Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Make money shopping around
Reading Time: 6 minutesWhen it comes to beauty products, are you a Boots card collector or a Superdrug stasher?
Many of us are, but research shows you should be neither as the best way to get a bang for your buck is to shop around and mix and match prices.
Voucherbox.co.uk have identified 65% of women as being at risk of paying double for best-selling beauty products. Now that’s ugly!
If you want to save more than just few pounds here and there, make sure you read on to find out how you could save hundreds or even thousands with mortgage, energy and insurance price comparisons too!
shop ’til the penny drops
New research has found women are spending more than double on best-selling beauty products depending on where they shop. Popular items such as Batiste dry shampoo, Bio Oil and Radox shower gel see price hikes of up to 167% depending on whether women visit Superdrug, Boots, Amazon or Sainsbury’s.
Despite the fact that the average British woman spends £20 a month on beauty products, 13% never price-check these items and a further 53% fail to regularly compare prices.
A shopping basket of 20 popular beauty products studied by Voucherbox.co.uk amounts to £220.09. However, research shows that women could be missing out on £56.67 worth of discounts by not shopping around – a 26% saving.
High street horrors
When comparing the 20 beauty products, research found that some items double in price depending on where you shop.
The most varying products include:
- Dove Nourishing Care shower oil: £2.48 at Superdrug to £6.59 at Amazon, 166% increase
- St Ives Apricot Scrub: £2.05 at Superdrug – £5.25 at Amazon, 156% increase
- Charles Worthington Volume & Bounce Shampoo: £5.99 at Boots to £13.95 at Amazon, 133% increase
- Radox Feel Uplifted shower gel: 98p at Superdrug to £2.62 at Amazon, 167% increase
sensational savings
Savvy Bio Oil buyers can save up to £6.28 by shopping at Amazon over Boots and Superdrug. Meanwhile if you’re in the market for Simple facial cleansing wipes then head to Superdrug where this product is £1.70 cheaper than at Boots. On the low-budget beauty spectrum, popular lip salve Vaseline can be scooped up for 30% less than the Boots price (£1.95) by shopping at Sainsbury’s and Amazon (£1.50) – a 79% saving.
Just one product out of the 20 studied shows consistent pricing across retailers – the Dove Beauty Cream Bar. This household favourite can be found at both Boots and Sainsbury’s for 80p and despite this being a best-seller, the product wasn’t on sale as a single item at Amazon or Superdrug.
Sezer Yurdakul, Global Head of Online Marketing at Voucherbox stated; “There is no one shop stop for beauty lovers so it is vital you shop around in order to get the best deals – even on the low value products.”
“It’s always worth checking store offers which may make multiple purchases cheaper overall, as well as factoring in online vouchers and promotions – something which almost a quarter (23%) of you revealed you do already. Check out the full list of products, where to find them cheaper right now and even more survey insights.”
Beyond beauty – shopping around that makes a solid gold difference
Outraged by your outgoings? Think beyond beauty and you may realise that what you can save on cosmetics is only a fraction of what you can save if you think about your bigger bills.
One of the most common reasons for choosing an energy or insurance company is the fact that it’s been in your family for generations or that it’s simply too much hassle to shop around.
Well, let me stop you right there.
At MoneyMagpie, we have made it unbelievably easy to compare company prices and this can be done by making use of our handy tools below:
conserve your energy
Energy prices reflect the market and obey the laws of supply and demand.
Energy companies offer customers a range of tariffs, from fixed rates, which set you a specific price for a certain length of time, to standard variable tariffs which are like the supplier’s default bottom line. this means that some packages are better deals than others. This means that some energy packages are better than others.
In December 2016, however, research by Ofgem identified 66% of all UK households as being on a standard variable tariff which often ends up being the most expensive one.
Between June and September 2016, at least 10% of people who switched energy supplier for both gas & electricity with uSwitch.com saved £618 or more.
Check to see if you are in that 66% today by using our energy comparison tool to shop around.
MANAGE YOUR Mortgage
Getting your foot on to the property ladder can often appear to be a lot more difficult than it really is when mortgage lenders and estate agents are bombarding you with information from all sides.
When you first take out a mortgage, you typically sign up to a fixed rate deal for two years which gives you a competitive price. When these first few years have past, however, you are automatically switched to a standard variable rate which catches you in the loyalty trap as prices soar from there.
