Join the Club

Around the world grocery stores offer rewards for card users. From discounts in store to collecting points towards future buys stores offer a variety of ways to pull the consumer in for more. The question is, how can you take advantage of these deals?

If your card allows you deals on certain items it is more than likely a scam. You are lead to believe that you're getting a good deal by using your card. But many times they just raise the price you would have to pay without the card to make it look like a good deal. That's not to say you shouldn't be part of the card club, you should just be aware of the normal, average price for the item. These card programs offer the best deals when you get free items. The buy three get one free sort of situation. Or even the buy one get another half off. As I said before though, be aware of the normal price of these items. This is best done using an excel sheet as I have discussed previously.

If you're lucky enough to have the type of card that awards points for loyalty USE IT! Humans are creatures of habit. We find a store we like we will continue to go there. If we are traveling we will go to the store we know and recognise before we go to the strange one we don't know about. So chances are you're spending tons of money in one store and you could be rewarded for it! These systems are very simple and straight forward, you get points for the amount of money you've spent. Then these points are given to you to spend in the store at a later date. Usually within a specified time limit. One such store that does this is Tesco. When you go to the checkout you hand the person your card, it gets scanned and for every Euro you spend you get one point. It takes 100 points to equal 1 Euro of coupon later. These coupons aren't specific to store or items, it is free money off your buy. You can opt to have these coupons mailed to you regularly (default) or they do have a Christmas saver program where they will save your points until the end of November so by the time Christmas comes around you've saved up a good chunk. Who doesn't need money that time of year.

In the end, the point is be aware of what you're buying and join all club card systems. (Unless you have to pay, but that's something for another time.) At one time or another they will help you save money.