Chloe Carmichael’s Deal Stacking Formula: How to Save 30% on Everything You Buy

This transcript is auto-generated and lightly edited for readability, it may contain errors.

[0:00] Sammie Ellard-King:

Welcome back to the Money Gains Podcast. How would you like to stop paying full price and get paid to shop? We’re here with Chloe Carmichael. Chloe, how are you?

[0:09] Chloe Carmichael:

I’m good.

[0:10] Sammie Ellard-King:

How are you doing? Mate, I’m so good. Thank you for making the journey down from up north today in Scotland.

[0:16] Chloe Carmichael:

Thanks. Thanks very much for having me back. It’s good good to be back on.

[0:20] Sammie Ellard-King:

Do you fly down?

[0:21] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, I’ve flew down this time. I usually get the train, but it was £300 return.

[0:25] Sammie Ellard-King:

So I saw this. You posted out the story about like the how much it costs you to fly in the UK.

[0:30] Chloe Carmichael:

It’s so expensive. It’s just wild that you can actually go abroad for like five times less than to travel in the UK. It’s crazy.

[0:39] Sammie Ellard-King:

Coming to like London for one night costs you like, you know, a seven-day or inclusive in Turkey. It’s wild, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. And you’re potentially moving down here soon, is that right?

[0:50] Chloe Carmichael:

Yes. Yeah, I’m in sort of the early stages of making a move, hopefully within the next month. Just going to do it on a trial basis and see how it goes. And yeah, I just feel like I’m in London so much anyway. And because of the cost of getting here, I currently limit myself to just once, um, once a month, just because it takes so much time. If I’m getting the train, it’s a nine-hour round trip, for example. Um, so it’s like a full day of my week gone and the the internet’s so bad on it that I actually can’t get anything done. So yeah, I’m gonna try all um living down here or close to here for six months and just see if it helps my business, which I think it will, because being in Scotland, you get forgotten about for so many things. You’ll know what it’s like in our industry. Everything is based in London.

[1:37] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah.

[1:37] Chloe Carmichael:

Um, so yeah, I think it would just be a really good way just to like meet new people, network, be able to have like meetings in person, and like I think it could just hopefully open up a whole new world. I just want to try it and see.

[1:48] Sammie Ellard-King:

And plus like the community that we’re all a part of as well. There’s this stuff going on all the time as well. It’s quite nice to like, and I suppose when you’re up there, you’re like, oh damn it.

[1:55] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah.

[1:55] Sammie Ellard-King:

Like I really want to go to that.

[1:57] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, I have like extreme FOMO all the time when I see people go into things or I get emails being invited. I’m like, oh, it’s London.

[2:05] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, like yeah, and you don’t want to make the trip for like a total freebie because it’s like, oh, I’ve just paid 400 quid to be here.

[2:13] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, so um, yeah, it’s just it’s just so expensive. I know living here is gonna be so expensive.

[2:18] Sammie Ellard-King:

So I was just about to ask, like, you know, how are you weighing that up? Because like London is so pricey.

[2:24] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah.

[2:24] Sammie Ellard-King:

Have you found the journey of like searching for a place in London at the moment?

[2:28] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, it makes me die inside a little bit. Seeing the prices of flats and also seeing the price for what you get, yeah, like it’s just crazy. Like to get even just a room is more of my mortgage, and like I’m just not going in a house share and I definitely want someplace myself. So I probably will be like a little bit out of London, but as long as it’s with within like a half half an hour train, that’s still basically London to me for how long I have to travel uh for for how long I have to travel just now. So yeah, we’ll we’ll we’ll see how it goes.

[3:01] Sammie Ellard-King:

Whereabouts are you looking?

[3:03] Chloe Carmichael:

Just lots of different places. I actually asked on my Instagram, and people have given so many suggestions. Um, so yeah.

[3:12] Sammie Ellard-King:

We’ll see how it goes. Exciting. Well, we’ll have to get some dinner and some coffee in like on the regs if you’re down here. Yeah, no, I look, I am a massive fan of your content, and so is my girlfriend, and so is everyone I’ve ever suggested anyone to you because you really are the queen of saving people money that they’re already spending. Thank you. But there is like you’re coming up with all of these different things, but what I’m saying to you off camera, and I I wanted to say it live because I think it’s really important to say, is that like you love this stuff, don’t you?

[3:45] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah.

[3:46] Sammie Ellard-King:

What makes you like really enjoy the kind of process of saving these people on these deals and all of these cool brands that you work with?

[3:54] Chloe Carmichael:

I think so. Going back to when I started this, I was a bit of a serial side hustler before I did this. Like, I would wash cars and like I tried to start a wedding decor business and just like tried all these different things. But I was always doing it with the intention of trying to make money. But this is the first thing I ever started just for fun. My background social media and digital marketing, and then just passed down from my dad. He had a really big love of deals and saving money. So they just kind of naturally came together. And I think just because I started it to help people, like I was finding the deals anyway, so it was just like a random night in 2019. And I just thought, I’m gonna set up an Instagram, I’m gonna post the deals I share. If it helps one person, amazing. They’ve saved a bit of money, and then it just snowballed from there. So I don’t know if you follow Simon Squibb.

[4:48] Sammie Ellard-King:

Love Simon Squibb.

[4:49] Chloe Carmichael:

Love him as well. I actually just bought his book today. Oh, nice. Was reading it on the plane on the way down, but it’s definitely that finding what your purpose is. And I feel like I’ve found mine and I’m doing something that’s not for me, I’m doing it to help other people. And I think I just feel like that that’s like the hack to living a good life, basically, like doing something that actually has a purpose when you’re helping others. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I think that’s why I’ve actually been able to stick doing this so long and haven’t given it of like every single thing else that that I’ve tried.

