I read somewhere that one of the benchmarks of being a grown up is always knowing where your Tesco Clubcard is. A sentiment that hit hard as on my infrequent shopping trips to said supermarket, I regularly spend 99.9 per cent of the time turning my purse inside and out in exasperation and thrusting my fingers into the deepest crevices of never used before pockets in a bid to locate the elusive item.
On a recent trip, such was my frustration at the missed opportunities for some serious saving, I abandoned my basket mid shop and drove all the way home again to search through my home office drawers, tearing out piles of papers until I was flooded with relief at the glimpse of blue plastic. Obviously, with the current price of fuel at an all time high - this is only worth it if the Tesco is in a two mile radius.
The thing is, having and using a Tesco Clubcard in my opinion is well worth it . The discounts can be pretty substantial and are usually on decent products. So, finally pre-armed with my flighty Tesco club card, I hit the store on Bury Old Road in Prestwich with a mission to spend around £70 purely on club card deals only and see if it produced a substantial amount of solid meals.
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I usually only have one major mission when shopping in supermarkets - to get the hell out of there as fast as I can - but I actually found my time In Tesco to be a pleasant experience. It was busy but apart from some slight congestion around an empty box a cashier had gone off to fill with missing lettuces, it felt spacious and super clean and there was even some decent tunes playing, giving the whole experience an uplifting ambience.
My initial observation was just how much of the distinctive blue and yellow Clubcard deal signs there were - a veritable sea of them scattered down the gleaming aisles. As it was lunchtime I was pleased to see the first Clubcard deal was a £3 lunch meal deal - a £3 Tesco Finest pastrami and emmental sandwich, an 85p packet of Quavers and a £1.90 Starbucks iced coffee all included in the price - absolute bargain.
In the fresh produce aisle I picked up three bags of vegetables, including a decent sized bag of casserole veg on a three for two offer, where the cheapest is free - saving me £1.30. Potatoes at 69p were 39p with a Clubcard, tomatoes had 40p shaved off and carrots were 20p cheaper - with an end price of just 19p. I also snapped up a bag of baking potatoes - great for cheap and easy meals.
I then bagged an assortment of three premium cheeses all averaging at around £3 each at full price for just £5 for the three - an actual saving of £2.45 - meaning these were not mere pennies being sliced off the price, but pounds.
Soup at £2.75 was £2 with a Clubcard, meaning if you are buying two tubs like I was, it's another decent saving of £1.50. Jamie Oliver's fresh pasta, usually priced at £2.50, was £2 with a Clubcard - meaning another £1 off my shopping as I put two packs (and what I estimated as making four meals) into my trolley for £4.
In these difficult times, luxury items can leave shoppers feeling guilty but at £10 for a meal deal consisting of a main, side and dessert for two including a £7 bottle of wine, I dropped two steaks, chunky chips and two passion fruit tarts - along with a cheeky red - into my trolley without a rumbling of remorse. Good value for two - or for a solo diner the spoils can be divided into two separate meals, making the luxury also nicely economical.
Also discounted with a Clubcard was a stir fry meal deal of noodles, stir fry veg and a choice of sauce for £2.50 - a saving of 50p as well as a cool £1.50 off my BBQ chicken pizza, 80p off a large quiche and 50p off two tasty artisan looking brisket and chuck burgers. I was pleased with how my trolley was filling up with well discounted items that were already shaping into satisfying meals.
Two fishcakes for £2.50 were £2 with a Clubcard, making each fishcake the equivalent of a frugal £1 each. A selection of premium looking ready meals at £2.75 each were three for £6.50 a considerable saving of £1.75 so I added two appealing looking Thai curries and a chicken and rice to my shopping. Also at £6.50 for two were a selection of Tesco's Finest range, so I added a premium looking cottage pie and a smoked haddock risotto - with a further £1 off my tally. A selection of exotically flavoured Philadelphia soft cheeses, usually priced at £1.95 were just £1 - a whole 95p knocked off for Clubcard users.
At this point, I could see I had enough to form the basis of a fortnight's worth of meals for one or two people and so decided to take advantage of Clubcard savings on a few little treats - Thornton's chocolate brownies with 60p off the £1.60 price tag, a packet of chocolate biscuits and two Gu chocolate and honeycomb desserts for £2, which without a Clubcard, were priced at £3.30.
At the tills the full price was £97.57, which I thought seemed a bit hefty with all the Clubcard savings until the cashier announced that minus the reductions the total owed was actually £70.13 - what a result. She obviously sensed my joy as remarked "She loved to see smiling faces" and we had a little conflab about how cracking the card really is.
Actually taking my Clubcard with me, and only shopping for food that offered a discount if you had one, had saved me a hefty £27.44 off my shopping bill.
I hadn't felt I had to buy anything I didn't really fancy and all of the food looked great quality, there were plenty of frugally priced items such as my 19p carrots, £2 fishcakes and the more luxurious items had been so decently discounted they were bought guilt free. Of course there are cheaper supermarkets out there but I found using the Clubcard meant it brought the price down to a more affordable level, while still being able to enjoy some good quality products and tasty treats.
Based on my experiences I will definitely be shopping in Tesco more often and just have to make sure from now on I know exactly where my Tesco Clubcard is at all times - it's apparently the epitome of grown up life after all.
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