Making the most of Loyalty Cards

If you use certain shops on a fairly regular basis then I think it is important to get their loyalty card. I have loyalty cards for a number of stores and make sure that I get the maximum benefit from them. They help towards saving money and it is a waste to not use them.

I shop at Waitrose on a regular basis. People have told me that it is expensive to shop there but I find it very reasonable if you look for offers and if you buy items at the end of the day when they have some really good reductions.

They have a loyalty card called My Waitrose which gives some great offers. These are the offers I use:

• A free tea or coffee to drink in or take away everyday. I usually get a free latte to take away. 
• A free newspaper everyday as long as you spend £5 
• The essential waitrose butter (250g) and milk (4 pints) is £1 
• You get 10% off 100s of products across the store. Many are branded products and they usually have a sticker showing which ones are included.
• A free Waitrose magazine (monthly) worth £1.20

My favourite offers are the free coffee because it is delicious and the free newspaper. When my sister comes to visit (she lives 50 miles away) she always asks if we can go to Waitrose because they do not have one near where she lives. She loves Waitrose and their reduced bargains and even though she only visits about once a month she has a My Waitrose card to get the offers.

I also shop at Tesco on a regular basis and their Clubcard gives some great offers if you use it to its maximum. The offers I use are as follows:

• Whenever you spend you earn points and the points are converted into £ money off vouchers. I used to use these as cash in store. However I realised this was not maxing their value. I now convert them into money off vouchers at restaurants because you get 4X the value. I usually wait until I have £10 and then convert them to £40 for a meal. Pizza Express and Cafe Rouge are favourites (I'll post more about these on other posts)
• Up to the end of September 2014 you get up to 20p a litre off fuel depending on how much you spend with them. 
• They send you additional money off vouchers for products you usually buy. Sometimes the vouchers can be for additional points instead of money off or they can be to enter a competition.

I sometimes shop at Sainsburys and have a Nectar card which I only ever use for money off vouchers in store. They have other offers but when I have compared the deal for say Pizza Express vouchers compared to the Pizza Express offer from Tesco, it not nearly as attractive.

Finally I have a Boots Advantage Card which works the same as the Tesco & Sainsburys card where you get points when you spend. Boots sometimes have offers on where they will double of triple the points you get or they will give you vouchers for additional points if you spend a set amount of money. If I am thinking of spending at Boots then I will try to buy when they have the additional points offers available.