Christmas is rapidly approaching and Black Friday sales are behind us.
But if you’ve still got some Christmas shopping to do, there’s a fair chance you’d like to take some pressure off of your bank account.
So, in this post, I want to look at some easy ways to save money when you shop, both online and in the real world, to help you make the most of your hard earned cash.
Cashback Apps
Get paid when you spend money through these apps and sites. Think of it as a post-purchase discount!
There are a lot of these around, but I’ll just share a few of my favourites.
1. Quidco
Advertised as the UK’s #1 cashback rewards site, with over 7 million members.
If you’re shopping in the real world, you can earn in-store cashback by heading to the High Street Section. Register your payment card, and whenever you use that card in any of the stores you’ve activated, you receive cashback!
They’re currently offering 5% cashback at a slew of pubs and restaurants. You can check what offers are nearby by using the ‘Find Nearby Offers’ tool and entering a location.
If you’re buying anything online, you should check to see if you can get cashback through Quidco. Luckily, they have a browser extension you can install that will check for you!
They’re even continuing some Black Friday deals until 9th December, and offering you a bonus £5 if you make 3 purchases, or £10 if you make 5 purchases before then.
At the time of writing, here are a few of my favourite cashback offers from Quidco:
- 15% cashback on new customer purchases with ASOS, and 5% for returning customers.
- 18% cashback on all purchases with Groupon (more on those later).
- Up to 10% cashback at Amazon, and
- up to 4% cashback at eBay.
Sign up to Quidco with my referral link, and you can get an extra £10 cashback when you earn your first £5!
2. TopCashback
TopCashback is one of the highest paying cashback sites out there.
Or so they say. From personal experience, it’s usually better to compare what they’re offering with Quidco. In fact on TopCashback’s own Quidco vs. TopCashback page, they share that 85% of their rewards are higher than Quidco. We wouldn’t want to miss out on that 15%!
At the time of writing, here are a few of my favourite cashback sites from TopCashback:
- 10% cashback for purchases without voucher at Hotel Chocolat, and 8% if you’re using a voucher.
- Up to 15% cashback at Iceland.
- 7% cashback on purchases at very.co.uk.
Sign up to TopCashback with my referral link, and you can get a free £5 Amazon gift card when you earn your first £10 cashback!
3. Visa Offers
Barclays, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds, Natwest and Santander have partnered up with high street retailers to reward customers who pay using their debit card.
Signing up for Visa Offers is different depending on your bank. Most can be found through your online banking, but HSBC’s Visa Offers can be signed up for here.
To redeem an offer, simply pay with the Visa card you register with. The offers rotate regularly, so remember to keep checking what offers are available.
This means it’s possible to earn cashback through Visa Offers and Quidco or TopCashback, in some cases doubling up your cashback!
I can’t speak for other banks, but I’m set up with HSBC, and at the time of writing these are some of my favourite offers:
- 10% cashback on your next online purchase with Debenhams.
- 5% cashback when you spend £35 or more at Iceland.
- 12% cashback on your next purchase at Holiday Inn.
Discount Apps
Save money when you shop online. If cashback apps are a post-purchase discount, these are pre-purchase discounts!
4. Groupon
Earn discounts on a huge range of products and experiences. Groupon offers deals on shopping, hotels, restaurants, spas, gift ideas, and more.
They offer discount codes for when you shop at ASOS, Dominos, Amazon, Debenhams, very.co.uk, Currys, and more.
And if you remember to shop through Quidco, you can get cashback on your discount deals!
There’s also a Groupon app that allows you to search local deals and redeem Groupon codes through your phone, including from independent stores near you.
At the time of writing, here are a few of my favourite Groupon deals:
- Two-course Italian meal for 2 at Gusto Italian for £24.
- 61% off wireless bluetooth headphones—just £15.98!
- 88% off Fuerdanni men’s wallets—just £4.50!
Sign up to Groupon and start browsing their crazy range of deals.
5. Honey
Honey is a browser extension and mobile app with over 17 million members that helps find you the best deals when you shop online.
It automatically searches for and applies any coupon codes and discounts when you’re shopping online, and has apparently saved its members over $1 billion since its inception.
The Honey extension doesn’t always find coupons, but it’s a super easy way to save money and requires very little effort on your part.
Honey also allows its users to earn cashback in the form of Honey Gold, which can be redeemed for gift cards. Unfortunately, you can’t combine this cashback with Quidco or TopCashback, so make sure you’re getting the best deals first!
There’s also the Honey mobile app which, similarly to Groupon, allows you to search for and redeem offers from your phone.
Sign up to Honey and make your online shopping experience cheaper and easier!
Receipt Scanning Apps
Smaller rewards for shopping in the real world. These apps will reward you points for scanning receipts, which can be redeemed for either cash or gift cards.
These aren’t as lucrative as some cashback deals or discounts, but it’s worth doing as an extra way to save your money!
6. Receipt Hog
Scan receipts from almost any store and receive 5 coins.
Receipt Hog has a limit of 20 receipts per week, and a limit of 3 receipts from the same store each day.
Once you’ve earned 1000 coins, you can cash out to Amazon, PayPal, and mastercard at a rate of £1 per 300 coins (or more if you save your coins for higher rewards).
Learn more about Receipt Hog and get the app here!
7. Huyu
Scan receipts from supermarkets and earn 5 points.
Huyu has a limit of 7 receipts per week, but points can be redeemed for Amazon gift cards at a rate of £5 per 500 points.
Learn more about Huyu and get the app here!
8. Shoppix
Scan supermarket receipts and receive between 25 and 30 points.
Shoppix allows you to cash out at 3200 points into £5 PayPal, amazon, iTunes or Love2Shop vouchers. There’s also a tiny discount at higher payouts, so 11500 tokens nets you £20.
Learn more about Shoppix and get the app here!
It’s worth mentioning that you can stand to be rewarded three times if you scan your receipts into all of the above apps.
And that’s pretty much it from me!
If you want to check out more ways to save money online, I recommend you check out these posts from Tom Blake at ThisOnlineWorld:
-
The 17 Best Cash Back Apps To Earn Free Rewards For Shopping
- 11 Awesome Chrome Extensions To Save Money When Shopping Online
Some of the apps he discusses are exclusive to US and Canada customers, but it’s worth giving these posts a read, and his site a browse, to see if you can save any more money.
I hope with this post I can save you a lot of money this year (and next, even!). I highly recommend you try out at least a few of the apps I’ve talked about, and see how much further your hard earned cash can go.
And, since it’s that time of year…
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