Day 11 - Couponing At Carrefour
Carrefour supermarket in Spain
I have to admit, I never really liked the Carrefour supermarket in Spain. At least, I based this opinion on the few supermarkets of them I visited in our 14 months living here a few years ago and since we came back last year. For some reason, I never checked their online offer until a few months ago, in December after a few shitty customer service experiences with El Corte Ingles when I decided we would not use their online supermarket again.
I ended up registering at Carrefour and was aiming to do the big weekly groceries there instead of having to walk down to the Mercadona supermarket and then in person asking them for a home delivery. Why would we not order from them online, you may wonder? Well, their online system is very outdated, they don't even have pictures in it, it truly looks the same as an online ordering system a manager would use to order the supermarket's stock. This would not be too bad if I know all the words in Spanish in writing, but that's just not the case yet. This means that I got stuck in their system fast and the shopping was not pleasant at all, on top of that I also found out that ordering from that system costs 7 euro, while from the supermarket in person only 4 or 4,50 euro.
Club Carrefour
I didn't pay much attention to Club Carrefour at first but soon I discovered that this club was quite beneficial if you hunt for some deals and order smart by paying attention to the offers. I don't see 2x1 offers often anymore, while Carrefour has them. Meaning I buy 2 items and get 1 refunded in my savings account. They also have offers such as 50% back into savings, 3x2, 70% on the second product or a coupon for future purchases. I may have not listed all options, just check the promos every time you order from them online.
I registered for Club Carrefour at my first online order and got €20 discount on my first order from €100 or more. I made sure to reach that amount. Your Club Carrefour number is now visible in your account and will automatically be used when ordering online. I noticed some savings accumulated in the check so I got curious to learn more. I think it only showed like 6 euros but hey, it's a start!
I then learned that you receive 1% of your spending's at Carrefour and associated stores (also gas stations) back in your account. Some of these places offer up to 15% back into your savings! I was motivated to pay a bit more attention to the deals that were now shown when I did another round of groceries. I noticed suddenly the amount went up a lot.
Carrefour Plus: Saving 15% on vegetables, meat and fruit
Once I loved how fast the savings amount was growing as well as we approved of the fresh groceries much more than from the other supermarket online, I looked at "Carrefour Plus" to see if my previous orders were worth getting the monthly subscription and receive 15% back on fresh products. It turned out that I was already in the profits after 2 weeks in case I had this subscription costing €5,99 monthly. I signed up for this and have now added €17 profits from using this membership. What's not to love?
2x1 Promos: The biggest saving option out there!
Unlike some of the promotions, where you instantly get the discount credited in your shopping cart if you meet the promo criteria, with the 2x1 promo you will receive the second item's cost in your savings account after the order has been delivered and fully processed. When this promo appeared, I spent a few days walking through the offers and decided to buy in big on a few things that we'd use in the next months anyway so it didn't mean I'd buy things we would not use otherwise. I also added some special goodies like chocolate and chips which I would have otherwise bought by the pair every week. The difference now was I received the second one for free and our kitchen was fully stocked for a little while.
I bought a giant pack of toilet paper for example, costing €18.50 a pack, meaning I instantly saw my savings grow with €18.50 alone from that purchase. Months later, I'm still using the same toilet paper I bought with that promo. If my suspicions are correct, I will soon see a similar promo where I can stock up the same way I did last time, to fill up my savings account as well as toilet paper stack at home.
On top of the this I also bought in 4 duo packs of vegetable broth that I started using after my first attempt of coconut soup. I love it so much and see endless possibilities to combine the coconut milk with this broth that I felt confident I could stock up on these too. It added another 10 euros to my savings account at least for that item only.
What you buy and how you save is personal
Not every situation is the same but I've learned that buying for €75 minimum weekly from them means I get free delivery (I bought this annual subscription for 15 euros, normal delivery costs are 7 euros so you're in the profit the third online order) and I don't need much more from other stores (depending on their stock, as sometimes items aren't available on the day of delivery).
I was aiming to get the Carrefour car insurance as well for our car, but it didn't show us any offers when I filled in the license plate as some insurances they offer don't want to insure foreigners, so I had to skip that option and will not get 8% back into our savings account from that, but it's a great thing to explore if you meet the requirements and are a club carrefour member anyway.
Thankfully, we will receive cashbacks on Diesel when we use their station and show the card.
Carrefour customer service
It's been a pleasure dealing with the customer service as well, I just log in to my account, click on the contact form and ask for an agent. Sometimes there are errors adding the right amount in your savings, you can let them know and they will check it for you. Within a few days, the right amount is added and you will get notified by email.
My tip if you are using promotions, is make a screenshot for yourself to check it after they have fully processed the order, I had a few times where it didn't get added to my savings automatically and if I didn't let them know, it would have "cost" me 30 euros. It's good to be on top of that!
So far, not one negative experience dealing with them! Which is a pleasure.
The Club Carrefour Savings Check
Is available every two months, so you aren't saving monthly but it will accumulate for two months. In our case, it's accumulation for three months, but I have to say that the first month I only did a small order from the clothing department so it doesn't really count. I thought the check would be available every two months for everyone, on different dates but it turns out this is not the case. I asked the customer service when this will be available and they said somewhere half-way through March is the next date. I confirmed with them last week, they said it was going to be available this week and so it was.
We saved close to €200 on our groceries!
I really enjoyed being smart with our groceries as my boyfriend wanted to buy a new tablet for the house. We considered giving it to our daughter but we decided against it as she's a bit of a little rebel in terms of screen time so we decided we'd buy one for us and she can use it when we allow her to. My boyfriend spent a bit of time comparing the options offered on the site and he decided the Lenovo costing €199 with 128 GB memory would be the one.
We went to buy it in person in the store as why wait for them to deliver it and it possibly being sold out if you have wheels and can drive there straight away? I'm quite proud the savings check was this big and I'm going to stay smart doing our groceries in the next two months as well because I'd like this bi-monthly recurring thing to be a little party every time where we get to shop something luxury that we'd otherwise probably not have bought (yet).
It was good to know that you don't have to activate your check until you want to use it because you can only use it once. It would not be smart to use the savings check when you aren't trying to pay with at least the amount you saved. We decided to add the cover to our purchase to in the end the final amount we needed to pay was 37 euros. Close enough for a brand new 128 GB tablet including cover. I can get used to this!
I'm going to aim for even smarter grocery shopping for the May coupon because this way we can afford some extra luxury at home. Pretty cool!
Do they use coupons or similar savings methods where you live? If so let me know in a comment please..
This blog is part of the 30 days 30 stories challenge I started after successfully publishing 30 pictures and 30 stories the month before. I changed it up a bit as I wanted to be able to include regular blogs as well as pictures this round.
The idea is simple: publish one post a day during 30 days. You are more than welcome to join the challenge.
Header image created with Canva Pro
All pictures used in this post are my own.