The cost of living crisis is seeing shoppers searching for ways to save cash, whether that’s through opting for supermarket’s own brand ranges, or scouting the web for discount codes and offers in order to put food on the table and afford soaring energy bills.
Many supermarkets have joined forces over the school holidays to offer free or cheap meals for children, with others promising price locks on essential purchases like personal care and cupboard staples.
Manchester Evening News have taken a look at what some of the supermarkets and other retailers like Boots and Superdrug are doing to help customers save money on their shop.
From loyalty schemes to cashback and sign up offers, here’s everything you need to know to save money at Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Iceland, M&S, Boots, Superdrug and Poundland.
Asda
-
Just Essentials range
-
Essential Living Hub
-
Kids eat for £1
-
Price lock on products
-
Asda Rewards app
Asda’s new 'Just Essentials' range is the supermarket’s “largest ever budget-friendly range” to help shoppers combat rising costs, comprising nearly 300 products including fresh fruits and vegetables, ready made meals, cupboard essentials and afternoon treats.
The bright yellow branding has been previously criticised by some shoppers, but Asda defended the packaging, saying that people should not be “embarrassed for saving money."
Alongside the range, which replaces Smart Price, the supermarket has launched its ‘Essential Living Hub’ where shoppers can access a broad range of hints, tips and hacks which go beyond the weekly food shop, covering how to save energy, budget better, buy and cook smarter, entertain the kids for free and even eat out without paying a penny.
Speaking of kids, at Asda cafes over the summer, children eat for £1, with no minimum spend or requirement to buy an adult meal at the same time.
The supermarket has also price locked more than 100 products for the rest of the year to help keep costs low for customers.
Moreover, the newly rolled out Asda Rewards app means shoppers can earn money when doing their weekly shopping, which can be spent in store.
Asda has star products all over the store that you will earn ten per cent of the cost into your spend pot. The app will also have special missions, that once you complete, the reward will be added to your spend pot.
Morrisons
-
Kids eat free
-
Meal of the Day under £5
-
Loyalty scheme
-
Money off online shop
Morrisons has a permanent ' kids eat free' offer for every adult meal purchased over £4.99. The offer applies with each adult meal ordered over £4.99 and can be used for children under 16. Youngsters can order from the kids menu or the chilled kids snack pack. As well as the meal, children will receive a piece of fruit and Tropicana Kids Orange or Apple drink or bottle of water.
Alongside this, the supermarket chain have introduced an evening ‘meal of the day’, with daily specials costing less than £5 after 3pm. The scheme hopes to see families enjoy the luxury of dining out, even if they’re on a budget.
Customers can choose from British roast chicken served with chips and coleslaw to a hearty chicken tikka masala or nine-piece breakfast brunch. Every weekday from 3pm, the daily special will be discounted to £4.99, offering a saving of up to £3.89 on the individual product price, making them cheaper than the same meals at Wetherspoons, Harvester and Beefeater.
Morrisons has also announced a big change to its loyalty scheme which offers instant discounts to shoppers instead of points. Customers no longer need to save up their points or wait for vouchers, instead, all savings will be available to spend immediately.
My Morrisons: Make Good Things Happen, is an instant rewards-based scheme where shoppers can access personalised offers, with new features to come, including the opportunity for shoppers to give back to the community and "Basket Bonus" surprise rewards.
There’s also a way for customers to get money off their online shop at the supermarket. Signing up at Morrisons will get shoppers £10 off a £50 shop, taking the total down to £40.
When you type your details into the registration form, a banner detailing how to claim the money off deal will appear. Customers will be provided with a unique code to enter at the checkout when their basket reaches the £50 minimum.
Sainsbury’s
-
Kids eat free
-
Feed your family for a fiver
-
Price lock
-
Cashback offer
Children can eat free in Sainsbury’s cafes as the retailer has made kids’ meals available with any £5.25 adult meal for the summer holidays.
The supermarket has also launched a “feed your family for a fiver” campaign, consisting of budget-friendly meal ideas to feed a family of four for less than £5. The options include chilli con carne, beef kebabs, sourdough pizza and prawn paella.
In store and online, customers can find more than 1,000 price locked products, which means that those in the price lock will not go up in price for at least eight weeks.