[5:20] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, no, I I I’m exactly the same. Like I’m a serial side hustler, was in marketing, and now I make content to help others. Yeah. And it fills up your cup in such a different way, doesn’t it? And just like giving people back and helping them transform their finances or you know, grab an amazing boot still or deshoom or whatever the cool brand that you’re working with. And I think that that comes across more than anything because people like that relatability of the fact that you’re not just turning up and getting being like, you can get five pounds on boots today, guys. You know, like it makes such a big difference. Like and the way that you approach it as well, like going in store and actually doing the things and showing them how to do it. Because people are like, Oh, yeah, I can get five pounds off, but you’re like literally there showing them this is what you do at the counter. And like that’s so cool.

[6:08] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, and that’s actually what I say to pretty much every brand that I work with with a scope to film in store. Um, if they’re like, Oh, we’re happy for you to film in our house, and I’m like, No, I need to film in store because it just makes it so much, it just makes it so much easier to follow and it makes you see how something can fit in your life. Like if I’m showing you how to do a deal stack at boots, it makes more sense if I’m picking up the product, being like, right, step one, I scan it, step two, I do this, step three, I pay with a gift card or whatever. Yeah. Um that it just makes it it just makes it much more easier for people to be able to put those habits into their life and start saving money on all of their purchases as well.

[6:47] Sammie Ellard-King:

It’s kind of like a recipe. Yeah. You know, like this is what you do, you know, and you follow it, like, oh, she said to do that. Oh, yeah, we’ve got to do this. Don’t forget to have, because then it gets these points on this bit, and it’s kind of cool, isn’t it? Like, I read a stat as well, which blew my mind. So I was obviously researching for this episode, so I knew you were coming on, and 91% of people pay full price for everything that they buy.

[7:08] Chloe Carmichael:

It’s mad. And I know it might not always be the easiest to find ways to save money, but brands are quietly offering all these different ways that you can save money, whether it’s um like discount codes that aren’t advertised on the homepage, there’s still ways you can find them, whether it’s using cashback, like they’re how how to maximize loyalty programs. There’s all these different ways to save money. You just need to know where to look. And when you do know how to look, you’ll will never do your shopping the same again and will always try to find these ways to save money. But for me, it just feels that I’m beating the system each time, knowing that the person next to me could be paying full price for that, but I’ve maybe got it at 70% of the price. I I just don’t know why people wouldn’t be wanting to try spend those few minutes to figure it out. So that’s basically what I want to be doing so that the person at the checkout next to me is also paying less as well.

[8:00] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah. Yeah. Cause why pay full price when you can do this? Exactly. And the thing is as well, people think that this stuff takes hours. Yeah. It is five minutes often in a lot of cases.

[8:10] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah. Um that’s something that I see a lot as well. And I’ve seen a big shift. So I started this in 2019, and obviously, pre-COVID and cost of living crisis, um, most people were like, I’m I’m not gonna do all those steps to go save like three pounds. That’s not worth it. But I’ve seen such a shift that people are like, oh my God, that’s amazing. I can actually save three pounds on that. And the thing that I always say is, we all work hard for our money, and we are spending so much time at our jobs to earn money to be able to do the things that we want in life. So why would you not want to learn how to keep more of that money in your pocket with just these simple habits that you can stack onto your purchase process? And then you’re then gonna have even more money to be able to put in your savings or towards a holiday or towards like your kids’ Christmas gifts or or um or or whatever it is that you value and want to spend your money on in life. And it I just I definitely feel like there’s been a shift in it, but we still have such a long way to go to be sharing all these different ways to people that they can save money.

[9:17] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, no, absolutely. Like you hit the nail on the head. Like we cover Christmas from our top cash back alone, yeah, you know, throughout the year, which is just one of the cashback apps that you can use. And obviously we’re gonna go through them in in a bit more detail in a second, but like that alone is you know, Christmas present, Christmas dinner off the table from money that I was already gonna spend anyway. Yeah. And so this really works, and especially if you’re being squeezed or touched as well right now, and even if you’re not, just having that money back in your pocket, which you can then buy flights with, or invest or save that money as well. If that in you know, it could be the potential of you retiring a few years earlier by getting a few more hundred pounds into your investments each year, you know. So it’s a big, big thing that we can do today, which I hope is going to change some life. So let’s start with like if Chloe was coming in to buy something today, um, you know, look, yeah, let’s pick pick a product. What’s a what’s a cool product that we can we can use?

[10:21] Chloe Carmichael:

I don’t know, let’s just say a pair of trainers or something. A pair of trainers, JD sports. Mine.

[10:28] Sammie Ellard-King:

I always need a new pair of trainers, so let’s go with a pair of trainers. And I’m gonna look at JD Sports or something like that. What’s your process look like there?

[11:22] Chloe Carmichael:

So my first thing to do would once you know the trainers that you want, I would use say you find them on JD Sports, I would then use a price comparison website such as Price Spy or Price Runner, and I’d search for say these Nike trainers on there. And I would make sure first of all that JD Sports is the cheapest place to buy it from because it might actually be a bit cheaper on Nike’s website. So when you use these price comparison websites, they’re gonna show you all the retailers they know about that this product is stocked on and compare all the prices. You can see the price history. Um, so you can see you can recognise patterns. Does it always drop in price in July or November for Black Friday or whatever? So once I’ve decided on which website I’m buying it from, I would then check if they’re on probably top cashback. That’s the one that I use most. So that’s one of my favourite cashback sites and the one that you just mentioned. So say it was JD Sports, I’d then just search for JD Sports on there, see what the cashback rate is, and then I’d click through to their website from there. And then I would I’d have a discount code browser, a discount code browser extension installed. So when I get to the checkout, it will pop up with any other discount codes at work and then apply any of them. If so, that can offset the cashback.

[12:41] Sammie Ellard-King:

So like a Welcome10 or something like that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[12:44] Chloe Carmichael:

Um a good one to try is always welcome or welcome 10, because that’s a generic one that so many brands use that always usually works. So I check for discount codes and um and then the last step would be I’d potentially look at paying with a gift card. So on apps like uh EverUp or Cheddar, I’d search for JD Sports on there and then buy a gift card for the amount that my orders come into, and then I’d get extra cash back to happily.

[13:08] Sammie Ellard-King:

Okay.

