From top cashback sites to food and drink offers, Money Saving Amy shares her handy hints and tips

Cashback

TopCashback is a fantastic website/app for saving money on all sorts of purchases. From online clothes shopping and online food shopping to car insurance and travel insurance, it has it all. This site can save people hundreds to thousands per year as the cashback rates are high.

It’s one that’s worth regularly checking as they often have boosted offers, sometimes offering an extra £2 cashback on purchases, or sometimes offering higher amounts back. Recently I spotted an offer for £45 cashback when buying car insurance through confused.com.

Other regular great offers on there include extra cashback on your grocery shopping when shopping online, there’s often particularly good deals if you’re a first time click and collect customer. While you’re taking advantage of these offers don’t forget to use Shopmium, CheckoutSmart and GreenJinn for extra freebies and cashback items.

Another handy feature on TopCashback is the “top gift cards” feature, simply search this in the search bar and click through to top gift cards, you’ll then find a wide range of gift cards ready to purchase with extra cashback. Some great rates are 7 per cent back from Costa, 5.2 per cent back from Curry’s, 8.8 per cent back from Miller and Carter and 4.75 per cent back from Marks and Spencer’s, among many other brilliant shops, restaurants and more.

Don’t forget, you can use gift cards purchased from TopCashback alongside supermarket loyalty schemes and restaurant discounts.

While we’re talking about cash back apps, Quidco is another one that works in the same way as TopCashback and also has regular boosted offers. It’s another one that’s worth regularly checking.

Discount codes

VoucherCodes is a brilliant website and app that offers you up to date gift cards at a huge number of retailers such as Boots, Tui, LookFantastic, UberEats and many more. So if you want to save money on your purchase, it’s worth checking this site first as it’s packed full with offers.

My favourite part about this site though is every Wednesday they have a “windfall offer”. It goes live at 11 and gets snapped up fast so it’s one to be ready for but it is so worth it! Recent ones have been “Get a £10 Amazon voucher when spending £15 or more at boohoo” and “Get a £10 Amazon voucher when spending £20 or more at Lookfantastic”.

But my favourite recent one was “Get a £5 Amazon voucher when spending at Claire’s Accesories” this had a no minimum spend and was valid for click and collect orders as well as delivery orders.

I like to make these voucher codes windfall offers work well for me by buying a gift for someone with the initial purchase, and then I can use the bonus voucher to purchase another gift! This is a great way to make the most of offers like these and really make them work for you.

Of course, you can just treat yourself too. Another way these work well, is for example, a recent offer of “Get a free £15 Amazon voucher when spending over £10 at Dunelm”, was a brilliant one for stocking up on cleaning essentials for the home through a Dunelm click and collect order, and then benefitting from the bonus £15 Amazon voucher.

I have to praise VoucherCodes' customer service too, they are really quick and helpful!

Food and drink

Did you know that many places offer a discount off a hot drink when taking your own reusable cup?

Here’s a list of places that you can take advantage of this offer at:

•Costa offer an extra bean which means reaching a free drink sooner.

•Starbucks offer a 25p discount.

•Greggs offer a 20p discount.

•Cafe Nero offer an extra stamp on your loyalty scheme.

•Pret a manger offer a big 50p discount.

•Marks & Spencer’s offer a huge £1 discount off a hot drink.

So it’s well worth taking your reusable cup, and of course, there’s the added bonus of it being more environmentally friendly.

Another app that’s offering so many fantastic freebies and discounts currently is O2 priority, they’re always adding new freebies and the most recent one is a free three-month Tastecard. This saves you money on restaurants, cafes, airport lounges and more.

When I went to the airport earlier this year for a short solo trip, I used the Tastecard to get a discount on the airport lounge. I paid just £21 and this got me access to the lounge alongside food, snacks, hot drinks and alcohol, all unlimited! On top of the perk of having a more relaxing, quieter space and plug sockets to recharge my phone. The previous time I had gone to the airport I had spent a similar amount on a Burger King meal and a glass of fizz. So this was well worth using the Tastecard for.

If you’re an O2 customer you can access O2 priority, but also Virgin Media customers can access O2 priority too. Along with the recent free Tastecard trial, you can get weekly free hot drinks and sausage rolls from Greggs and currently they have free Pizza Hut and Frankie & Benny’s meals for kids.

I hope these tips have been very useful to save you some money this week and I hope that you all have a lovely week.

You can find me sharing daily tips and tricks over on my Instagram moneysavingamy.