When you’re on a budget, nothing makes your day more than stumbling across a freebie, or ways to reduce your bills. Especially free food! Of course, this isn’t all that easy to do, however, it is possible with these fool-proof tips.
Getting anything for free might sound virtually impossible to do, or illegal. However, there are actually a number of ways anyone can get their hands on some free food. You just need to know where to go looking for it. And NO, we don’t advise you go stealing anything! From signing up to newsletters and apps, using supermarket coupons…and much more!
Use Cash Back Apps
Although cash back apps won’t always guarantee free food, if you look often enough, you may just stumble across a great freebie offer. Most of the time what you’ll get from the cash back apps is either a discount, or cash back on your purchases. Even if it is just a discount you’re getting, the savings can be very worth while.
All you need to do is download the app and view the offers available to you in your area. You will also need to check which of the supermarkets, or brands are taking part as this might not be across the board.
Once you’ve bought your item/s at the store, simply scan the receipt in to the app. It’s unlikely you’ll get a 100% cash back offer but many are often around 50% off which is a great saving.
The Best Cash Back Apps
- Top Cash Back – requires little to no effort to get money back.
- Zip Zero – Claims users can get up to £50 back each month. Aimed at ONLY saving you money on bills.
- Quidco – Partners such as Amazon, Argos & Boots. Can take a while to get your cash back.
- Shoppix – A new app. Complete surveys to collect tokens to turn in to cash back.
- Kid Start – Geared towards families wanting to save for their children’s futures.
- Honey – A browser extension that searches for coupons and discounts for you based on your likes.
- Swag Bucks – An app that gives you rewards though your purchases. As well as cash back, you can complete surveys for money.
- Shopmium – Gives users money back on their weekly food shop. From 50 – 100% cash back on items. You can also win vouchers as well.
- Checkout Smart – Helping users save on their food shop. Simply photograph your receipt for cash back.
Become A Mystery Shopper
If you fancy getting your hands on some free food from your favourite restaurants, you need to look in to becoming a mystery shopped.
All you need to do is look up mystery dining in your local area and sign up to anything that takes your fancy. Then you simply wait to hear back from the company to see if you’ve been successful. On becoming a candidate, they will send through your assignment at one of your local restaurants or food chains. These assignments are generally the same each time. You go and have a meal as the assigned place and write about your experience afterwards. Once you have submitted your feedback, it might be a few days before you receive your payment.
Generally the assignments are actually paid for by the owners, to ensure certain standards are being met by their staff. One thing to note is that you will only be paid the amount of your meal (normally stated on the assignment what the cap will be). So don’t over indulge or over pay at the end as you won’t get this money refunded to you. t’s likely you also won’t get refunded for any tips left either.
Sign Up To Newsletters & Apps
Many restaurants and fast food chains will offer you something for free, just for signing up to their app or newsletter. Here are just a few that will give you a freebie or discount for signing up.
- Subway regularly give their card holders free sandwiches and cookies.
- McDonald’s often give away burgers, fries and McMuffins if you download their app. As well as huge discounts on most other menu items.
- Krispy Kreme will give their app users a free donut on their birthday (proof of birthday is required on collection).
- Cafe Nero users can get a free hot or cold drink of their choice from 10am Monday’s by using the O2 Priority app (you need to be an O2 user for this freebie).
- Latest Free Stuff is an app that sends hundreds of freebies and discount codes to your phone daily.
Food Waste Supermarkets
This is quite a new thing, so you might not have anything in your area, especially if you don’t live in a big city. However, it’s worth checking to see if you have any food waste supermarkets in your area. These food waste supermarkets have deals with supermarkets and restaurants that will donate food that isn’t 100%. For example, a box might be damaged, a pack of x4 cans might have a can missing…etc. Food that’s perfectly fine to eat, but can’t be sold on their shelves.
Not only will this help you reduce your spending on food products, it also helps to stop the amount of perfectly good food being wasted.
Zero Waste Apps For Leftovers
Another new-ish thing that’s popped up is apps that allow you to buy highly discounted food from places such as Greggs, and other similar chains.
Apps such as Olio and Too Good To Go seem to offer the best selection. Again, this really depends on where you live. The more central to a large city, the better the offers and variety will be. Many of the food chains will have food that’s going out of date that day/evening so will offer it out at a very discounted price. However, these often go very quickly due to a high number of people wanting the discounted goods, and a low number of items going off. They tend to advertise the items available towards the end of the day and will have specific time slots for you to go and pick up your items. If you’re late to collect, it’s highly likely you won’t get the items – even if you’ve paid for them!
Free Tea & Coffee
There are still quite a few places that will offer you a free tea or coffee while shopping. One of the first places to do this was Waitrose, who actually still do this for their card holders. However, it is a little trickier as you can now only get your free drink after you have made a purchase in store. As Waitrose isn’t the cheapest of places to shop, maybe don’t make it a weekly thing just for a free drink though! A great way to save a money, even if it’s just a few pennies.
Other places that offer a free drink are…
- Ikea – when you sign up to their family card.
- Dobbies Garden Centre – When you become a member you get one free drink a month.
- Cafe Nero – After 10am on Monday’s through the O2 App.
Use Your Mobile Network
Both O2 and Vodafone offer some great deals to their members via the apps. For O2 customers, you can do this through their Priority Moments App that you can download. This can be anything from free food and drink, to experience days, festival tickets…and more.
Check with your mobile network provider to see if they can offer you anything similar.
Eat Out For Free On Your Birthday
This is one you can really make the most out of on your birthday. OK, so it only comes round once a year but you can still get some great freebies from it. Places such as Krispy Kreme are well known for giving out a free donut on your birthday.
Supermarket Coupons
Yes, paper coupons do still exist and should be used by more people. Supermarkets such as Tesco not only offer their clubcard members coupons to use in their stores. They also offer items at discounted prices, just for being a member!
However, many supermarkets will occasionally place coupons in newspapers that you can cut out and take to the store with you. A newspaper such as the Metro is great for doing this.
Another way to get coupons is to write a letter to your favourite brands saying how much you love their products. All this will cost you is a bit of time to write the letter and the stamp to post it. Just make sure it’s a great letter, written specifically for that company, nothing generic will get you a freebie! A great way to save a bit of money.
Supermarket Openings
If you ever hear of a new supermarket or restaurant opening in your area, make sure you go on the opening day. It’s very likely there will be free samples, hugely discounted items throughout the store, possibly gift bags and gift cards. There may even be prizes to win as well so it’s well worth going along to see what’s on offer.
How do you get your free food and drink? What works best for you when it comes to saving money?
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