[13:08] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah.

[13:09] Sammie Ellard-King:

Okay. So this is and how and how long is that process taking you, roughly from start to finish?

[13:14] Chloe Carmichael:

Like it would probably take me like a minute. But if you’re just starting out, maybe just give yourself like five, ten minutes or something, just whilst you learn sort of the different steps. But I feel like because I’ve just been doing it for so long, like it’s second nature just to add all these. I have all the apps in one folder on my phone, so I can just literally go into them all so easily.

[13:33] Sammie Ellard-King:

So here’s the value of this, right? And this is why I I love it, because it’s like 10% off that you find from like finding the right website than what you found it originally, right? Let’s start there. If it was £100, that’s £10, right? Then 5% from TopCashback, 5% on your gift card purchase, now you’re at 20%. And then potentially a Welcome10, now you’re at 30%. So now you’re paying £70 for the £100 trainers. If you worked out, and the reason why I asked you what like how long it takes you, five, you know, 10 minutes, let’s say, for example, 30 pounds in that 10 minutes, you know, times that by six. I’ve got to do some quick maths now, but you know that that that’s in the hundreds of pounds an hour if you work it out on a time per like ROI basis, right? Which is just mental. Yeah. You don’t get that anywhere in the world. So, you know, that and imagine if that purchase was a new sofa or like something in the hundreds of pounds, then suddenly you’re saving potentially, you know, hundreds of pounds on that purchase as well.

[14:38] Chloe Carmichael:

Yep.

[14:38] Sammie Ellard-King:

Which is just crazy, right?

[14:40] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah. And this is going back to that whole thing of what I was saying, like you’ve worked with this money. Why wouldn’t you want to pay as small an amount as you can for things? And the beauty about deal stacking with things like this and using cash back and finding all these ways to save money is it’s money you’re spending anyway. It’s not like you’re going out and just buying this because it’s on sale. It’s something you’re planning to buy anyway. So if you can get it with 30% off, for example, like that’s if like if you were to walk into the shop and it was marked down by 30%, you’d be like, result. Whereas this is your way to be able to get that this is your way of being able to get that discount. Yeah. Even if it’s not marked down, because you’ll know all these little sneaky ways to save money, and then you feel like you’re beating the system.

[15:25] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah. What’s a so let’s break that down. So the the price comparison website, Wicked, and then we’ve got the browser extension. What’s that called?

[15:34] Chloe Carmichael:

So the one I use is Honey by PayPal or PayPal by Honey. It used to be Honey, then PayPal bought them. Um so it works best on I use it on Safari, it works on Chrome as well. And then it’ll just set up like the top of your browser. And when you get to the checkout, it will have a little pop-up and it’ll say, We find some discount codes. You click apply discounts and it’ll apply all the discounts that it knows about. It might like it. There’s times that it doesn’t work and it doesn’t give you any discount codes that work. It could be the product that you’re using is excluded, the discount codes is expired, but it saves you having to search manually for them.

[16:13] Sammie Ellard-King:

It just I’ve all I’ve been there.

[16:15] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah.

[16:15] Sammie Ellard-King:

Googling like Nike discount code, please, you know, like Yeah.

[16:20] Chloe Carmichael:

And it it it basically just automates it. We we all talk about ways to like automate your savings or automate your investments or whatever. This is basically a way to automate your discounts.

[16:31] Sammie Ellard-King:

Automate your discounts. Yeah. And that’s really quick, isn’t it? So it’s like almost plugged in, you should see it pop up. Yeah, I love this.

[16:38] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, it’s kind of wicked.

[16:39] Sammie Ellard-King:

And then we’re going on to top cash back. So top cashback, people think that you will then get the cash back like by a purchasing through them. Is that right? You use the link.

[16:53] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, so you can either use the app or the website. Just search for the brand that you’re shopping with. And if it will then they will then have like a listing on top cashback where you’ll get to see the different percentages. For example, it might be, I don’t know, you get 5% if you’re spending £100 or 2% if it’s under specific products, might have more percentages. And then it will just have a big pink button saying get cash back. You just click that, that will take you through to the retailer’s website, and then you make your purchases normal. It has basically added a bit of codes into into the URL that’s going to track it back to top cashback.

[17:33] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah.

[17:34] Chloe Carmichael:

So for example, Nike then pay top cashback commission for them sending sending you to their website and then top cashback pass that money on to you.

[17:46] Sammie Ellard-King:

Okay. Yeah. And then so how do I get my money from top cashback?

[17:50] Chloe Carmichael:

It will then all add into your top cashback account and then you can withdraw it to your bank account, or you can withdraw it for gift cards. Now, the good thing about gift cards is you then get extra cash back on top of it. So it might be just off the top of my head, this is like just a completely um completely made up percentage. But so you’re buying a Sainsbury’s gift card, you might get an extra 2% on top of the value of your gift card. So it’s a nice little way to make your money stretch, stretch even further.

[18:17] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah.

[18:18] Chloe Carmichael:

Um the cashback does can take a few months to go from where it’s just showing as pending to when you’re able to withdraw it.

[18:25] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah.

[18:26] Chloe Carmichael:

But I just view cash back as a bonus. It’s a nice little bonus when I open my top cashback account and be like, oh nice, I have a tenor in there that I can withdraw.

[18:33] Sammie Ellard-King:

But I knew you were coming. So I looked to open mine this morning, had 240 quid in there. Amazing. I was like, whoa. Like, you know, this is obviously built up, but you’re right. Like one of my John Lewis things took three and a half months for it to come through. But then one of my night purchases was like three days. So it varies massively. So you’re right, just treat it like a bonus, like don’t rely on that.

[18:54] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, because there’s times I’ll get people messaging me being like, oh, I bought something a week ago and it’s still not showing. And I just always go back to you. You just need to be patient. Don’t check the app all the time. Just treat it as a nice little surprise when you do open the app and there’s there’s some money there that’s payable.

