The final results are in!

David Strain
By David Strain Posted in Insights
June 19th, 2017

The information provided in this article was accurate at the time of publishing and should be read in the context of the date it was published. Views in this article are those of the author alone and do not necessarily represent the view of Scottish Friendly.

Put down your shopping lists, smart phones and purses, your time is up!

Our families took on The Great British Savings Challenge Finale and have told us how they got on. We tasked them to try earning some money by using free cash back sites for shopping they had planned to do anyway. Here’s how they got on…

Natalie told us “I am a big fan of cash back sites and anyway that I can save money!” She had been planning to switch banks and this was the time to do it. Money Saving Expert, although not a dedicated cash back site, provided Natalie with an offer to switch her current account to a new bank. As well as taking care of the full switching process and moving all her Direct Debits, she also received a whopping £150 incentive. Natalie also went on to tell us “I will get another £50 after six months of having the account!” This is a fantastic amount of money to earn for very little effort.

Natalie’s next big saving came in the form of a HelloFresh box, worth £56. Amazingly she got this for just £1! The box contained enough food to feed three people 4 meals.
hellofresh_box_contents
As Natalie lives alone, she managed to make this stretch further, with the generous portions it lasted her 2 weeks. Over the course of this time Natalie only had to buy breakfast and snacks on top of the contents of the box meaning she only spent about £30, where she would normally have spent that for just one week.

Although the challenge is over, Natalie needs to change her energy provider and is still going to try doing this through a cash back site to earn even more money for her pocket.

Nikki, our mum of three, on the other hand found this the most challenging task yet. We did keep the best to last!

Having three young children to keep her eyes on Nikki’s time is a bit preoccupied and getting time to shop around on different cash back sites was tricky. “I found it a bit of a pain to go through a cash back site” she told us. Still, she powered on and the best site she found was TopCashback. Nikki needed a new vacuum cleaner and managed to bag herself a cordless hoover and earned £5 cashback at the same time.

She found the process of getting the cashback pretty easy but admitted that she isn’t particularly internet savvy and thinks this is where her problem lies. Nikki couldn’t find cash back sites for everything she needed and confessed “I went ahead and bought without cashback!” Tut tut Nikki! She did let us know she was going to try again and do better.

So while cash back sites aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, there is money to be made if you go looking for it.

Let us know in the comments below what your favourite site is and what your biggest saving has been.







No advice has been provided by Scottish Friendly. If you are in any doubt as to whether a savings or investment plan is suitable for you, you should contact a financial adviser for advice. If you do not have a financial adviser, you can get details of local financial advisers by visiting www.unbiased.co.uk. Advisers may charge for providing such advice and should confirm any cost beforehand.