85p

Eighty-five pence is not to be sniffed at.

I love the different store rewards. At the main store that I shop at, in general each Christ mas I get £70 vouchers, for I have chosen to save up mine for December and not to use them throughout the year, as others can. The vouchers come in tens, it is always then good, to spend and if the shopping comes to £12, I then hand over a £10 voucher and that shopping would have cost me £2! I love it.

Another store, that I don’t shop there often, at the till when I shop there, they will give me a voucher in my receipt, but I never use it, as it is too far fetch,  with this voucher it will say spend £30 and get £2 off, I never spend £30 there, I go to this store, very rarely, when I work at the third site, it is nearby and I will then pop in to see what they have reduced! It is one of the best stores for reduced items. The most I usually spend there is about £5 I think there are also points to collect there, but as I don’t go there that often, nothing comes to me in the post very often, as a way of rewards. But I don’t mind, as their reduced items, are brilliant.

Another store that I go to has nectar points, but that store I use about once every three to four years! So, I assume there is nothing on my nectar points.

When my Mum moved into her flat, this other store was near her flat, but the nectar points store was almost next door to Mum’s flat, but that was much dearer, so we would go to the other store five minutes’ drive away, passing the nectar store. There the points were Very good, at the till you would see the money add on, and it would soon build up, to use the money, you had to make a voucher, and then the voucher had a barcode and then the money would be taken off at the till, and the next lot of money would also be added on for that days shopping.

This store five minutes from Mums turned out to be very good, and it was nice to get when I had collected enough, £10 off her food shopping bill, it made me chuffed to bits. It wasn’t a store that I would shop in often when I was home, but I knew if I wanted something, and my main store didn’t have it, more than likely this store would have it, so then I would pop in there and add my points on to my points already collected and seeing straight away my total amount saved.

One day I had used up my points and had 85p left, but that was fine, for I still went food shopping for Mum from there, but I noticed something, the 85p wasn’t moving. I thought my app was faulty and that maybe it meant I needed to remove it and download it again! Not something I would be able to do on my own.

I thought to myself, next time I go in this store, I would ask at Customer Service, if my app was faulty.

I went in to Customer Service and said, “I think my app is faulty, for four months it has said 85p,” She said, “I is not faulty, at the moment the shop offers is rubbish and they have stopped added, the products that produced the points for the vouchers, so no one is getting anything!” I said, “Well I have been passing the other store that I could have used my nectar points and come here instead, but now I won’t bother to come here, I will go there instead.” She nodded and smiled in agreement with me.

I said to Paul, days later, “What I will do is, go back in that store and buy something for a pound and use the 85p to get the money off the bill and then I will remove the app, that is taking up valuable space on my phone.”

I could not think while sitting at home, what I could possibly buy in that store for a pound, it would not be sweets, maybe a cucumber, towards my diet?

I had to get something for Mum, so I thought this is my chance, I bought a few items and went to the self service and first spoke to the helpful Staff. I said, “Before I start, can you show me how I can get this 85p off my phone so that I can use it for my bill?” she said, “You need to have one pound first, and then with that one pound you can make a voucher, without the voucher you can’t use the 85p.” I said, “But the store is not giving us any points, I have not had points for four months,” She repeated herself, then I realized, I was not going to get my 85p!

Eighty-five pence is not to be sniffed at, I resigned myself to losing the money. Then the next day, another store sent me vouchers in the post, this store gives money off, discounts to people over 60, I then decided, when I was with Meghan, I would remove the app with the 85p and then download the app with the discounts for the over 60’s, for it stated, “Special offers, designed with me in mind.”

To be fair to the 85p store, it seems like they are slowly closing-down, for a month ago I went in to get vegetables for Paul, and 85% of the vegetables were not there, the shelves were bare. When I told Paul he Googled it and it seems they are closing- down, that is a shame, as it’s a lovely store.