[19:10] Sammie Ellard-King:

And what about in-store then as well? You mentioned the gift card element. Yep. Like, can we then transfer to that? Doesn’t have to always be used online as well. Can we use those gift cards in store as well?

[19:21] Chloe Carmichael:

It depends on the retailer. Um so there’s some that might be in-store only, some that are online only, some that are able to use it both. Um you’ll see it on the different apps. If, for example, Boots is online only. So when you go onto the boots listing on one of these apps, it will say it can only be used online. So just check that before using it. But the uh cashback gift cards are probably my favourite money-saving hack. Yeah, I mean, they’ve they’ve been about from how long would you say maybe like two years since they became really well known? Yeah. Three years.

[19:55] Sammie Ellard-King:

Well known. And then I’ve really kicked in now probably a year, I think. Yeah.

[20:00] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah. And there’s lots of different options as well. There used to just be, I think it was used to just be mainly on top cashback, you’d get the gift cards. And now there’s uh lots of apps that just offer the cashback gift cards, and it’s amazing. What’s so good about them is you get the instant cashback as well. So like we’re just talking about top cashback, you have to wait a few months. This, as soon as you buy the gift card, the money is put into your account in that app, and then you can withdraw it or you can buy it. Oh, so it’s instant instant. Yeah, which is amazing. Yeah.

[20:27] Sammie Ellard-King:

Um and then Well, you can reuse it again, can’t you? You can like build up a balance and then like and then just buy a gift card.

[20:33] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah. So that’s what I do a lot is I kind of build up a balance in these apps, and then I’ll use that to get a Sainsbury’s gift card, for example, to then use that to pay for my shopping. Yeah. And then you’re getting cash back on top of that. So it’s almost like it’s all I see it as almost like compounding interest with investing. Yeah. It’s kind of like that with your gift card. Compounding cash back. Yeah, like you’ve got like that balance is purely from your cash back, and then you’re using that cash back to buy more gift cards and you get more cash back on top of that. So I feel like that’s kind of like a good way to summarize it.

[21:07] Sammie Ellard-King:

I love it. Like the other day I was in uh I, you know, I yes, all right, I I was shopping in Waitrose, guys. Don’t beat me up and don’t come for me in the comments. Okay. Um, but I was shopping in Waitrose, uh, because there’s a few bits in there which I like. They do this um this vanilla coffee, which is just elite. So I I go into Waitros buy it. But I was at the the counter um spending my you know £150 million because everything’s so expensive in there. But I put the the cash back on and I had enough cash back to basically cover the purchase. So I just bought the gift card. And this was how quick and simple it was, and I think this is what people scare people is I’ve used used to self-service. I put everything through, you know, it says $27.99 or whatever that that might well be.

[21:49] Chloe Carmichael:

And then it’s not $27.99 at Waitrose.

[21:52] Sammie Ellard-King:

No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t uh but it was it was more expensive for about four things as well. But yeah, anyway, they’re very nice things. Um and you know, I literally went on to EverUp, one of the cashback apps, I looked on there, it was like five percent Waitrose, awesome, plus some extra coins as well because they have that like gamification thing inside out, which I love, um where you can like spin and win more cash back, which is cool. Um but then you I literally did it and it the process took probably forty five seconds to a minute, and then I could load up the gift card and pay, and then I got my five percent back. And I just sat there thinking, Well, how does everyone not do this? Yeah. Because I’m in here twice a week, you know, and You’re blatantly in Tesco’s or Sainsbury’s or Waitrose or wherever you shop, Aldi, whatever that might well be, and you’re doing that every week, especially if you’ve got kids, and that’s £200 a week, £150 a week on food, sometimes more. So you put 5% on that over a year, that’s a lot of money.

[23:04] Chloe Carmichael:

Yep. It really, really is. I mean, there’s times that I’m in a supermarket doing exactly as you’ve just said, and I’m pay paying for my shopping with a gift card and buying it at the self-service checkout. And then I might catch out into staff and I’ll like tell them about the cashback gift cards. And they were like, I have I have no idea about that. And I was like, it’s people in the store that don’t even know that you can even do this. So it just shows we’ve got a long way to go with that. But say based on if you’re spending £50 a week in a supermarket, we’re probably all spending a lot, lot more than that. But if you’re on average getting 4% cash back via these gift card apps, then over the course of a year, that’s you should have enough to get two, two, two free food shops.

[23:49] Sammie Ellard-King:

Two free shops, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[23:50] Chloe Carmichael:

And like when you put that into like saying, for example, as you’re just saying, you can get 5% off. There’s some people that’s like, still not really worth it for me. But then who doesn’t want two free weeks of food shop in a year? So again, it’s just kind of switching that mindset on how you view your savings. It was not just five percent that might not seem too tangible. Being able to say, like, you can get these two trolleys for free, that’s when I feel it really starts to hit home for people.

[24:17] Sammie Ellard-King:

When we first spoke as well about this, you put something into my head which I think was awesome. And I’d love to sort of see if you’re still doing that today. Because I used to leave my balance in there till December every year, and then just like withdraw it for Christmas and then be like, woo, Christmas done. But you do something different and you withdraw the money and you put it into savings. Is that right? Do you still do that?

[24:40] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, yeah. So on some apps I’ll leave it in there, like for example, the cashback gift card ones, because I know my balance again because it’s instant, it adds up really quickly, and then I’m just using it to buy more gift cards. Yeah, yeah. But say, for example, on top cashback, a lot of people I know would just let their balance build up over the year. I always withdraw it as soon as I’m able to, and then I put it into my savings. Because why am I going to leave it in there?

[25:04] Sammie Ellard-King:

Then you get another 5% interest.

[25:06] Chloe Carmichael:

It’s not making any money, exactly, where I can just be putting it in savings and earning money on it.

[25:11] Sammie Ellard-King:

So you’re getting the 5% on the 5% out of the 5%. And that’s compounding. Exactly. So your cashback’s now making you money.

[25:18] Chloe Carmichael:

Exactly. Oh, so good, isn’t it?

