Chloe Carmichael’s Cashback Masterclass: Earn Money Back on Spending You’re Already Doing

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

[0:00] Sammie Ellard-King: My name is Sammie Ellard-King, and welcome to the Money Gains Podcast, where we’re showing you all about making, saving, and investing your money interviewing the leading minds in the industry to want capital knowledge and expertise. If you’re new here, please hit that follow button if you won’t want to miss a show. And this week, my guest is Chloe Carmichael from Chloe’s Deal Club. She’s one of my absolute favourite people to follow in the space. I start following her. This episode is an absolute masterclass. And now you’re gonna love it. Let’s get started. So, Chloe, welcome to the Money Gains Podcast. How are you? You well?

[1:03] Chloe Carmichael: Thanks very much for having me. I’m doing great. How are you doing?

[1:07] Sammie Ellard-King: I’m so good actually. Yeah. I um we met a couple weeks ago.

[1:12] Chloe Carmichael: We did. At a very exciting event.

[1:16] Sammie Ellard-King: And congratulations on your award.

[1:19] Chloe Carmichael: Thank you. Congratulations to you as well getting the headline award.

[1:23] Sammie Ellard-King: It was pretty cool, wasn’t it? It was such a nice night.

[1:26] Chloe Carmichael: It was, yeah. Like I I knew the night was going to be good, but it just exceeded every single expectation. And I actually loved sitting next to you as well. And just I feel like even if I didn’t win anything, the value that I learned from you and also from from Andy as well was just so so so so worth the trip to London.

[1:48] Sammie Ellard-King: Oh Andy’s so great. Be clever with your cash. I I loved him and um Teo as well from Bricks and Tips was sitting next to us. Um they’re coming on in the podcast as well in a few weeks. I’m really excited about that one actually. But I wanted to say a massive congratulations, Money Influencer of the Year. Hugely, hugely deserved, in my opinion. If you’re not following Chloe, then I will leave a link in the description below. Don’t do it now, or do do it if it allows you to carry on listening. But um honestly give her a follow. I can’t tell you how much money you’ve saved me so far last year. I can’t, and my my other half loves you, and you know, I just think you’re you’re doing an excellent, excellent job. And so, yeah, I just wanted to let you know that. But I suppose I just wanted to start this off kind of understanding because of your content, you’re obviously massive on saving money and finding cool things to save money with. So, how important do you feel like it is to save money when you’re actually spending that money already?

[2:53] Chloe Carmichael: Yeah, so I’ll actually start off by saying this is actually something I struggled with a couple years ago because I notice that other people are posting content that’s very much, oh, it’s with women it’s just about saving money, whereas men it’s about growing your wealth and investing. And that’s actually something that a couple years ago I was like, am I leading in, like, like I’m am I playing into that too much? Like, I absolutely love to save money, and as you’re saying, it’s money that I’m saving on money that I’m spending anyway. I’m not going out of my way to spend money to save money. Um, but then I really looked at it as why wouldn’t you want to save money on what you are buying anyway? So I think there’s definitely still value in that, but yeah, probably about two years ago I had a bit of a crisis being like, oh my god, should I be focusing on investing? Like, am I just kind of playing into this too much on keeping women in a cycle of saving money and not investing? But I still think there is so much value in saving money on your everyday purchases. Like, you could, yeah, you could absolutely go and pay a hundred percent full price for something, but if you can get something for 80% or 70%, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to save that money, which you can then go and put into your savings, you can then put into your investment so you’re able to by saving money. I also feel you’re able to maximize how much wealth you’re able to build in the long term, as long as you’re being as long as you’re using those savings wisely, if that makes sense.

[4:25] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, 100%. Look after the pennies and the pounds will follow. Yeah, we’ve been taught that since we were kids, but I suppose a lot of people get overwhelmed and often they marketing’s so powerful these days as well, like where you’re in the shop and you’re like you’re emotionally having to like talk yourself out of buying something because they’ve done such a good job of selling you it that you like. I did it the other day. I spent like silly money on a camera on in on Amazon and then kicked myself afterwards because I forgot to add cash back. And it’s just like I was so emotionally invested in buying that camera at the time, I just completely forgot about everything else. So, what are some of the steps that you take to kind of like find some of these deals?

