By MoneySavingExpert's Coupon Kid, Jordon Cox
Tesco announced on Monday it’ll now accept Sainsbury’s Brand Match money-off coupons at its superstore and Metro branches until 30 June – even those that have expired. So hunt around your house, in your drawers and on your desks because those expired coupons could now be worth a small fortune.
This follows on from Sainsbury’s revealing it will stop issuing Brand Match coupons (where you get money-off coupons if your comparable branded shop is cheaper at Asda) on 26 April. While it’s a PR stunt from Tesco to poach Sainsbury’s customers, there are plenty of tricks to take advantage and maximise your savings. Here are some ways to max them:
- While Sainsbury’s only accepts them up to two weeks after issue, Tesco are accepting even expired coupons and you can redeem them up until 30 June.
- All Brand Match coupons have no minimum spend, so if your coupon is worth enough you can go into a store and pick up something for free.
- You can only use one Brand Match per transaction at Tesco but can get around this by separating transactions or going in on different days.
- Coupons can be used against Tesco’s “Brand Guarantee” scheme which automatically gives you money off at the till if any major supermarket beats them on price. That means you are getting the best price and an added discount with the coupon.
If you don’t manage to find any coupons about your house, there are still other ways that you can generate coupons without spending any more.
How to generate even more coupons
As Sainsbury’s Brand Match price-matches on the total price of all your branded items combined, there’s a danger you can miss out on coupons.
For example, if the combined value of your branded items is cheaper at Sainsbury’s, you won’t get a coupon – even if your branded baked beans, for instance, are more expensive than at Asda.
To avoid this, use grocery price comparison site MySupermarket.co.uk*, to check prices for items at different supermarkets beforehand, so you can see in advance which items are cheaper at Asda.
If you then split up your basket, and put your tin of beans through in a separate transaction with nine other non-branded items (as the Brand Match only works when you buy 10 or more items with at least one branded item), you will get a Brand Match coupon for the difference – but you’ve only got until 26 April to do this.
Wombling
Some people, including myself, have been known to ‘womble’ their way to bigger savings. This is the process of picking up discarded receipts and coupons to claim other people’s discounts when they’re not linked to that person’s loyalty card. Some people do question its legitimacy, but one man has saved £1,000s by wombling.
Are you going to take advantage of Tesco’s new offer? Do you have an old Brand Match on your fridge that you’re now going to use? Let me know in the comments below, on Twitter @Jordon_Cox or on Facebook.