[25:21] Sammie Ellard-King:

Like, this is what I mean. It’s like, it’s you, you know, you look, I look at that, you know, the weight troos thing, I think it was like a pound 20 I got back. You could look at that and go, oh, whatever. But it’s the compounding nature of that over a long, long period of time, which is the massive, massive difference. And this isn’t just food shops, guys. This is your buy how much are you spending on a daily basis on so many different things? You can just put it in the play, right?

[25:46] Chloe Carmichael:

Yep. You can be using it for for supermarkets, for buying your coffee from Costa, an euro, for doing like going to boots, like for you can use it on holidays. I wouldn’t use the gift cards for that. I would just stick with the likes of top cash back to get money back. But pretty much every aspect of your life, there’s a way you can save money on it. E even on your bills, if you’re taking out a new insurance policy, search if that company is on top cash back. Because when you purchase that policy, you can then be getting cash back on that. There is pretty much a way you can save you you you there’s pretty much a way you can save money on everything that you’re buying.

[26:25] Sammie Ellard-King:

Right. So in so what is there anything else? Like travel, does travel come into play here as well?

[26:30] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, yeah. Like I would honestly say every single category, um days out, um like days out, traveling, stuff for your pets, stuff for your kids, stuff that you enjoy, going for a night away, spa breaks, all of those things.

[26:47] Sammie Ellard-King:

Oh no, interesting.

[26:48] Chloe Carmichael:

Everything.

[26:49] Sammie Ellard-King:

Wow. So over the course of the year, this could end up being thousands of pounds, right? And that’s what really people can get into their head. So, you know, if you are feeling squeezed, there’s your difference. Yep. Right there. That’s giving you back that money after your food shop’s gone up 5%. Well, save it back.

[27:05] Chloe Carmichael:

Exactly. And doing all these different sort of money-saving deal stacking hacks isn’t going to make you rich, but it’s money you’re spending anyway. And I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to be saving money on that.

[27:19] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, no, I completely agree. One thing we haven’t covered is the actual physical brands themselves and the loyalty aspects of being on board with them. What do you feel like it like? Because, you know, for example, I’ve been scanning my ShellGo app for God knows how long, and I think most they’ve offered me is like a pasty. Like, so some of them are crap, right? But some of them are amazing. Um, how do you manage like that and having so many cards and digital things here and there? And that can get slightly overwhelming for people as well, right?

[27:53] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah. Um, I mean, there’s there’s definitely times I forget to scan cards too, and it’s not till after you’ve made a purchase that you’re like, oh, I’ve I’ve forgotten to scan that. I know. Um it’s definitely easiest in supermarkets because pretty much every single supermarket, if you’re part of the loyalty scheme, you’re usually getting cheaper product prices. So that’s definitely easier because it prompts you as well. Um, I would say my favourite loyalty app is probably Costa. I feel it is so easy to rack up the points to get a free coffee.

[28:22] Sammie Ellard-King:

Right.

[28:22] Chloe Carmichael:

Um, I feel like that’s one that I’m able to get a freebie on quite a lot. But um, yeah, I would just say anywhere that you shop regularly, to be honest, even if it’s somewhere that you don’t shop regularly, like I don’t haven’t really been going to Lidl or Tesco that much, but when I do go, I still have the app and I still scan it just so I can be collecting those points that will one day become something. Um so yeah, my suggestion would be just be to put a folder on your phone with all the apps in there. So, for example, you could just have all the supermarket ones or just have all um all of your loyalty apps across them all in that one folder so that when you are at a checkout, you can can just quickly open that folder on your phone and see if there’s a way that you can be getting some points or some rewards.

[30:15] Sammie Ellard-King:

Is there like any apps where you can store multiple brands in one?

[30:20] Chloe Carmichael:

I think I think you can on one of the gift card apps. Oh, right, okay, cool. Um it’s not something I do. Like I I just like having the apps on my phone and seeing exactly what points I’ve got and everything, but I think you can do it on there.

[30:34] Sammie Ellard-King:

How religiously are you like comparing deals? So, like, you know, because we we haven’t even mentioned some of the brands. So, you know, there’s Cheddar, who you’re a big fan of. And I you know, I love Luke from Cheddar, I think he’s great. Um and then you’ve got like Quidco, which is like the top cashback kind of competitor, right?

[30:54] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yep.

[30:54] Sammie Ellard-King:

Um do you like jump around quickly if they’ve got six percent and they’ve got four? And like are you trying to do that too?

[31:03] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah. So it depends kind of like how hardcore you want to go with saving money. I probably go between about I’d say maybe like six or seven different cashback apps. Um and I would say depending on how hardcore you want to go, but I would just start off with one app and master that. And once you feel like that’s become second nature, maybe introduce another one, then another one. Um and just build it up solely because if I tell you right now, I’ll give you a list of of of seven different apps to download, you’re just gonna go, whoa, like I can’t. So just start off with one and build it from there. Um but yeah, for example, I’ll check top cashback, I’ll check quidco. I typically find top cashback’s highest anyway, so I’m pretty much always going via that.

[31:48] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, I’ve rarely used Quidco. Even there, I’m pretty certain that it’s either gonna be the same or like it’s gonna, if not, it’s like half a percent different.

[31:57] Chloe Carmichael:

I think it’s when they might have like different bonuses on is when it can work out really well when it’s on top of the cashback. Um that it might be worth a switch. But I would say just now just start with top cashback. I’ve I’ve that was actually the very, very first cashback app I use, and I I and I think it’s great.

[32:16] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah.

[32:16] Chloe Carmichael:

For gift cards, so the ones that we’ve mentioned are EverUp and Cheddar, those are the ones that I’m checking all the time. So I don’t know say I was buying a Nando’s gift voucher, I’d just go or na if I was buying a Nando’s gift card, I would just go check all those ones to see.

[32:33] Sammie Ellard-King:

I didn’t know Nando’s was on there. I think Nando’s game changer.

[32:37] Chloe Carmichael:

Used to be on definitely at least two of them. It’s only on one of them now. But that’s what’s good about having more than one app as well, is they might all have different rates. One might be 10%, 9%, and 8%.

