I never pay full price when shopping and you shouldn’t either! I love to deal-stack and use cashback offers to help me make the most of every pound that I spend. Knowing how to save money at Sainsburys is really just a case of utilising the best tips and tricks, loyalty cards and special offers all in one shop. 

Chloe’s Deal Club is all about helping you maximise the ways to save money and learn the very best ways to do so.

There are a tons of ways to save money at Sainsburys, and I’ve rounded up the very best of them to help you maximise your grocery budget – while still buying those brands you know and absolutely love. 

With grocery shopping typically being one of the largest household bills, behind rent or mortgage and utilities, it’s a great area to make huge savings. I’m here to share with you my top tips to help you get the best deals from shopping in UK supermarkets.

Before I start with the best tips I’m going to talk about loyalty points and using the Nectar app in this post, in various ways, but I don’t really agree with ‘Nectar Prices’ per se, and think that everyone should get the same price when they shop with a supermarket?! But it is what it is.

I feel it’s worth having these discount apps and loyalty cards, plus my top tips on how to save money at Sainsburys and then you can achieve the best prices possible on all of your grocery shops. 

How to save money at Sainsburys

Sign up for a Nectar card

Each Nectar point is worth 0.5 pence and you can earn 1 point for every pound you spend on qualifying spends in-store and online in Sainsbury’s supermarkets, as well as 1 point for every 1 litre of fuel that you purchase at Sainsbury’s petrol stations. 

There are a fair few items that won’t earn you Nectar points for purchases including stamps, gift cards, formula, lottery tickets and in-store cash back. You can see the full list here.

Download the Nectar app

On this free app you’ll find access to various ways to earn yourself Nectar points, or save money at Sainsburys, including Sainsbury’s Offers, Nectar Prices, My Nectar Prices and Partner Offers too. 

The Nectar app frequently has competitions to win Nectar points, gift cards and much more. It’s worth opening the app each week, before you do your shopping, for the variety of different ways they have to earn Nectar points or save money at Sainsburys.

Activate Sainsbury’s offers in the Nectar app 

Sainsbury’s offers can be used online, in-store and with the SmartShop handsets available to use in selected stores also. You can typically expect to see bonus point coupons such as 5x points when you next spend £50 online, and then bonus points when you buy some of your favourite items. 

As you shop more with Sainsburys, and they obtain more data on your purchasing habits, the offers will change to become more tailored to items you purchase. These offers may be designed to get you to repurchase a one-time item, such as a packet of biscuits, or reward you for repeat purchases of items that you buy regularly. 

The more you shop with Sainsburys the more data they will have on your purchase habits and the more you’ll find these offers are tailored to what you actually need and love to buy!

You need to manually press Save Offer or Save All Offers for the opportunity to collect bonus points or money offer. Visit the app weekly to activate these offers and maximise the Nectar points that you earn. 

Check out Nectar Prices 

In-store you can out look for Nectar Pice labels, which are purple, showing the price of the item without using a Nectar card and then the price that you’ll pay when you use a Nectar card while paying for your shopping.

Loyalty cards are effectively a way for brands to reward you in a small way for obtaining more of your purchasing habits and user data. More and more supermarkets are adopting this system so while I would prefer everyone to just receive the same price needs must and I personally use all of the loyalty cards for supermarkets as they’re free of charge and I can store them all on my phone. 

Be sure to check the price per 100g, 100ml or per unit when buying items with Nectar prices to make sure you’re genuinely receiving a discount and not being lured in by the thought of a great price that turns out to be nothing special – or even worse actually more expensive than buying a different size of item. 

Use SmartShop in-store for Your Nectar Prices

Your Nectar Prices, not to be confused with Nectar Prices, are a series of personal prices only available for you, based on your purchasing habits. You can shop these lower priced items in-store with SmartShop handsets or online via the Sainsbury’s website.