[5:09] Chloe Carmichael: Yeah, so I like to do what I call deal stacking, which is where you’re combining as many different offers as possible to really maximise the savings. I think a lot of retailers don’t actually like you being wise to this. Um, but the first step that I would always do is use a price comparison site such as pricerunner.com, and I would search for the item that’s in there. Say, for example, we’re buying an Estée Lauder eye cream, for example. So I would search for it on there to see which retailers have it for the best possible price. And then I would click through to their website and then look what options I can get with discount codes. So there’s browser extensions that you can add on, such as Honey, which will then pop up at the checkout and tell you what discount codes are available. And then I would check for what cashback options are available too. Now it might be a bit overwhelming chatting about this all just now without being able to physically show people, but um, you can then stack different cashback too. So you could use TopCashback, which is like a traditional click-through cashback, and then you could buy a gift card, for example, to get cashback on that. So it it takes a bit of getting used to it. I won’t go into the depths here because I think it might be a bit too overwhelming when especially when people are new to cashback. But I think a lot of people think cashback’s a scam as well. And I was a hundred percent like that a few years ago. I’m not sure if you were like that too, Sammie. Me too, hundred percent. Like I think just having the word cash in it makes you just instantly think it’s kind of too good to be true because we’re all so wary of all these like schemes that could be dodgy. Um, but once you start using it and kind of get your head around it, you realise how much money you’ve been losing out on over the last few years. So it is something that’s definitely worth spending a bit of time understanding how cashback works because you can be making massive, massive savings. I mean, even on like your car insurance or your home insurance, you could be getting like t about 20 pounds to 40 pounds back, depending on who you take your policy with. Like that, that that is a fair chunk of money that could pay for a dinner out, for example.

[7:21] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, oh that I love this. So can we just backtrack a touch there? Because I know that is some really, really valuable stuff, and I’d love to unpack it a touch. So you’ve taken um you’ve gone onto is it pricerunner?

[7:33] Chloe Carmichael: You said, Yeah, pricerunner.com. There’s also a website called PriceSpy.com, but I uh the the the the one that I personally use is pricerunner.com.

[7:42] Sammie Ellard-King: Okay, cool. So can we do like a live example and we can talk through it? Is that is that cool? Could that work? Yeah. Like if if I say, let’s say I wanted to buy um I don’t know, uh, you know, a new tent, I’m going camping in a few weeks. So I use pro jump on, I then go to Price Runner, and then what are you doing? You’re looking for the retailer which is offering the best.

[8:03] Chloe Carmichael: Yeah, so with a tent and items like that, so it’s a bit harder when it’s an item that could have lots of brands, for example, like if you were just searching for a mug, like it’s like, oh, which brand a mug is it?

[8:19] Sammie Ellard-King: North face jacket then.

[8:20] Chloe Carmichael: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s that that that’s a good one. For using these sites, it’s much better to have something specific in your mind so there’s as few variables as possible. So say you were looking for a north face uh puffer jacket in a particular style, you would just search that into Price Runner and then click search, and then it will come up with a list of all the retailers that they’re aware of that have that jacket and what their current price is. So this is basically scraping the prices off of all of these websites to give them to you in one place to save you having to go check. I’ve no idea if I sell North Face jackets, but say having to go check JD Sports and Northface’s website and these like five other websites that might sell that jacket. You’re seeing which ones have it in stock, what the delivery fee is, how much they’re selling it for. And so it’s it’s a really great tool to be able to automate some of that searching and be able to save you time and money.

[9:17] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, I love that. Okay, and then you’re then taking that. So let’s say we found JDE just happens to be the cheapest. So we’ve jumped to jdsports.com and now we’re on there and we’re adding honey into the mix and cashback offers. Is this where okay, cool, got that bit. And then let’s say, for example, that I don’t know, uh SportsDirect is two pounds more expensive, but the cashback offers and honey discounts are higher. Would you then sort of play around with it like that as well to see?

[9:51] Chloe Carmichael: Yeah, that’s that’s exactly it. So the way, just to explain this, the way Honey works is you just search for, I think it’s Honey by PayPal or PayPal by Honey, search for that, and it’s a extension that adds on to your browser. So when you get to the checkout, you’ll have a little pop-up and it will be like um apply discount codes, and then every code that it’s aware of, it might not have them all, but it’s usually pretty accurate. It will add on all those discount codes at the checkout to find out which one gives you the best feel. So again, I remember years ago before this was a thing, or before I was aware of it, I’d have to search like Nike discount codes and then go through all these different sites and it’ll be like it’s expired, this one doesn’t work. Yeah, so you you you you definitely need to be using honey to save you some time there. Um so say the JD with the discount code, it came to £50, but at Sports Direct you might apply discount codes and it comes to £48, for example. So I would then just still check both options to then see what cashback is going to be best. However, cashback is a bonus and isn’t guaranteed. So in that case, I’m probably always more likely to go for the one with the cheaper upfront cost because say there was no cashback on Sports Direct, which is £48, but a JD Sports, say this is Tesma Mass here, say it was like five, say it’s say it was like five percent cash back, that would take it down to £47.50 if I’m right there. I feel like you’re gonna be better at numbers than me. Yeah, let’s let’s let’ll let’s let’s just say for the sake of the example, it’s that I I would be happy spending the £48 instead of £50 with cash back because it’s a guaranteed upfront saving, and the money coming out of my bank account today is the £48. So um it’s all just about learning those little tips and tricks to see what works for you. But I think the way you’re gonna probably be saving the most money is with the first and second step, which is using the price comparison site, and then using the discount codes, because those are your upfront guaranteed savings that you’re paying as little as possible. And then if you get any cash back on top, it’s a bonus.

