Who Knew I could Afford To Shop In Waitrose!
With the cost of living crisis deepening and many households cutting back on their spending on both the more luxurious products as well as the essentials, and The Penny Pincher trying to help out with money-saving information, unusually, we are mentioning Waitrose as a money-saving option!
We don't mention Waitrose very much, which is a shame as it's actually my favourite supermarket to shop in; as a trained chef, I love looking around at the interesting and exciting products on the shelves, dreaming of a lottery win, so I can afford to spend £12 on a salted caramel and chocolate tart, and it will always be expensive for these premium type products, but I have to say that after a visit to Waitrose today, I'm actually pretty impressed!
I popped into the Bagshot store, which is in Surrey, and slap bang in the middle of some very expensive and impressive homes, surrounded by some of the wealthiest people in the UK, so I wasn't expecting to be able to afford much more than the baguette I stopped in to buy, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The Essentials range that Waitrose offers, which is their value range for the non-personalised number plate, Range Rover, customers, who are struggling with money, are pretty much the same price as you might see in its less glamorous rival stores, which genuinely surprised me, and was easy to spot due to its plain white packaging.
As an example, take this 10% fat, fresh beef mince, which worked out at £7 per kilo, and compare that with Tesco, for its own brand, 10% fat beef mince, which was actually frozen, not fresh, and this worked out at £7.70 per kilo, so more expensive, and for a frozen product rather than fresh, which genuinely surprised me, and the store was dotted with similar offers that gave those shopping on a budget the opportunity to be able to buy Waitrose products and still save money on their food shop!
Not everything was cheaper of course, and I suspect Aldi or Lidl would give them a run for cheapest, but if I were passing by a store looking for budget price meal ingredients, I would now have the confidence to pop in and expect to find food at cost of living pricing, which until today I probably wouldn't have done so!
Make sure you are signed up for the 'My Waitrose' loyalty card as you can pick up lots of extra offers if you have this, plus you can get a free hot drink as well when you make any purchase in-store from the self-serve Caffè Nero machines, (you need to take your own cup, which I didn't have, so missed out wahhhh), as well as discounts from Caffè Nero coffee shops when you register on their app, and a free coffee too!
Waitrose has also just launched a ' Ways To Spend Less' campaign, which encourages its shoppers to find ways to spend less on their purchases by purchasing products on promotions, such as meal deals and also highlighting products that are kitchen cupboard staples that have a long shelf life and a lower price point, allowing the consumer to be aware of ways to save extra money, and ensure that they have supplies they can call upon during the leaner times in the coming months, especially over winter where someone may have to decide between heating and eating, and knowing you have a supply of low cost, warming and nutritional food can make a big difference.
The stores and website will use the green and yellow 'Waitrose Ways To Spend Less' logo to highlight the products to shoppers, making it easier to spot the best value deals and offers.
The signage wasn't immediately visible in the store I went to, but it has only just launched, so I suspect it hasn't made it to all stores yet but will be shortly.
To make things even cheaper, I suggest ensuring you have all the supermarket cash-back apps on your phone, as you may save even more money! I grabbed these cashback products from Waitrose, including free yoghurt and £1.50 off the Fefir drink, which was actually a yellow sticker product at £1.45, so I got the product and made a 5p profit! It was really nice; I drank it on the way home! There was also £1 off the Starbucks Coffee, and the B.O.B cheese, which was great as both were on promotion at £2 each, so I got both of them for just £1 after cashback, and in actual fact, as I had some referral credit on my Shopmium account, these will be free, so this made my trip to Waitrose really worthwhile!