Just like the Sainsbury’s offers in the Nectar app these offers seem to be tailored to your own purchasing habits and items that you either buy frequently or at specific times of the year. You’ll also find special offers on items that are similar to products you have purchased previously – one example is different flavours of crisps or different packet sizes of produce. 

SmartShop is also fantastic to use if you’re wanting to stay in budget, and save money at Sainsburys, as you scan the items while you’re working your way around the store and can see an accurate overview of how much money you’ve spent so far.

You can add your Nectar card manually too, so if you’ve forgotten to bring your card out with you, but you can access the number from your Nectar account online, then you can still access your tailored offers and prices while shopping. 

SmartShop also has the added benefit of allowing you to go to a self-service till when you have finished shopping, which will typically save you time versus queuing for a manned till and means you can have an easy shopping experience even if you’re in-store with children or in a rush. 

Check out Partner Offers in the Nectar app

Partner offers are cashback type offerings such as earn 3 Nectar points for every £1 you spend with Just Eat or bonus points when shopping online with clothing retailers. 

Comparisons I’ve carried out have shown me that these offers aren’t very lucrative. For example, you would earn 2% back per £1 spent with The Perfume Shop via Nectar and Partner Offers (4 points per £1 spent), but you would be able to earn between 6.3% and 8.4% by purchasing via TopCashback. 

You can find competitions and other special offers in this section including the ability to win Nectar points for answering a brief survey. 

I would suggest checking other cashback sites before you jump on any of the offers in the Partner Offers section, as they don’t often offer the best return for your spending.   

Redeem your Nectar points 

Make sure that you’re actually using all of those loyalty points you earn from supermarkets. Many savvy shoppers save them to save money at Sainsburys during Christmas time, and this can have quite a significant difference to a time of year when household budgets are often stretched to the max already. 

Nectar points can be redeemed in increments of 500 (worth £2.50), against your Sainsbury’s shopping and with selected partners also. At selected times during the year you can redeem Nectar Points for double the value – though these events are few and far between these days.

Check out the Stamford Street range 

The Sainsbury’s basic range is now known by the brand name Stamford Street. You’ll find 100s of products in categories such as meat, fish, frozen food, ready meals, dairy, eggs, vegetables, fruit, toiletries, bread, household, desserts, cakes, drinks, chilled, and more. 

Many of these products are price matched to Aldi and if you’re looking to shop on a tight budget you’ll find enough items in the range to make full meals, and packed lunches for little ones, although the ratings on the website are quite hit and miss for these items so shop cautiously if you can afford to. 

Look for freebies to save money at Sainsburys

You’ll find occasional freebies listed in the Discover section of the Sainsbury’s website – so this is worth a visit if you’re shopping online anyway. 

Sainsburys also run competitions with brands, pretty frequently, where you may be rewarded with a prize draw entry when you purchase a product within a specified time window. For example, entry into a competition to win a holiday when you purchase peanut butter or cereal bars. 

While I don’t recommend purchasing items just for competition entries this is a nice way to have a chance to win a prize if it’s a product that you would be purchasing anyway.

Earn cashback when shopping online 

Online shopping is great if you’re wanting to stick to a budget, are prone to impulse purchasing in-store, or just don’t have the time to swing by a store and collect your groceries yourself. 

You can earn cashback, on purchases you would already be making, such as grocery shopping, thanks to websites such as TopCashback and Quidco. Getting paid to shop is the absolute dream of course!

Cashback companies work with your favourite retailers, such as Sainsburys, and receive a fee for bringing them customers. You’ll then receive a small chunk of this money for yourself, as a thank you for making a purchasing via the cashback website. 

Using a cashback website will only add an extra 30 seconds on to your purchase as all you need to do is visit the TopCashback website and then search for Sainsburys. Then you click through to the Sainsbury’s website and complete your shop as normal. 

Use grocery cashback apps 

There are several free cashback apps that will allow you to get discounted and free products from UK supermarkets. Green Jinn, Shopmium and CheckoutSmart are the most popular ones that have discounts and deals.