[12:06] Sammie Ellard-King: Wicked. Okay, cool. That is like amazing because that’s gonna save everyone listening to this a lot of money straight away. I pretty much guarantee you that most of the audience isn’t doing all of those steps. They may be doing one or two here and there, and actually implementing that’s gonna save you a lot of money on money you’re already spending, which is amazing. So let’s say, for example, then um, because I know you do a lot of fantastic content of finding different deals and different retailers. Um let’s say, for example, I always, you know, I’m an Estee Lauder king. I’m gonna say king. I need to say queen there, Estee Lauder Queen. Um I like Estee Lauder products, and I usually buy Estee Lauder products, but um I usually just pay full price for it. Where somewhere that we could perhaps go as men or women and find um, you know, those kind of sporadic, amazing deals where they come up and you’re like, oh my god, there’s 30 pounds, or look at this amazing collection that’s come out and I’m never, you know, it’s a saving of £100. Like, I already buy these, I’d be stupid not to. Yeah. Do you go direct with brands, or is it, yeah?

[13:19] Chloe Carmichael: No, I usually find you don’t get those insane deals direct with the brands. It’s actually the best place for luxury beauty products is QVC. The the the bundles they have on there have insane savings. So there’s Estée Lauder on there a lot, Elemis, Bobby Brown, and you can often be getting bundles which include some include say full-size products, and you could be getting potentially three full-size products for the price of one. So there’s some really, really great savings to be having on there.

[13:51] Sammie Ellard-King: And I would also say fragrances and stuff as well.

[13:54] Chloe Carmichael: Like, yeah, yeah, they’ve honestly they’ve got so it’s quite a random mix of brands that they have on their website from uh cooking, like things like um ninja to the Dyson Air Wrap. There’s just like a lot of different things that they have that you can be getting really good deals on. And I really love boots as well. Boots are without a doubt the best deals at kind of October to December. The star gifts that they have specifically on luxury beauty bundles are insane. So yeah, I know we’re a bit far ahead of that, just now being in May, but um, yeah, that’s one of my go-to sites in between October to December for deals would be QVC and boots as well.

[14:42] Sammie Ellard-King: And when you’re buying as well, do you try and maximize the in-store loyalty point systems that these brands offer as well? So you’re then kind of trying to double up in in that way as well.

[14:54] Chloe Carmichael: Yeah, definitely. I actually admittedly I don’t shop in store that much because I feel it limits your saving potential shopping in store. I definitely prefer online because you can get discount codes, you can get um cash back, you can just you I just feel you have a lot more options online. But when I do shop in store, yeah, I I absolutely do what I can to maximize um the loyalty points. For example, I’m sure most of us have a Boots advantage card that before you shop, just go and check what offers you have on the app. Because, say, if you’re spending £30, you might get an extra few hundred points, just literally for loading that offer onto the app. Um, and then you could be doing things like I posted a video recently about how you can recycle beauty products at Boots, and that’s gone insane across Instagram and TikTok. It’s got yeah, it’s got over uh I think it’s all almost almost six million views between Instagram and TikTok. It’s insane. Um and I I was posting it and being like, is this a really obvious thing that people know? Because I’ve known about it for years, but going by how crazy those videos have gone, it just shows that there are so many people that don’t know these things that are potentially just throwing their empty beauty products in the bin instead of turning them into boots points. So there’s lots of things you can do, and it’s really worth being signed up to retailers’ loyalty programs because they obviously want to reward you for shopping with them over other places, and particularly around your birthday as well, you can get so many freebies. Like you can literally eat an entire day for free just on on your birthday with the things that that retailers will email you about. It’s great.

