Savvy mum slashes Tesco bill by almost £30 in 30 seconds with checkout trick
Content creator Mercedes, known as @Mumlifewithmercedes on Instagram, has shared her 30-second ‘discount layering’ method in a new video – cutting a £124 Tesco shopping bill down to £96 on the spot. The method, which involves combining supermarket promotions with exclusive member rewards, is set to save her up to £165 on groceries alone during the school holidays.
Documenting her trip to Tesco, the 32-year-old assistant practitioner in the NHS spoke out about how stressful and expensive summer holiday food shops can be for parents. To help keep costs low, Mercedes uses a Blue Light Card Shopping Card, layering the savings on top of existing supermarket promotions for a double discount.
The NHS worker and content creator regularly shares tips, tricks and hacks on how to run a household on a budget, with a particular emphasis on savings in the community. In her latest Instagram video, she demonstrated how this approach slashed her £124.05 bill down to just £96.77, a saving of £27.28 in a single trip.
“So many mums spend too much on the food shop,” she said. “But not enough people know you can layer up your discounts like this.”
Her method relies on Blue Light Card’s Shopping Cards. The cards are designed to help emergency services, NHS, social care, the teaching community, armed forces workers, and almost 30 more professions stretch their everyday budgets further.
Shopping Cards allow members to purchase vouchers from leading retailers at a percentage discount, meaning that for every pound you get more to spend in store. Once you have purchased your Shopping Card, it is delivered digitally straight to your Blue Light Card app, ready to use. It can be used like a normal gift card.
After scanning her supermarket Clubcard to lower the initial shelf price, Mercedes opened her Blue Light Card app at the checkout. She purchased a £100.80 Tesco gift card for just £96.77, taking advantage of an exclusive 4% instant saving.
That initial Clubcard scan brought her original £124.05 shelf total down to £100, saving £24.05 right away. But adding the Blue Light Card layer meant an extra £3.23 off on the spot.
By combining both discounts at the register, Mercedes walked away paying just £96.77 for £124.05 worth of groceries, for a total saving of £27.28. The reduction was over 20% off the overall bill.
Who is eligible for Blue Light Card membership?
A full list of eligible careers can be found here.
- NHS
- Police
- Fire Service
- Ambulance Service
- Teachers
- HM Armed Forces/Reserved Armed Forces
- Pharmacy
- Optometry
- Dental Practice
- MOD Police
- Home Office
- HM Prison and Probation Service
- Highway Traffic Officers
- Search and Rescue
- Red Cross
- RNLI
- Independent Lifeboats
- HM Coastguard
- Environment Agency
- Animal and Plant Health Service
- Blood Bikes
“It takes literally 30 seconds at the till and the saving is instant,” Mercedes told her followers. She also said that she plans to use the hack on every single shop going forward.
As well as savings on Tesco, Blue Light Card Shopping Cards are available on a range of other retailers, such as M&S, Sainsbury’s, Iceland, Asda, Morrisons, Farmfoods and Waitrose.
Joe Mathison, head of strategic partnerships at Blue Light Card, said: “We know how stressful and expensive food shopping can be for parents over the summer break. That’s why we want to make sure every member knows how quick and easy it is to save at the checkout using our app.
“As Mercedes demonstrated, layering up discounts takes just seconds at the till and can save families over £100 across the summer break, helping Brits across the UK keep more of their hard-earned cash in their pockets.” Visit the Blue Light Card website to find out more about the available discounts and who can redeem.
