Shopaholic? Me?

I am always on the look out for offers, whether it is a BOGOF, 3 for 2 or even 2 for less than 2. However, I am not into offers where buying 2 costs more on offer than 2 not on offer!! Case in point.. see the image – Direct from my screen! I am not interested in buying 2 salad tubs for £2 when one costs just 88p! Between you and me, it ensures that I do not buy 2 even if  I was originally going to buy 2 because no-one wants to pay more than usual selling price! Or have I got it wrong? If I have…. just click the offer link to buy it!

Tesco’s offer – 1 for 88p, 2 for £2.00 -  a 12% increase on their regular price!

Who knows, maybe salad is just the thing someone would prescribe to deal with fatigue in women, but it’s certainly not what I’m looking for. Maybe in another life …

Part of what gives me kicks with shopping is taking advantage of not only the offers but the system. However alot depends on the POS systems and the way it has been written.

Example….

If you buy something from M&S online and say it is 3 for 2 and you return an item. The system actually deducts 1/3 of the price to equate the saving. The way to do it would be to change it in store for something else or get a credit note for future. Again their credit notes are valid for just 1 year. And if you part use it, you do not get an extention on the year. But I guess you could always buy something and return it without the receipt for “an extention”. M&S is actually a good system for the retailer as it  prevents abuse..

However….

There are some where you can really take advantage… but should I dish out the details… or let you dicover them on your own? Hmmm!

I must admit, I love Tesco. I even adore their clothing range by Florence & Fred. They are well priced and of decent quality. The best bit of all is that when I signed up to Tesco Clothing, I received £25 worth of vouchers to spend on clothing at Tesco. To me there is nothing better than extra cash to spend on Clothes. If you also want to receive the vouchers, all you have to do is click on the link and sign up.

Oh and before I forget, you also get points for every pound you spend on Clothing at Tesco.

M&S have a loyalty scheme called &More. This is a credit card.

You get 1 point per pound spend at M&S including online. You get 1 point per £2.00 spent else where.

If you forget your card, you cannot get your points added back on.

They do send you out many incentive vouchers such as claim 10x &more points. 

Statements come quarterly.
 

Marks & Sparks as it is sometimes affectionately known is a well known huge department store. They are in my list of favourite shops.

You can say that Marksies is split into quite a few departments but mainly they do:-

• Clothing (Men, Women, Children & Babies) and Lingerie
• Footwear / Shoes (Men, Women & Children)
• School wear / uniforms
• Gifts & Flowers
• Books
• Toys
• Technology
• Garden, House & Home
• Furniture & Furnishings
• Wine
• Insurances
• Costume Jewellery
• Holiday Shop
• Technology

Both their quality and prices are really reasonable.

Their grocery section has a vast range of delicacies at reasonable prices. They also have ordinary food too. The biggest drawback is they generally tend to sell their own range only. For example they will only sell their own brand water, which is not particularly good. But over all the rest of the items are better than the average supermarket. However you cannot get groceries online presently. You have to go in store to buy them. Its well worth a visit. You can find an M&S on almost every high street.

They now offer Free delivery on orders over £30.00.

They have a loyalty scheme called the “& More”. It is credit card based. The more you spend, the more you earn in rewards to spend back at M&S. Its not a bad rewards scheme and you can use the card elsewhere to earn rewards for M&S.

 

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Toys R Us have a generous loyalty scheme. You need to apply for a gold card, but you need to do this in-store.

You earn one gold point for every pound you spend, when you spend a minimum of £10.00. The more points you earn, the more money-off coupons they will send you. You can earn up to 50% back in coupons or discounts. If you accumulate 100 points or more in each points period and you will receive at least £75 worth of money-off coupons twice a year! Money-off coupons are for specific products or product ranges.

• Spend up to £300 and get £75 worth of coupons
• Spend up to £499 and get £125 worth of coupons
• Spend more than £500 and get £150 worth of coupons

You must input your your Gold Card number on the checkout page to get your points. The card is also valid in-store.

Plus now, whenever you shop with your gold card, you get a Free Gift with your purchase.

You are also entitled to a 20% discount for up to 6 people on Sea Life, The London Zoo, London Aquarium, The Dungeons & Whipsnade Wild Animal Park, when you show your Toys R Us Gold Card.

When you place an order with Tesco you can claim 500 points. This is equivalent to £5.00 back or £20.00 worth of club card deals.

Just type in code XX-HTD9 before checking out.

This code is valid until the end of March 2007.

If you have decided to go ahead and place an order from Boots, we have an extra points coupon for you. You can claim up to 1000 points extra. This is the equivalent of £10.00 GBP.

• Spend £75.00 and claim 1000 points – use code KGAC43
• Spend £50.00 and claim 500 points – use code KGAC34

All you have to do is click our Boots link, buy and before checking out, input the above code.

I have decided to also review Loyalty Schemes here at Shopaholic?ME? as they play a crucial part to shopping. Using a loyalty scheme can enhance pricing. With loyalty schemes you sometimes also receive discounts and vouchers or even money back. It sometimes even makes you look twice at something you would have not otherwise considered.  

And, so here is to a whole new section….

Meanwhile, do let me know of your favourite loyalty schemes and the worst! I will be happy to add your comments.

I received my Tesco club card deal tokens today. They always make me smile. It has been a long while coming, but I have saved enough for a holiday. This means I can spend my holiday allowance to shop shop shop. Makes me a happy shopaholic. Anyway, the reason that I saved so many points is that I keep using up extra points whenever and wherever I can lay my hands on them. Obviously, when I find them, I will post them here for you. So keep checking my website regularly for extra points & discount coupons.

Keep in mind that each point is worth a penny. But if you save it for a deal, its worth 4 times as much. Hence my getting a fantastic holiday. Now to book it….