[16:38] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, 100%. I I love that. I get my like free coffee, then I get my free croissant from over here, and I’m like, oh, it’s so good. You wouldn’t have got it otherwise. Just then I actually just have like an e uh like a separate email which I like send everything through to rather than it being my day-to-day, and I don’t have that email on my phone as well, because then it otherwise it just gets like these people.

[17:01] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, yeah.

[17:02] Sammie Ellard-King: And you get sucked in, don’t you? And you’re like, oh, 15% off. Like I’ll I’ll uh I’ll just go for it, you know. And you then suddenly you’re spending money that you wouldn’t have been spending, and that’s outside of your budget, and you know, we all know the the pre the you know the the complications of that. So let’s um let’s talk about um yes.

[17:28] Chloe Carmichael: So dupes, some people love dupes and some people aren’t huge fans of them. Um yeah, so dupes are particularly good for beauty products, like I feel that’s where they really excel. And it’s great if these particular products are out of your price range with especially with the luxury beauty brands, that they are really, really expensive. And if you’re trying to do an entire skincare and makeup routine with high-end products, like you’re probably spending hundreds of pounds a month on that, which just isn’t achievable for me, it’s probably not achievable for a lot of people listening to that as well to be spending that amount of money on it. So, dupes are a great way to be able to try products that aren’t the same but they’re very, very similar at a fraction of the cost. So, I feel somewhere that does dupes really well is actually Aldi. Um, I have cleansers, which are dupes of Elemis, um Primark as well. I’ve got a dupe of Bobby Brown Face, so it’s just great for those ones to be using every day. And perfume dupes are fantastic as well because it means you can then keep your nice perfumes for when you’re going out, and then just your everyday perfumes, like if you’re popping to the shops or just going to the gym or going to work, and you don’t want to be spraying your £100 perfume, you can be getting one for usually around a tenner or less that you can just be using as your everyday one. Yeah, the scent’s not gonna last as long because it’s probably an eau de toilette instead of eau de parfum, but if you’re spending five pounds on a bottle, you don’t mind having to spray it a few times a day. Um so they they they can be a really great way to save money. Some people who are super into skincare and very brand loyal obviously don’t like dupes because they feel like it maybe is ripping off the brand a little bit. Um, so that’s uh we have seen how uh the Colin the Caterpillar cake went from Aldi and M&S. Was that last year or the year before? So yeah, it’s it’s a bit of a um a bit of a grey area, but um having worked in the beauty industry for years, I can tell you that a lot of products are made by the same people. So it’s something that is very, very common knowledge. Um so yeah, you can um yeah, so you you can sometimes be getting very similar formulas from different brands that can be at at different price points.

[19:59] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, it’s like one or two ingredients in some cases, isn’t it? Like you literally just look at the back and you’re like, well, oh okay, they’ve only just removed that one expensive saffron scent or whatever that might well be. The expensive bits come out, but it smells the same, and yeah, it might not last. But we do it now, like we, you know, the Diptyque pomegranate candle, 150 quid is five pounds in Aldi. And everybody knows I love my candles and uh I love lighting candles. Uh I literally like sign me up to any candle uh cashback or offer, and I’ll be making full use of it. But that’s like prime example, right? And they sit by the tail, and actually they’re really good, and I’m paying literally probably five percent of the whole price.

[20:45] Chloe Carmichael: Yeah. And like, yeah, you probably won’t get the same scent throw from it, or it might not burn as well, or it could be paraffin waxes or a soy wax, so there definitely will be differences in it. I feel quite passionate about candles because my my my my my my sister is a candle brand, so I’ve seen the whole process of how candles are made, and how I would personally say a lot of the high-end candles are not worth your money. Um where they get yeah, like I don’t want to name names, but for example, when you get like all the black suit around the top of the candle, or where you end up where it tunnels with just like a hole down the middle, and all the waxes left around the edge of the jar, like you’re literally wasting your money on those candles. Whereas you want to I find a lot of independent candle brands, theirs are far superior to the big players. Um and then that goes into the. literally wasting your money.

[22:02] Sammie Ellard-King: I know. We d we did w ages ago. I think I I ended up in a Diptyque shop in New York and like bought a present for my other half and bought back a like a little selection of them and it’s just a n was a nice gift. But honestly like the five pound ones are just amazing. And that’s why it’s just like if you can be willing to go into and it’s usually places like you know home bargains and Best Buy and Audi and Lidl that will do these. Is there any that like you also look at that we’re missing here for for good dupes?

