Make your next shopping trip more than £5 cheaper with this clever money saving hack
Let’s be honest, we’re all familiar with that heart sinking moment when you open an envelope on your birthday and find a gift card for a shop you hate. You find yourself having to force a smile and say ‘thank you’ but deep down you’re trying to decide between one of the following:
- Waste an afternoon trawling through the shop in question until you find something you like
- Re-gift the card to someone else on their birthday
- Chuck the gift card in a drawer where it will stay until it expires
Thankfully, there’s another option. Zeek is an online marketplace which allows you to buy and sell unwanted gift cards.
- If you receive a gift card you don’t like, you can sell it to someone else at a discount.
- If you want to save money on your shopping, you can buy a gift card for cheaper than its actual value
I had no idea this was even an option until a few weeks ago when the team at Zeek got in touch and asked me to review the website. They offered me £50 Zeek credit try it out for myself.
I haven’t yet used Zeek to sell unwanted gift cards, but read on to find out how I’m using Zeek to save money on my food shopping…
If you decide to give Zeek a go, use the promo code 2LINA2YS and you’ll get £5 credit for free. This means you’ll save an additional £5 off your first gift card. You can sign up in a matter of minutes here. (I’ll also get £5 credit for recommending you)
What I used my £50 credit for
Equipped with £50 of Zeek credit, Jake and I spent a few minutes browsing the website to find a gift card for us. Our conversation went a little bit like this:
Me: “Let’s get a gift card for something we’d buy anyway”
Jake: “Good idea. Sainsburys? Tesco?”
Me: “I might get a Debenhams card. I need some new clothes for work. There’s a voucher that’s 7% off”
Jake: “What about some trainers from Schuh? Schuh vouchers are 10% off”
Me: “Good idea. I could use an NUS card for a student discount too”
Jake: “Do you fancy a takeaway? There’s a £10 Hungry House one here”
Me: “Yeah okay”
WHAT WERE WE THINKING?! So much for getting something we were going to buy anyway!
Since the Hungry House voucher was an online code rather than an actual gift card that’s sent through the post, we had access to it within a matter of seconds.
Although I had £50 credit, I did have to type in my card details and pay £1 ‘for security reasons’. Thankfully, the £1 was added back onto my credit for next time.
After purchasing a £10 Hungry House voucher, we also got a £40 Sainsbury’s one for £38.80.
Mini verdict:
The Zeek process was quick and effortless and I’d definitely recommend using it to save money on your shopping.
However, I personally would not recommend teaming Zeek with Hungry House simply because the HH ordering system was an absolute nightmare. It was very difficult to match our order price to the value of the voucher and so we ended up paying extra on our debit card. On top of that, HH charged a 50p fee for using a debit card and wouldn’t let us use any other vouchers to maximise our discount.
Here are my top tips for making the most out of Zeek…
1. Double up your discounts
Although Hungry House wouldn’t let me use my gift card in conjunction with other offers, most companies will.
By teaming the gift card with coupons and discount codes, you can save even more money.
Most retailers will also accept student discounts alongside gift cards. So if you’ve got a student card or an NUS card, team this with your Zeek-bought gift card to save even more cash.
Not a college or university student? Find out how to get an NUS card even if you’re not a student here.
2. Save money on your food shop with Zeek
With the help of Zeek, you can save a considerable amount of money on your weekly food shop.
The fact you buy the gift card at a discounted rate is just a small part of it. You can save even more money by using Zeek’s generous referral scheme which rewards you for recommending the website to a friend.
Here’s an example…
At the time of writing, you could purchase a £50 Sainsbury’s voucher for £48.50.
Although that discount’s not huge, if you use the referral code 2LINA2YS, you’ll instantly receive an extra £5 to use towards your gift card purchase.
Once you have your account, you’ll have a referral code of your own which you can pass onto friends and family. Every time someone you know signs up with your code and makes their first purchase, you’ll each get £5 off a purchase.
If you encourage your mum, dad, brother, sister, and best mate to sign up, you’ll get £25 credit and they’ll get £5 each. This is a great way to save money on your weekly food shop.
3. Control the gift cards, don’t let the gift cards control you
If you really wanna maximise your savings and make the most of Zeek, use it to purchase gift cards for stuff you were going to buy anyway. I’ll hold my hands up and admit it’s a bit hypocritical of me to say this since Jake and I used it to get a takeaway.
Remember: gift cards, voucher codes and coupons weren’t invented to help shoppers save money; they were invented to help businesses make money. They were invented to tempt you into spending more money than you originally planned.
4. Giving a gift card as a present? Check Zeek first
I’m not a fan of giving or receiving gift cards as I think they encourage people to buy things they don’t need and don’t really want.
But, if you insist on giving someone a gift card rather than cold hard cash or a present, then you may as well check Zeek first to see if you can get a discount.
Let’s hope the recipient doesn’t feel the need to secretly flog the card on Zeek themselves 😉
5. Flog your unwanted gift cards here
Does your granny insist on buying you M&S gift cards for every Christmas and birthday? Instead of using these cards to buy things you don’t really want, you may as well sell them on Zeek.
You’ll be able to make money, help someone else save money, and you’ll be looking after the planet in the process by avoiding unnecessary consumerism and potential waste.
Remember: If you decide to give Zeek a go, use the promo code 2LINA2YS and you’ll get £5 credit for free. This means you’ll save an additional £5 off your first gift card. You can sign up in a matter of minutes here. (I’ll also get £5 credit for recommending you)
