is actually not correct - you only need to spend £10 minus the value of the newspaper. So, for example, if the Observer costs £3, you only need to spend £7 on other items in your basket to get the free newspaper.

Here's where a bit of MSE double-dipping comes in handy. If you pre-pay for your newspaper by subscription, and for example get the Observer for (say) £2.50, you can use your subscriber coupon to reduce your bill by the full price again, saving you the difference between the newspaper cover price and your subscriber price on your shopping.

So, spend exactly £7 on groceries at Waitrose, buy a £3 newspaper and redeem a subscriber coupon to get a total reduction of £6, paying only £4.

jamesbrownontheroad

Quick PS... Another Waitrose tip if you are an active user of the myWaitrose "pick your own" 20% discounts.

I noticed this a few weeks ago when our preferred brand of non-dairy milk (Koko longlife dairy free coconut drink 1 litre) was on offer at 3 for £3.50, normally £1.66 each. It is one of our chosen products which we get 20% off.

When these multibuy discounts are in effect, the myWaitrose 20% discount is still calculated on the individual shelf price. This meant the fairly ludicrous savings of:

Offer price: (3 x Koko Milk for £3.50) x 2 = £7
myWaitrose discount: (0.2 x £1.66) x 6 = -£1.98
"Free" newspaper = -£3
Subscriber newspaper coupon = -£3

I was startled to walk away from the till having spent just £2.02 for a couple of weeks of milk and a newspaper :rotfl:

Chris25

I got a call from the Telegraph promoting vouchers if I signed up for a subscription to it. I told them I could pick it up from Waitrose with my shopping he explained the same thing - I wasn't sure to whether to believe him or not but clearly it does work