[22:35] Chloe Carmichael: Um yeah I would say sort of those typical shops that you’ve mentioned as well and yeah like Home Bargains and like Home Bargains, B&M, Primark, Aldi, Lidl, all of those are quite good for fragrance and beauty jupes. And then for homeware I find supermarkets are actually pretty good at dupes. So for example Asda have one of those electric um what one of those electric diffusers that looks very similar to the one from the white company. So you can often find very similar things in supermarkets as well. I’m a huge fan of shopping in supermarkets like the majority of my clothes are from supermarkets because I just think the prices are much better in the high street and I find that the quality is often a lot better as well. So yeah it’s always worth checking when you’re in your supermarket to see that to to have a look at the homeware too.

[23:32] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah pants and socks from supermarkets and then unfortunately I’ve got expensive taste when it comes to clothes so I uh do do uh do have do can’t do the rest of the supermarkets just not my stuff but I do get it for women it’s amazing. When it comes to let’s talk about cashback then because we’ve kind of flirted over it a little bit and I’d like to sort of go for the beginner little thing to this perhaps never experience with cashback or someone that’s like had TopCashback on their phone for ages and never used it. What are the best ways and perhaps some of the brands that you use kind of take someone on a little cashback journey.

[24:12] Chloe Carmichael: Okay so we’ll start start off with TopCashback you mentioned it and then I’ll run through a few of my other favourite apps if that’s good with you. Amazing brilliant so top cashback I would say if you can master this one you can master every single other type of cashback because I would say it’s probably the most complex and the one that takes the longest to get your reward. So I personally use the app on my phone so you just download the app and I’m sure Samuel have a promo code that you can put in in in in in in the captions you can get a bonus. And you then literally just search for the retailer you’re shopping with. So we’ll just use Nike as an example. So just open the app search for Nike and then it’ll come up with what the rates are you don’t even really need to look at that too much if that’s overwhelming you a little bit but just pick just click the big click oh my god just pick um that’s a total tongue to just click the big pink button there we go and that says get get get get cash back now so just click that and that will just take you to Nike’s website to complete your purchase as normal and you’ll get rewarded with your cash back. So it’s really simple.

[25:22] Sammie Ellard-King: And it happens like that.

[25:24] Chloe Carmichael: Yeah so the biggest thing to remember is that you just need to search on the app first or the website and just click through and that that is all you need to do for that. Now a lot of people obviously don’t understand how cashback works as well. So in that instance it works via affiliate links. So an affiliate link is just where it’s not something that you’re ever going to notice as a shopper but just in case anyone’s interested in knowing how it works. It’s just going to add a bit of code onto the end of the URL that’s going to be able to alert Nike that TopCashback sent you to their website. Nike will then pay TopCashback a little commission and TopCashback then give that full commission to you. Now that’s the reason it is quite a long cycle that it could maybe take weeks or months to get your cash back from that purchase to be able to withdraw it to your bank. So there’s just a lot of processes that go on in the background when you think of how many people are making purchases how long it takes to like say oh that purchase is from here that’s from there. So it’s always just good to view it as a bonus but yeah it basically works as affiliate links which is the same as if your your favourite influencer posts something with an affiliate link it might give them a small commission if you make your purchase and it doesn’t alter the price that you pay at all. Same thing right yeah yeah yeah that’s that that that’s that’s exactly what’s like so I just think it’s good to understand how exactly that process works and why it can take a little while to get your money.

[26:51] Sammie Ellard-King: But TopCashback from Christmas that has only just come through last week and most of it came through within like a week of me doing it.

[27:00] Chloe Carmichael: Some even like day after and then yeah one retailer just uh took till now to pay it and that’s like four was four and a bit months but I’ve got yeah yeah so I I just always like I don’t I I don’t rely on it as like I wouldn’t even call it a source of income but like I I like don’t rely on it in terms of my savings or my earnings it’s just when whenever I check the app it’s a nice little bonus when it’s there. I’d be like oh that five pounds has just become available cool I’ll withdraw it. So it’s great in that sense that when you check the app, you you kind of don’t know when things are going to become payable so yeah it’s it’s good. But yeah that’s I feel that’s probably the most complex one in terms of just all the process that goes on in the background with how long it takes to be payable. But once you’ve mastered that I feel you’re gonna find every single other cashback app really really easy.

[27:55] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah cool. Okay what’s next?

[27:59] Chloe Carmichael: The one that I would say is probably the easiest to use is airtime rewards. So this is where you link your bank card and it then automatically recognises relevant transactions and awards you with cashback. So say for example Argos is on there if you went and bought something at Argos and paid with the card that’s linked to your top that’s linked to your airtime rewards account you’ll then automatically get a percentage of your order value back which is great. And then that money can be paid towards your home bill so which is cool. So it I I like that the money that you’re earning through using that is actually going to use and and it’s not just you’ve got a few pounds coming into your bank account and you don’t really notice it it’s actually like reducing your phone bill which is really good. And now I would say it’s literally the easiest one to use because you just link your card and it does everything for you. And again it’s a bonus when you open the app and you’re like oh I just earned cash back at Argos I just earned it at Halfords I just earned it at this shop and you you actually don’t even realise that you’re earning it so it’s great.