In July 2017, Citizens Advice compiled a report which looked at prices from the six largest mortgage providers, who represent around three-quarters of total UK mortgage lending. They discovered that an average customer on a standard variable rate could save £439 a year if they switched to a fixed rate deal.
They found that first time buyers get even more cheesed off as they pay an extra £1,359 a year once their fixed rate deal ends.
Many people are not actually aware that they are overpaying and others say that they don’t want the stress of shopping around.
Well, we’re teamed up with L&C, the UK’s leading fee free mortgage broker, to offer you expert advice on the right mortgage deal. Whether you’re buying a new home, re-mortgaging to a new deal or buying an investment property, L&C can help and you’ll pay no fee for their advice.
Use our mortgage comparison tool now.
break out of your bank
Current accounts manage your day to day life and that’s why it is so important that you get yours right.
But it is still as difficult as ever for bank customers to work out whether they are actually getting their money’s worth or whether they would be better off somewhere else.
In 2016, the Competition and Markets Authority released a report stating that “nearly 60% of personal customers have stayed with the same bank for over 10 years”.
The CMA proposed that banks should be made to regularly prompt their customers to check that they are getting good value from their banking provider. It said that if you shop around to find your best bank account deal, “annual savings could be on average £116; ranging from £89 for customers who don’t use an overdraft, to £153 on average for overdraft users.”
Use MoneyMagpie’s bank account comparison tool to see whether you could be making savings today.
cash in on your car insurance
Car insurance is a legal requirement and covers your costs if you are involved in an accident.
Comparing car insurances isn’t really what you want to be doing with your spare time, we understand, but Consumer Intelligence has shown that it pays as, in May 2017, they reported you could save up to £282 by shopping around.
Consumer Intelligence is particularly concerned about the older generation of drivers as they state that average car insurance premiums for the over-60s have rocketed by 20% in the past year and yet one in four do not even know what they are paying.
This means that millions could be overpaying.
Find out whether you could be getting a better deal on your car insurance now with our handy price comparison tool.
I shop around and also check online to find the cheapest prices for groceries. A trip to various supermarkets doesn’t take that long and saves pounds!
I always compare prices of my crafting supplies; it pays to compare the shops/websites you usually use, and sometimes even to google the item to see if there’s somewhere cheaper!
You say’… see price hikes of up to 167% depending on whether women visit Superdrug, Boots, Amazon or Sainsbury’s.’ Maybe us blokes should visit instead and see if it’s different for us?
Get train tickets as early as possible – I was quoted £25 ten days ago but wasn’t sure I needed it. Today I bought the ticket for £57. Gotta love the rail companies!
With the “World Wide Web” at our fingertips these days, comparing anything that I want to buy be it presents, essentials like shopping etc is so easy! Never ever in a million years would I just go down to the shop and buy a big item without doing some price comparisons. I have saved so much money over the years, very recently on a flight. Flight on a popular British owned airline website was triple the amount that I got it for on a price comparison site. It pays to take your time and look around before purchasing anything.
I used a comparison website for our energy supplier since British Gas announced their price increase and we have made a saving of almost £200 on our energy usage for the nest year !!
I always use the internet to compare prices before buying insurance for my car and house and have saved hundreds of pounds over the years. I also use Google to check prices on cosmetics and large purchases to see where the best price is and then use other websites like Topcashback and Quidco to gain cashback on my purchase. I have made over £3k in the last 5 years using these sites.
I can count how many times I have paid face value for items – from using price comparison sites for insurance to using sites like moneysavingexpert for discount codes and ebay for knock down prices I’ve saved quite a few pennies along the way
I nearly always scour the coupon sites before I go to the supermarket it is surprising how they add up and always before making a big purchase I check for money off vouchers and check to see which stores have the best prices. We also grow all our own fruit and veg so that saves loads on the supermarket bill and makes jams and chutneys with the surplus.
I like to buy in bulk for certain items that are non-perishable.
I use the internet constantly to check out prices before I go shopping. I love the site mysupermarket.co.uk to compare grocery shopping and I take advantage of all the cashback apps where you can often get items for free. I never impulse buy except when I’m shopping at the right time of day and they’ve reduced their prices dramatically.