Online, shoppers can get £10 back when they spend £40 when they shop via TopCashback for the first time. The offer is only available for new TopCashback members or those with no previous purchases or cashback through TopCashback, and can only be redeemed once per household on a first come first served basis. After shopping via the deals site, customers will be refunded the £10 to their TopCashback account.
Alternatively, existing TopCashback users can get £1 back on spends over £40 .
Tesco
-
Kids eat free
-
Delivery subscription fee
-
Clubcard prices
Tesco has announced it will be offering free kids’ meals to Clubcard holders with any item purchased in 311 of its cafés, all day every day, until August 26. The offer means that parents can spend as little as 60p on a piece of fresh fruit to claim one free kids meal worth up to £3.25.
Free meals include kids breakfast, kids hot meal deal and kids cold pick and mix deal.
Moreover, Tesco has introduced three delivery saver schemes for as little as £2.49 per month. For many, the monthly cost is cheaper than the price of petrol to the nearest store.
The cheapest plan starts at £2.49 a month, and shoppers will be able to choose as and when they'd like to collect their shop, on orders over £25 with the Anytime Click+Collect plan. The next monthly tariff is £4.99 for the Off Peak Delivery Plan, while for £7.99 a month shoppers can get the Anytime Delivery Plan.
Iceland
-
10% off for over 60s
-
£30 voucher for pensioners
-
£1 price lock on 60 essentials
-
Bonus card scheme
-
£10 cashback on £35 spend
At Iceland, over-60s can get 10 per cent off their shop on Tuesdays. To claim it, pensioners can shop on a Tuesday and bring valid ID, showing it at the checkout. The discount covers all purchased products, but proof of ID will be needed. This can come in the form of a driving licence, bus or rail pass or passport.
Iceland is also offering £30 vouchers to people receiving pension credit. Pensioners in Greater Manchester are among those eligible to receive the offer in a bid to support older people living in poverty as the cost of living rises.
The campaign will run for seven weeks from August 1 until September 16, providing pensioners with a £30 Iceland gift voucher to spend in one of 17 areas nationwide, including Manchester. To claim the voucher, eligible OAPs should call the Summer Cheer hotline on 0800 098 7877 to request their £30 coupon. The telephone line will be open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
The frozen food specialist has also promised to keep more than 60 essential items at £1 until the end of the year, locking the prices to ensure customers can get everything they need affordably.
Dedicated Iceland shoppers may have a Bonus Card, and if not, it’s probably time to get one, as some products benefit from lower Bonus Card prices, like at Tesco, with a festive saving scheme for an extra £15 to spend.
The retailer has launched their Christmas Bonus Card Savings scheme early this year, so that customers who are signed up to the loyalty programme can put away cash ahead of the Christmas chaos.
However, shoppers will have to be quick, as the £15 bonus is only available to those who load money onto their card before the end of August - just two weeks away.
The £15 bonus will be available to shoppers who save £100 or more onto their Bonus Card between now and Wednesday, August 31. After that, they will receive a £15 top up from Iceland on Thursday, November 24. The £100 doesn’t have to be loaded in one go, and can be saved through one or more transactions.
The bonus can be spent in-store at Iceland or The Food Warehouse, as well as online and via the app up until Friday, December 23. This is on top of Iceland’s usual Bonus Card offer where customers receive an extra £1 for every £20 spent.
Finally, at TopCashback , Iceland shoppers can get a £10 refund when they spend £35, meaning they can fill their freezer for £25. This deal is only available to new TopCashback members, who will receive their £10 cashback around two weeks after their purchase.
All shoppers need to do is click the "Get Cashback Now" button to go to the Iceland website, make their purchase, and wait for the transaction to appear in the TopCashback account.
M&S
-
Kids eat free
-
Free fruit for children
-
Save £20 at Ocado
-
Bag 6 per cent cashback
Kids eat free in the M&S Cafe if you spend over £5 there, entitling children to a Kids' Munch breakfast or lunch for free with every £5 spent in the cafes.
The meal deal means kids can enjoy a main, such as a Taste Buds ham sandwich, a drink and a snack. All kids’ meals are also eligible for a free piece of fruit in the M&S cafes.
The supermarket has reported having given away more than 35,000 pieces of free fruit in their cafes last week alone, and expect to give away around 200,000 pieces by the end of the summer.