[29:51] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah and then it goes to your phone bill so you’re actually just covering a cost which you already have with money that you’re already spending.

[29:57] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah.

[29:59] Sammie Ellard-King: Okay that’s I didn’t know about airtime rewards that I’ve had a quick look at them done a little bit of writing on them in the past but weirdly didn’t know that it was for your mobile phone so that’s really cool.

[30:09] Chloe Carmichael: Yeah so there there are obviously like most apps is where you can withdraw the money to your bank but I I actually really like that airtime rewards is to your phone so it it it it just gives them something different and as I was saying it just gives that money a bit of a purpose.

[30:24] Sammie Ellard-King: Absolutely okay that’s really cool and then we’ve got some more haven’t we we’ve got some good ones yes I’ll we’ll do cash back gift cards.

[30:36] Chloe Carmichael: This is I think probably my favourite type of cashback. So there’s three apps that I suggest using for this so there’s Cheddar and EverUp so this is basically where you can buy gift cards and you get instant cashback on them. So a lot of people are like well I don’t know why I need to buy a gift card but it’s exactly the same as if you’re buying a gift card for someone’s birthday and you then go to pay for that in night to buy your trainers. So instead of you going to say you’re going to buy a pair of trainers at night instead of you just going to buy them and pay with your debit card you could buy a gift card in advance for example get five percent cash back instantly on that. So it’s not like top cash back where you have to wait a few months for it to come through like the amount is available within your wallet instantly and then you just pay with that gift you just pay with that gift card instead of with your debit card. So you’re just adding an extra step and they’re buying the gift cards but it might only be small percentages like two percent three percent five percent ten percent but when you’re doing that across the majority of the things you’re buying particularly in supermarkets as well because I’d say like the average shop for in the supermarket each week is probably like 500 fifth uh 50 pounds to over probably like 100 pounds a week that if you’re able to be getting I don’t know four percent back on that that’s four percent back of your money that you’ve worked for that’s going in your pocket instead of Tesco’s pocket or Sainsbury’s pocket or Asda’s pocket like and when you add that up every week it’s there’s the the there’s huge amounts you can be saving each year.

[32:22] Sammie Ellard-King: Oh a hundred percent we love the Cheddar one at Christmas because it had five percent on M&S and we always just treat ourselves at Christmas. Interestingly we save up all our cash back all year. We don’t withdraw it and then in December we take it out and then we reinvest it back into the gift card and buy everyone stuff and getting more cash back from there and then we don’t use that cash back till next year. So that’s that’s how we cover Christmas and actually it was um Emma from Be Money Savvy that put first put me onto that idea because I always used to withdraw it and I thought well no actually that’s a really good idea just park it and then December becomes so easy and lovely and what a nice way of doing and it does it takes to stress off so much. But M&S was wicked. We were like because well we had you know we have a I have a big family so it’s like a 300 pound shop on that Christmas one because you’re buying all the all the gifts and stuff and it’s a 15 quid back. Great you know it just sits in the pot for next year and happy days and that was money that we would have never have had.

[33:21] Chloe Carmichael: Now one thing I would say about keeping the money in your account if I were you I would be withdrawing at least once a month I mean I I I ideally want you reach the threshold to withdraw it because there was a case a few years ago with a cashback app and it was one where you earned points and then bought gift cards with the points and they just sent out an email being like this is us closing today like we are closed now and so many of us lost lost our points. So this could literally happen with in any app yeah there’s probably a thing in the T’s and C’s that they might need to give you notice or something I’m not too sure but definitely just withdraw your money and even put it just into a pot if your bank account has pots for example the Virgin Money M Plus account has pots so you could just put it in there so it’s separate you’re not touching it and then at least you’re gonna earn you’ll earn interest on it as well.

[34:12] Sammie Ellard-King: That that’s very good thinking. Didn’t think of that far.