Every week these apps have a selection of products that you can purchase at the supermarket, in-store or online, and then be reimbursed for all or part of the spend. You can save money at Sainsburys if you spot any items on these apps that fit into your meal plan!

Typically these items are branded goods, from a variety of categories including meat, fish, fruit & vegetables, drinks, ready meals, toiletries and more. 

Shop in-store, or online, as you usually do, then scan the product you purchase, upload a photograph of your receipt via the relevant app, then sit back and wait for the reimbursement to be processed for your purchased items. 

Earn cashback with Chase 

Chase is a cashback debit card that allows you to earn 1% cashback on your everyday debit card spending. You just pay for your shopping, using Chase in the place of your normal debit or credit card, and you’ll automatically receive 1% cashback. This is a great way to save money at Sainsburys but also on most of the daily purchases that you make anyway.

Pay for your shopping with a gift card 

If you’re looking for a larger cashback boost then you can purchase a cashback gift card, from everup, JamDoughnut or even via TopCashback or Quidco’s gift card sections, and you’ll receive instant cashback. 

Cashback rates will vary, but typically you can expect to earn 2%-4% back when you purchase a supermarket gift card. This is like receiving a free food shop one or two times per year, no average – showing how quickly the savings add up with this method.

Sainsbury’s gift cards can be used to purchase groceries in-store, or online, and the process is really very straightforward. Shop as you normally would, in-store and then present your gift card at the till. You can even use gift cards at self-service tills and it’ll print out a receipt to show you any remaining balance. Alternatively you can shop online, again, as you usually would, and then add the gift card as a payment method when you’re checking out.

Gift card cashback apps, such as JamDoughnut and everup, frequently have boosted cashback rates, for limited times, so it can be a great idea to purchase a few weeks worth of grocery gift cards at these times – stock up if you’ll, to make the maximum amount of cashback possible on your shop.

Look out for reductions in-store 

In-store you’ll typically find a reduced shelf area in the meat and fish aisle and a second one at the start of the fresh produce area – typically near the fresh pizzas or ready meals. The bottom of the shelves is typically where you’ll find the reduced section and it isn’t well-marked either – so look out for yellow stickers on items. 

If you’re visiting the supermarket earlier in the day you’ll typically find discounts of around 25% – 33%, and if you can visit in the evening, usually after 6 pm on weekdays, then you may be able to find discounts as high as 90%. On Sundays final reductions happen in the mid – late afternoon. 

Purchase a Delivery Pass if you shop online

If your preferred method for shopping with Sainsburys is online, for home delivery, then a Delivery Saver could help you to save money at Sainsburys.

You can purchase an anytime pass, in monthly, 6 monthly or annual increments. You can also purchase a midweek pass, for deliveries from Tuesday to Thursday only, also in monthly, 6 monthly or annual increments. This is a subscription service so set a reminder to check if you want it to renew a week or two before. 

The larger the time period for the pass you purchase the greater the savings. If you don’t save enough money to cover the cost of your Delivery Pass then Sainsburys will send you a voucher to cover the difference redeemable against your food shopping.

The minimum order value is £40 per order, after any multi-buy offers, coupons, vouchers, or discounts. 

Look out for in-store till coupons

When you shop in-store, even at self-service tills, there are coupon machines that may print you out discount vouchers and exclusive special offers. These coupons can include money off a specific spend when you shop online, extra points when you fuel your vehicle at Sainsbury’s petrol stations and even free products. 

If you have never shopped online with Sainsburys then it’s common for a discounted first shop to print off in-store. 

Use new-customer offers online 

The homepage of the Sainsbury’s website frequently has a voucher code that you can use to shop online and receive a discount. Recent discounts have been £15 off an £80 shop, or £10 off when you spend £50 which could be used for the first 4 shops. 

If you’re new to online shopping, or haven’t shopped with Sainsburys at your current address, this can be a great way to make a significant saving while allowing you to test out if online shopping is more convenient or budget friendly for your household. This can be a great way to save money at Sainsburys if you’re trying them out for the first time too.