[32:48] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah.

[32:49] Chloe Carmichael:

But then the next week that order might have switched around because they might have like agreements where they have they boost different brands at different times. Yeah. And then not all of the brands are on all of the apps. For example, Nando’s just now is only on one of them. So if you only had one of the app and search for Nando’s, you’re not gonna be getting your, I think it’s maybe roughly around about 10%. Um just great though.

[33:10] Sammie Ellard-King:

Make out with the family, you know, you wouldn’t get that back, would you? You know, that’s really cool.

[33:14] Chloe Carmichael:

So if you have capacity to, I definitely think it’s worth to be using more than one app once you’re at the stage and comfortable.

[33:22] Sammie Ellard-King:

Oh god, you’re gonna change some lives today, Chloe. I know it. But it’s so cool, isn’t it? As well. It’s kind of fun. It gets addictive, that’s what I find. Now I’m like fully obsessed with it. I never you wouldn’t catch me doing this. Like I’d have been like, whatever. But now I’ve it’s slowly like it’s taken me a while. Like it was top cash back at the beginning, and it was just usually on the bigger purchases. And now I’m like, I’m annoyed with myself if I don’t remember. So I get so angry, and I’m like, why didn’t I pay out the gift card? What am I doing? That was 57p.

[33:57] Chloe Carmichael:

I know. And um, it was always the same with my husband. He I think started off with using cheddar, maybe. I’d been trying for years to get him to use cash back or even look for discount codes. He’s like, uh, I’m just gonna buy it and you’ll do it. Breaking my heart. Yeah, this this this is what I always do as well. If if ever we’re booking a group thing, I’m like, I shall buy it. Yeah, yeah. So so so that I’ll get the cash back. Um, like I went to Topgolf with my family last night.

[34:25] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah.

[34:25] Chloe Carmichael:

Um, and then when we’re paying the bill, I was like, I’ll buy it so I get the cash back on my cards.

[34:29] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, and you can pay me.

[34:30] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah.

[34:30] Sammie Ellard-King:

Ah, really clever.

[34:32] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, and then they just all transfer me the money, and then it’s me that’s got the cash back.

[34:35] Sammie Ellard-King:

I was like, that’s a good idea.

[34:38] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah.

[34:39] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, well, I found a good one. We did golf breaks, and that was like 25%. Nice. And you know, from a 600 quid golf break, you know, that was quite a lot of money back in the pocket. And so these things are really cool and they’re out there, and like I think it’s just having one step one first up, it’s I I struggle with it mentally first, because I’m like, oh whatever, you know, I’m I’m too cool for this. Honestly, it’s like it’s one of the things, and I think a lot of guys will struggle with that more, you know. Oh no, I can’t be doing that. That’s like you know, not manly, you know, enough. And I do, I do, I do see that. Um but after you try it for a while, you almost like gamify it. I’m always like, Yeah, cool, like wicked, like and it gets you over that process. And I think that that’s something you can sort of try that first, and then once you earn a little bit of cash back from it, you’re kind of like 65 quid just went into my account. Yeah, it’s kind of nice because now I can you know maybe buy your missus some flowers or do something nice with the money, you know. That’s the and that that’s money you didn’t have.

[35:44] Chloe Carmichael:

Yep. Yeah, and saying about you felt a bit of a bit of a barrier to doing it, that’s exactly how my husband was. And it wasn’t until he was buying something, I’m like, remember to buy a gift card, and he started to see his balance build up, and he was like, I kind of wish I started this sooner. Yeah, so it pains me, right?

[36:04] Sammie Ellard-King:

Because I look back now and I’m like, Oh, imagine that 10 years of buying stuff every day, like how much money that is. You know, that’s a house deposit, literally.

[36:14] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah.

[36:15] Sammie Ellard-King:

Which is quite wild when you think of it like that. And so, you know, the this stuff really racks up over the course of a lifetime. That’s what you’ve got to look at it as, you know, and that you it goes back to that old saying, save the pennies, the pounds will follow.

[36:26] Chloe Carmichael:

Yes. I was actually just chatting to someone about that the other day, that that’s what my dad always used to say. If if if you look after the pounds, the pennies no, wrong way around. If you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves. And it’s so so true. Again, so many people are like, it’s not really worth the time. But when you kind of take a step back and look at the bigger picture, how much that adds up to over weeks, months, years, it’s it it it it can be huge amounts.

[36:54] Sammie Ellard-King:

Have we missed anything here? Like, is there anything in terms of the process that you do that’s kind of cool? Or like, you know, I know a lot of brands like like to email and things like that. And that can be one, making you spend maybe a bit more than you would have, but two, like, you know, getting hold of better deals and things like that. So do you do anything for that?

[37:13] Chloe Carmichael:

I would everyone in marketing teams is gonna hate me for saying this, but I would say to set up a secondary email address, just use like a free Gmail, for example. And when you’re signing up to brand newsletters, like a lot of times when you sign up, you might get a 10% discount code email to you. Use that email address to be signing up to these newsletters. It means that your own inbox isn’t getting spammed with like 10,000 marketing emails a day because I just feel it all day. I just delete, delete, delete.

[37:43] Sammie Ellard-King:

Um it’s painful, isn’t it? And you end up just unscribing unsubscribing and you’re like, damn it, I missed that thing that they put out.

[37:49] Chloe Carmichael:

Yep. So I would say yeah, sign up to sign up to all the newsletters with that email. You’re not spamming your own inbox, you’re not then gonna be getting tempted to buy stuff that you don’t need. And then whenever you’re shopping at that brand, just go and search that email account to see if there’s any deals or sales or discount codes or whatever that have come through. And it just creates a nice barrier as well from your own personal one. It’s only when you’re actively going to look at it.

[38:16] Sammie Ellard-King:

Do you do anything in store as well? Do you like ever go up to them and say, Have you got any deals going today?

[38:26] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah. I’ve never really been brave enough. There’s times that I’ll maybe be like, Oh, have you got any like free samples? Yeah, nice.