[34:15] Chloe Carmichael: Yeah yeah so yeah I mean it’s definitely now gonna be doing that because it should be actually earning interest on top of that there you go that’s why I love doing these podcasts I learn something new every single time I mean I I I used to exactly the same let it build up there for like my spend of money for holiday and then yeah we all lost loads of points on that one so it kind of burned me a bit yeah no good great advice great great advice thank thank you so Cheddar and EverUp yeah okay so here here’s the next phase of this I wanted to just oh sorry do we miss any good ones uh no I mean you can buy gift cards on airtime rewards as well but I I just stick that to the the automatic cashback I mentioned earlier but those those those are the three main ones I use for gift cards. Okay cool what about the more naughty side of this I suppose the um deal stacking on cashback does that work it does work um so once you start using the different cashback apps you’ll learn how they all work and kind of understand that a bit more um but there’s different types of cashback so as I said TopCashback is where you open the app and you click through so that’s one type and that’s the same for the app Quidco as well that’s kind of TopCashback’s biggest competitor they both work in the same way you then have automatic cashback like airtime rewards where it’s linked to your bank card so you can see there how well if I’m buying the trainers from Nike through a top cashback and I’m paying with my bank card that’s linked to an airtime rewards you’re gonna get cash back on them both. You then have your gift cards as well so gift cards couldn’t be used with airtime rewards because you’re not paying at the checkout with your bank card you’re paying with your gift cards. But you could buy your trainers from Nike via TopCashback and pay with the gift cards so you’ve earned cash back on your gift card and cash back from Nike. Then you have the other thing as well of maybe a credit card or debit card that gives you cash back. So Virgin Money has loads of cashback offers Chase you get 1% cash back you’ve got an Amex so however that works on that I’m not too cleared up on Amex and but you can buy your trainers from Nike on top cashback you get your automatic cash back from airtime rewards and then you’ve paid with your Chase or Amex card which gives you cash back as well so that you then use three types of cashback. Where it gets really exciting is where you could you’ve then done your price comparison we mentioned earlier. So you’re buying it from the cheapest retailer you could have saved 10 pounds by doing that. You’ve then used the discount codes from honey or there’s for example discount codes that might show in TopCashback. You’ve then used that which you could have saved a few pounds doing that and then you’ve potentially triple stacked your cash back as well. Now it’s not it’s not always going to work in every single instance sometimes with a discount code it might not work with top cash back. Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn’t but obviously your discount code would be your priority because it’s your upfront saving.

[38:37] Sammie Ellard-King: Gotcha I gotcha okay probably overwhelmed everyone a little bit I think that was like really well eloquently put because it’s quite clear. I think if you the thing is what I know and I know how people’s brains work they will just do this in their head on like 50 quid and go well it’s only a fiver.

[38:59] Chloe Carmichael: When you put this into play for everything that over a year it becomes hundreds if not thousands of pounds depending on how much you’re spending right yep I’ve noticed such a shift in particular the last year but kind of since the start of the cost of living crisis has really affected people’s pockets. Before people would be like I’m not doing all that to save five pounds but I think people are actually realising the value in it. A way I always like to try making comparison to people when people are pushing back. Like I had a video on deal stacking that went viral and people like that’s so much effort to save that much money. But I’m like I’ve broken it down really easily for you in this video. That literally takes me two minutes and say I save £20 by doing that. When you compare that to what your hourly rate is at work and I’m pretty sure we’d all like to be on £20 for two minutes work. So when you compare it to that I don’t know why people wouldn’t want to spend a few minutes to save a five or £1020 it might only be a few pence that you’re saving but all that adds up so I just always like when people are trying to be like nah that’s way too much effort I’m not bothering that it’s not worth my time and I’m like well you’re actually working at work for less than that so I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to save it.

[40:17] Sammie Ellard-King: Oh you hit the nail on the head it was going to be my next question and that was where I was going to lead it I know no I love that you brought that up because it’s so important do the hourly do your cost analysis on everything you do and it shouldn’t just be on cashback and saving money that like if we talk about it from like my time in this equals X and if it’s above what you I because I do this basically I looked at it for getting a cleaner spending me two and a half hours to clean the house me and my partner to do make the whole house look nice paying someone a cleaner and I said well could I probably make more money in two and a half hours by making a new YouTube video or or you know uh and doing a really great newsletter which sold products or whatever. The answer was yes so you pay the cleaner and it’s like you know I do it I use a cost evaluation in my whole life but cash back and and saving money on things is actually when you do it one of the biggest yeah you’re never gonna earn that amount of money in your in your day job ever at 20 quid for two minutes work.

