By MoneySavingExpert's Coupon Kid, Jordon Cox
It’s been advertised everywhere. There’s a ‘free’ £5 Morrisons voucher in The Sun, no minimum spend. “We’ll help trim your shopping bill” is its headline today. Sounds too good to be true? That’s because it is.
To get this ‘free’ voucher, you simply have to buy The Sun newspaper… but not just once, 21 times! Yes, you need to collect 21 tokens all on different days and then send them off in exchange for the £5 Morrisons voucher. Not everyone’s idea of “hassle free”.
There’ll be a token in every copy of The Sun from today (Mon 29 Feb) to Sat 26 Mar. To collect 21, you’d have to buy the paper for three weeks straight, or the cheaper option, every weekday (40p) for four weeks plus one weekend paper (70p-£1).
Let’s do the maths
If you buy the paper for three weeks straight starting today, it’ll cost you £3.70 per week for seven papers (40p on weekdays, 70p on Saturdays and £1 on Sundays).
Do this three times over and you’ll fork out £11.10. Then to claim your voucher, The Sun says you will most likely have to buy a stamp (second class is 54p). So for all this effort, you get a £5 voucher… but make a staggering loss of £6.64.
Even if you go for the cheapest option, buying the paper every weekday for four weeks and buying one Saturday paper, it’ll still cost you £9.24. That’s a £4.24 loss.
Is it ever worth it?
Obviously, if you are a regular The Sun reader, then it could be beneficial if you buy papers that often. Other than that, this is definitely best avoided. If you were thinking of buying the papers just to get yourself a voucher, don’t bother.
Although The Sun isn’t shining bright with this particular offer, it’s run similar ones in the past – including a £5 off fruit and veg voucher with no minimum spend – that did in fact work a lot better for shoppers.
What do you reckon… deal or no deal? If you’ve ever seen a not-so-special offer, share your story in the comments below, on Twitter at @MSE_Deals or on Facebook.