[38:33] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah.

[38:33] Chloe Carmichael:

I’ll do that. And then that’s actually a really good way. Like that works really well in say department stores that have counters. Yeah. It’s a good way to get free samples. Quite a few of my followers now do this, and then they’ll save them up to put them in a DIY beauty advent calendar.

[38:48] Sammie Ellard-King:

Oh, cool.

[38:49] Chloe Carmichael:

Um, that they’ll either give as a gift or use for themselves. Um, but it’s actually what my dad used to do. So um my dad had grown up like quite poor, and he ended up doing really, really well for himself, but he never lost the value of how important making these small everyday savings are. And it was to the point that he’d go into a high street shop like Top Man or Burton’s and get to the front front of the queue and ask for a discount, and we’d all be like, oh my god, he’s doing it again. Um and he would always get the discount. And even if it was only 5%, he’d be absolutely buzzed, and we were like, Why, why don’t you just pay full price? It’s not something I’ve ever really been brave enough to do. I don’t think my social anxiety is is quite there yet. But yeah, I will maybe need to do it one day and film a video going into different stores and just asking if I can get a discount.

[39:44] Sammie Ellard-King:

I love it. I I now treat it like a game.

[39:48] Sammie Ellard-King:

Do you?

[39:49] Sammie Ellard-King:

I used to be like like that. I literally, I don’t know why. Something about that moment of transaction, I’m just it freaks me out and always used to feel a bit odd about it. My other half, on the other hand, you know, walking around the Marrakesh market, she’s like, We’re leaving, and then they’ll chase you down and she’ll get the deal, and she’s like hustler mentality. I didn’t have it, but I started doing it recently, and the money I’ve got off is nuts. Really? Yeah, like I’ve got um last week got 20% off in Neal’s Yard.

[40:17] Chloe Carmichael:

Oh, amazing.

[40:18] Sammie Ellard-King:

Got a free coffee in Starbucks, just chatting away, just like, oh do you know, have you got any deals going at the moment? They were like, Oh no, you’re just a nice chap, you can have that on the house. So like I think it’s one of those things is is comes down to that, like, don’t ask, don’t get mentality. Um saying, bearing in mind, every time I’ve done it, I’m building myself up to now doing it in a queue, but the shop’s been empty.

[40:39] Sammie Ellard-King:

Okay.

[40:41] Sammie Ellard-King:

So I’m just just me and the shop assistant. So I’m kind of alright with that. I think if there’s a big long queue, so you got any 20% off. It’d be kind of a bit of a weird one, but it does work. And I think you know, 10 times out of uh, you know, one time out of 10 is 20% off. It’s still a little bit of extra. Yeah. You put your gift card and you stack the cash back in your soul.

[41:05] Chloe Carmichael:

I feel like I can ask find via email for discounts or on the phone. There’s just something about the face-to-face that I just feel like, you know, that way where if they’re like, no, you just want the ground to swallow you up, you’re like, oh my god.

[41:18] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, no, totally. I look, I I I completely agree with you. Yeah. Is there anything else we’ve missed in terms of this shopping process? Is that uh like I want to make sure people cop away with this like full masterclass today.

[41:32] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, I would say that other thing as well is when you’re not paying by gift cards. Something I want to caveat with gift cards as well is I would only use gift cards for things that you’re definitely not returning. So I pretty much use them at restaurants, if it’s like beauty products I know I really like already, or in a supermarket, for example, because the gift cards are just subject to the normal retailer T’s and C’s. So if you return the gift card, your refund’s gonna go onto the gift card. So there’s the whole your protection as well, depending on what you’re buying, over £100. You might want potentially to put that on a credit card. So you have is it the section 75 protection with that? So just make sure that you’re weighing each one by a case-by-case basis if the gift card is the best way to make that purchase. Okay. There’s also a lot of travel brands on the gift card platforms, for example, like different um different hotels or like booking.com and stuff like that. Yeah, I think um Airbnbs on there, for example.

[42:35] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yes.

[42:36] Chloe Carmichael:

I personally wouldn’t buy a gift card for that because if anything, like if if you’re booking an Airbnb, it’s probably gonna be at least a few hundred pounds. That again, if anything goes wrong, your gift card’s going back on that and just then you have to use it again for Airbnb, is what you’re trying to say there.

[42:51] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, right.

[42:52] Chloe Carmichael:

So you’re like stuck because you’re not getting a refund. Yeah. So just always remember that it’s gonna go onto your original payment method, which is the gift card. Um and also just if anything was to go wrong, just check like would your travel insurance pay out the money if it was on a gift card, for example? That’s probably me just being very paranoid.

[43:12] Sammie Ellard-King:

But just So here’s a perfect example for this. So we were supposed to go to Mexico in January, and my other half bought virgin vouchers from Cheddar on the gift card, and uh in a roundabout other way, my other half managed to send my passport to Australia, and so we didn’t go. There is a story to this. We bought my mum a passport holder for Christmas, and uh so basically we were wrapping up Christmas presents. My girlfriend puts my passport in and says, Do you think it looks nice? And obviously didn’t take it out. My mum is now in Australia, and so it got sent to Australia.

[43:54] Chloe Carmichael:

Oh my god.

[43:55] Sammie Ellard-King:

And um, we went to fly a couple of days before and we’re like, Where’s my passport? And then slowly had the realisation that it may be in transit to Australia. So midway through January, we’ve got a very funny video. My mum opens it and it was really like that, oh no, but by then we’d messed up Mexico, so we couldn’t go. Um, obviously, we tried to claim back, and actually the process of claiming back, Virgin were great with this in the end because it was so long and difficult to try and get that money back onto the Cheddar gift card. Um, they just sent us vouchers, which could have been a bigger problem, right? And that took a couple of hours, a lot of emails, proof, and some just to kind of whereas if it was on a credit card, it would have been an immediate refund back onto the card. Um, so there is a prime example of exactly what you’ve just said. Um so do be careful with that because yeah, you just want to make sure that you know you do get the money back. And then also now we’re lumped with you know grands worth of virgin vouchers, which is great, like we’ll use them eventually, but still like it would have been better to have that money back because we had to go and then buy rebuy flights for a different holiday. So now we’re down technically in that regard. So yeah, that’s something you’ve got to factor in.