Many Marks and Spencer shoppers buy their weekly shop online via Ocado - but did you know you can save £20 by signing up to the online retailer?
The minimum purchase amount is £60, but £20 off is a huge saving and a much welcome one in the current economic climate. All you need to do is add the code then provided at the checkout, and you get the added benefit of free delivery here too.
Ocado shoppers can also get 6 per cent cashback on their first shop, however, this can’t be used in conjunction with the above code, so you’ll have to work out the best deal based on how much you spend - and there doesn’t appear to be a spending requirement here.
Existing Ocado customers can get up to 4 per cent cashback via TopCashback up to their fifth shop.
Boots
-
Price lock
-
Price Advantage
-
£10 Tuesday
Boots has promised customers it will keep more than 1,500 products ‘affordable’. Prices will be locked until the end of the year as part of Boots Price Lock Promise, with the products selected being those that customers buy most frequently.
There are 11,000 Boots branded products available, with prices starting from as little as 40p, with 100 lines £1 or less, and 1,000 products £2 and under.
Steve Ager, Chief Customer and Commercial Officer at Boots UK said: “We always try to offer great value and the best price for our customers. In pulling together the list of products to include in the Price Lock Promise, we reviewed the lines that customers buy most regularly as well as those that are deemed to be day-to-day essentials.
“We want customers to feel reassured that the prices of a large selection of health and beauty favourites will be staying the same, helping them to continue to buy the quality lines they love at Boots.”
As well as freezing prices, earlier this year Boots launched their Price Advantage scheme, which provides Boots Advantage Card holders with exclusive discounts on over 400 products each month. With an average saving of £2.65 per product, the scheme has helped customers to save over £8 million to date.
And for shoppers looking to treat themselves, each week Boots hosts a £10 Tuesday event with dozens of health and beauty products reduced to £10, with savings of up to £25 on some products.
Superdrug
-
Shop Smart scheme
-
Feel Good Fridays
Superdrug has frozen prices on more than 130 own-brand essential items across personal care, beauty and healthcare. These won't see a price increase for at least a year.
In partnership with former foodbank user Jack Monroe, the Shop Smart campaign aims to help customers understand how to keep costs down across beauty and personal care routines, as hygiene poverty rises at an alarming rate across the country.
Newly launched last week, Superdrug has announced its new Feel Good Friday campaign, which will see prices in Superdrugs 830 stores slashed, with unmissable money-saving deals - but it will only be available to Health and Beautycard members.
Every Friday a selection of Superdrug’s top own brand products will be reduced by up to 60 per cent, which is the biggest reduction the retailer has ever run. The savings will be in addition to the existing ‘Star Buy’ and ‘Treat Thursday’ offers at Superdrug, as the chain continues to help shoppers cope with rising living costs.
Poundland
-
1p Wednesdays
-
Value Heroes range
-
Uniform from £1
Poundshop.com - owned by Poundland - is reducing items to 1p every Wednesday in a bid to help struggling shoppers amid the cost of living crisis. Many customers are looking for deals and discounts, and the Value Heroes offer from the retailer will see one item slashed to a penny each week.
Other items in the Value Heroes range cost £1 , and are often household staples like degreaser, toilet gel, toothpaste and more. Poundland hopes the offer will help customers pick up everyday essentials for less.
Poundland's website reads: "We know it’s getting more and more expensive to live right now, and here at Poundshop.com we want to help. That’s why we’ve put together our Value Heroes, a range of £1 household staples you know, love and need. We’re committed to keeping your favourites affordable - and your life on track – so you can beat inflation and get the products you need without breaking the bank."
On top of that, the bargain chain is selling a full range of school clothing for kids, including polo shirts, sweatshirts, skirts and trousers - and prices start at £1.
Polo shirts are priced at between £1 to £2, while sweatshirts range in price from £2 to £4, with sizes beginning at three to four years up to size 12/13. School skirts and trousers begin at £3, going up £5 - they come in sizes three to four years, up to 15/16 years.
READ NEXT:
- Mum-of-two praises Iceland after receiving free food in online shop
-
Asda's yellow 'Just Essentials' range - 15 products tried and tested
-
Iceland’s three week warning to shoppers who could miss out on free £15
-
Baskets from Aldi, Lidl, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons compared
-
Everywhere kids can eat FREE or for £1 in Manchester in the summer holidays