[41:25] Chloe Carmichael: It’s mad right yeah so that’s that’s such a good point about the cleaner as well I’m trying to convince my husband if we can get a cleaner I’m like I I will pay for it because he gets annoyed that I’m like quite messy and don’t pick up after myself and he always has to do it and just gets annoyed at me about it and I’m like can you just let you both Clary I’m paying for this and I just get a cleaner and then you don’t need to do that you’ll be happier because you’re not moaning at me I’ll be happier because I don’t need to do it but he’s like no but it’s fine like if if you just do your half I’m like but I just know that time can be spent better elsewhere especially with like procrastinating and everything but yeah it’s such a good point about putting into hourly rate as well a lot of people say that for doing that for your purchases like oh there’s a hundred pound jacket how many hours would I have to work to pay for that I don’t really love that method because I think that brings in a bit of kind of guilt and shame around things you want to buy and I think it’s just better looking at it like how much you can save on it. If it’s something you really want if you’ve thought about it it’s not an impulse buy you can afford it it’s not impacting you negatively in any way I don’t think there should be shame around kind of buying the things that are going to make you happy or make your life easier and but in terms of like saving money or making your life easier as you’ve mentioned like I absolutely think it’s worth worth worth using that method of how how how much things yeah how long you would have worked to pay for it. I think a better way of looking at things like that if you’re wanting to buy a £100 coat is more what your cost per wear would be. I think that’s a better way of justifying things to yourself than how many hours you work to pay for it.

[43:05] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah no absolutely I as soon as you say cost per wear it hit I got the fear of God because I I spent money on that black tie suit that I was wearing it with you at the awards and then I was like yeah I’m probably gonna wear it like three times but then I did the like oh if I’m gonna hire this I’m gonna pay this amount of money anyway so I’m better off owning it because I don’t own it and it’s like it’s just doing a slight step back and evaluation and often when we’re emotionally purchasing something having that little bit of like okay I am emotional right now um should I what are some steps I suppose do you have like a little checklist that you run through or anything like that before you buy something um I I don’t but I just find I massively overthink everything.

[43:53] Chloe Carmichael: I think I need to I mean there’s some things I’m more than happy to spend money on like I will spend a lot of money on holidays and don’t think twice about it but then something that’s 50 quid I might spend two weeks thinking about it. So I do feel like I need to work on my money mindset a little bit because I’m like one extreme to the other on depending what the thing is and but yeah I don’t necessarily have like a checklist as such I try not to impulse by obviously when you’re in a supermarket in a shop there might be like little things that you do still impulse by but I try not to impulse by big purchases and yeah I I just like to try sense check myself like I I like spending money but I don’t like spending money if that makes sense.

[44:38] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah I mean like if you see a nice pack of chalky biscuits I’m not we’re not saying take a second look for cash deals on this chalky biscuits like just buy the bloody chalky biscuits and enjoy it like if you really like that five pound top that you’ve seen buy the five pound top like or 20 pound top whatever that may be £10 jacket you know I would say if it’s £100 or more just try and wait 24 hours and then go back and buy the thing and often on those things you’re definitely going to find good deals and and decent savings on using all of the wonderful methods which Chloe has kindly taught us all today. But I have absolutely loved this Chloe I think this is probably one of the most powerful podcasts especially in the environment that we’re all in at the moment that we’ve ever had. So like you’re gonna be saving people money left, right and centre. And that’s why I started off by banging your drum and saying people have to go follow you because honestly I I love it. I save so much money just watching you do the little tips and tricks and like the boots recycle thing now and just like never would have known all of these things. So thank you as well for all of the hard work that you’re putting in there.

[45:46] Chloe Carmichael: Thanks very much for having me and I hope I didn’t overwhelm anyone at the start because we just went straight straight straight into that at the start so um hopefully people got past that and l listen to the end where we we we we broke it all down a bit more but yeah if anyone’s like struggling with how to do anything or you have any more questions feel free to send me a message anytime and I’m more than happy to help.

[46:11] Sammie Ellard-King: What’s the um the best places?

[46:13] Chloe Carmichael: I know you’ve got the newsletter as well what’s the um yeah yeah so my newsletter you can sign up to that at chloesdealclub.com that goes out every Wednesday night it’s completely free and it’s a roundup of the best deals that I’ve found um I don’t want to blow my own trumpet but I do think it’s a really really good newsletter. Yeah thank you and I always get really really good feedback on it every week so people seem to enjoy it so I hope you will too and my social media are at Chloe’s Deal Club so it’s Instagram TikTok and I just started YouTube so we’ll see how that goes.

[46:49] Sammie Ellard-King: Oh cool congrats well absolute pleasure I’m gonna leave everything in the show notes for people definitely jump on that jump on Chloe’s newsletter I love getting that as well and so honestly Chloe I’ve loved this money influencer of the year and thank you so much for coming on thank you so much