EVERYONE likes a bargain - but no one as much as Judith Wenban from Northfleet. Reporter ALAN WOODS spoke to the lady dubbed the country's ultimate penny pincher.
JUDITH Wenban is well-known by supermarkets in Gravesend for pushing their deals and offers to the limit.
She never goes grocery shopping without a purse crammed full of discount vouchers from the internet.
The 39-year-old mum-of-two said: “There has been an increase in the popularity of vouchers and coupons in the past couple of years.
“You realise they really can bring your shopping basket down in price.”
Starring last week in Channel 4’s documentary The Ultimate Guide to Penny Pinching, viewers saw Mrs Wenban pay £5.50 for shopping valued at more than £65 at Tesco - thanks to a handful of vouchers.
She said: “Tesco in Gravesend don’t like me very much - they were doing a promotion where if you found a product cheaper in Asda you could get double the difference back.
“I was in there every day and got three months free shopping - that was £1,500 worth.
“They did get a bit sick of the sight of me but I was playing them at their own game.
“They didn’t realise people would be savvy and clever and pick up on these things.”
Price glitches in supermarket systems have also been exploited to save Mrs Wenban money.
Last month she had a voucher for a free tin of soup - these were 82p each or two for £1.
Mrs Wenban, of Seymour Road, Northfleet, said: “When I gave them £1 they took off two lots of 82p with the voucher I had - I was making 64p per transaction.”
Supermarkets are, however, unable to pay the customer and some identify the small print stating only one voucher can be used per transaction.
The part-time midwife at Darent Valley Hospital said: “If they won’t accept the whole lot then I’ll put them through one at a time and cause a queue."
Usually sticking to food her family like, some bargains have been too good to resist such as tins of fish eggs for a penny.
She said: “Everyone hated them and even the cat didn’t like them."
Keen to help others, Mrs Wenban runs a monthly charity lunch at her church to raise money for Fair Trade, buying food using her usual money-saving strategies.
Just £15 was spent on a recent lunch which raised more than £200.
Mrs Wenban has been money conscious and attracted to freebies all her life - in her teenage years, she had an account with every building society in the country.
She said: “They gave away money boxes with children’s accounts and I liked to collect them because they were free.
“We used to go on holiday and my holiday souvenir used to be a building society log book.”
Mrs Wenban’s Top 3 Money-Saving Christmas Tips
1. Shop around to compare prices Special offers in shops are not necessarily the best. Something half price is not always the cheapest way of buying it.
2. Do not get into debt Mrs Wenban draws attention to banks offering interest free loans at Christmas and describes them as "dangerous", reminding shoppers they will have to pay the amount back in the new year or face bigger charges.
3. Avoid buying on impulse Research online first. Mrs Wenban spends an hour on the internet every day looking for vouchers, discounts and coupons.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here