[45:15] Chloe Carmichael:

Um and then terms of sharpen process as well. So when you’re not paying with a gift card, just make sure that you’re paying with a card that works for you with the rewards that you want, whether that is cashback or you want to earn um you want to earn Avios, for example. So just make sure that you’ve sort of looked up your options to see. That’s another way, isn’t it? Are making the most of your money with the card that you pay with too.

[45:40] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, another stack. Yeah. You can get cash back on your debit card purchases with Chase or something like that. And yeah, I’m the big I put everything through the Amex. My whole life goes through the Amex.

[45:51] Sammie Ellard-King:

Uh

[45:52] Sammie Ellard-King:

You know, back in the day, I was very bad with credit cards, but you know, had the break from them, reset my life. Um now I’ve changed man, people. And so, but now everything goes through my Amex and it just comes out once a month. And build up my Avios points and use those for flights. It’s another hack that you can add on top.

[46:09] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah.

[46:09] Sammie Ellard-King:

And those are really, really cool.

[46:11] Chloe Carmichael:

It’s interesting you say that you struggle with credit cards as well. I got my first credit card, I think, when I was about 18, no, about 19 or 20, and I was like, woo, it’s free money. Yes, that’s literally what I did. It’s interesting how many of us uh how how many of the financial and money creators we’ve all had that experience where we had got ourselves into debt when we were younger, and then we’ve taken action to change it and now share these tips with other people. But yeah, like I’ve I I I feel like that’s how it started for a lot of us.

[46:47] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, I know you’re right. It’s totally cool. It’s and I think it’s just like nice. But I think what we’ve done is I think a lot of people go on that journey, right? When they work that out, what we’ve done is we’ve realised actually we really love talking about this stuff, and that’s why we’ve kind of like, well, let’s like let’s help people because I don’t I also don’t want it to happen to anybody else. Yeah. And uh it’s kind of gone from there. And I think you’re so right, like, yeah, it isn’t free money, you’ve got to pay it back. But you can it once you utilize credit cards in the right way, which is that paying it off every month and maximising the rewards, it is one of the biggest hacks. Now, I’m just about to drop uh the Avios flights on a flight to Sydney. We’re gonna be paying about £275 return flights to Sydney with all the Avios points we’ve built up over the years on the Amex. So it’s worth it.

[47:35] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[47:36] Sammie Ellard-King:

We’ve got to go back out and see family again at Christmas. So nice. Yeah, it’s gotta be done. Bloody expensive though, I know, so expensive.

[47:43] Chloe Carmichael:

We went in January. Yeah, thanks for your tips. You are welcome. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it it was a shame. I think like I must have maybe got back about uh a week or two before you went, I think. Yeah. Um yeah, I just love it there. Oh my god, yeah.

[47:59] Sammie Ellard-King:

I was saying to Ben before this, I would like happily live there.

[48:01] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah.

[48:02] Sammie Ellard-King:

Would you?

[48:03] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, yeah, I would. Um I just don’t think they’re as far ahead on terms of cash back and all that there. So I’m like, I don’t really know how I’d tell people to save money if I moved there.

[48:12] Sammie Ellard-King:

Well, you maybe start your own. Yeah. You never know. That’d be cool. Yeah, no, I I’m definitely uh putting in a plan of like eventual move there after yeah, it just it’s just lovely, you know. The weather, the people, my family are out there now, so it makes a lot of sense.

[48:29] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, and it it’s just such yeah, I know everyone says, Oh, the lifestyle is so much better there, but the lifestyle is so much better there.

[48:37] Sammie Ellard-King:

It is the food, the people, the weather, like come on, like yeah, I know. Apart from the Aussie accent, there’s the only thing that sometimes I’m just a bit like, oh, come on.

[48:44] Chloe Carmichael:

I love the Australian accent, do you not?

[48:46] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, sometimes I’ll find it really great in like how you going. Like, come on.

[48:51] Chloe Carmichael:

I love it.

[48:52] Sammie Ellard-King:

Come on, just say how you doing, man, or like what’s up, you know, please. Like, how you going? Like, how are you how is that? It doesn’t make grammatical sense, please. Yeah, so um, yeah, no, I get it. But um, Chloe, I’ve absolutely loved this. You’ve been a superstar. I I I love your content. 100% follow you on social media. But is there anywhere else that you want to guide people today where they can connect with you?

[49:14] Chloe Carmichael:

Yeah, I would say to sign up to my newsletter. Um, yeah, I’ve been doing my newsletter for a few years, and I’m gonna be a bit big headed and say it’s probably one of the best newsletters you’ll ever sign up to. Um each each each week I do a roundup of the best deals and freebies that I found that week, deliver them to your inbox so you can just browse through, get different money saving tips, see if the deals you do or don’t like them, if the ones for you. Um so you can sign up to that on my website, which is Chloe’sDealClub.com. I’ve also got lots of guides, free guides on my website, all the cashback apps that we’ve spoken about today as well, that I’ll take you through step by step how each one of them works. And then yeah, my social media is just Chloe’s Deal Club on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

[49:58] Sammie Ellard-King:

I’m gonna link up your newsletter in the show notes because it is awesome. Like the deals that you come through on there, I I’m like, oh, I even want me buying some reason. I was the other day, I was like, oh, I’m gonna I might buy that. And then I’m like, it’s nothing. I’m not a gal, like, don’t need new makeup. But the the dishune one was awesome. Yeah, like you know, there’s so many cool ones on there that you find and get sent, which is wicked. So yeah, uh definitely encourage people to go and sign up to that. But thanks. Yeah, thank you so much. Honestly, it’s been really good fun. I always love having you on, and uh, you know, I’m getting more passionate about this stuff, so yeah, wicked. Thank you.

[50:32] Chloe Carmichael:

Thanks for having me.