Save Hundreds With Vouchers and Loyalty Cards

If you’re looking to save, meet coupon queen Judith Wenban. An advocate of “extreme couponing”, she spends just £50 a month on groceries for a family of four and paid off her mortgage at 35. Try economising by following these rules.

1. Do the sums. If you have a smartphone, download a price-comparison app so you can check as you shop. And you don’t need to be good at maths to work out that £4 off £30 is a better deal than £9 off £90.

2. Sweat your discounts. Use coupons, a loyalty card and a cashback credit card in the same transaction.

3. Become a deal-hunter. “Like” companies on Facebook and follow them on Twitter to access special offers, check store magazines for coupons and consult a voucher app.

4. Exploit price promises. Asda, Sainsburys and Tesco guarantee to repay the difference if they charge more for goods than either of their competitors. Look up offers on mysupermarket. co.uk, then buy them from any one of the three stores and get a coupon for the overspend.

5. Claim extra points. Loyalty-card points may only be worth a maximum of 1p (see loyaltychecker.co.uk), but they add up. Some stores offer boost scheme, where points fetch up to four times their usual value. Using your loyalty card in a store may also triggers special offers.

  Keep up with the top stories from Reader’s Digest by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.