The cost of groceries just keeps rising, doesn’t it?! With the average UK household spending as much as £5,000 per year on food and drink, it’s easy to see why it feels like such a large chunk of the household budget – because it really is!
I try to stay on top of meal planning and cooking budget-friendly recipes, and lately I’ve been finding more ways to get free and cheap food. I’m here to share all of my best tips and tricks so you can get free food and save money too!
I’ve made it my own personal mission to avoid paying full price whenever possible and, if you sign up to my Chloe’s Deal Club newsletter, you can receive a weekly email packed full of the very best freebies, bargains, special offers, deals, tips and tricks carefully curated to help you make the most of every pound that you spend.
If you love a good deal and making the most of every pound you spend, you’re in the right place. I’ve found the best ways to get free food or cheaper food!
It’s fine if you’re not a huge spender or are trying to cut your budget – lots of these treats are completely free with no strings attached and those that aren’t free are cheaper.
Let’s dive right in and get free and cheap food, shall we?
Be sure to read until the end to see how you can even earn cashback while you use some of the tips in this guide.
10+ Ways to Get Free and Cheap Food
Use loyalty apps to get free food
Coffee shops, supermarkets, fast food brands, beauty stores, petrol stations, clothing stores and many more places have created loyalty schemes to encourage you to go into their stores and buy their products more often.
These loyalty apps often offer freebies when you sign up or once you’ve spent a set amount. Here’s some examples of loyalty apps that offer you free food:
- Greggs – free coffee when you sign up to their app
- Krispy Kreme – free doughnut when you sign up to their app
- Lidl Plus – free sweet bakery item for spending £10 in a month, free vegetable for spending £50 in a month, free cereal for spending £150 in a month
Some apps even have games that allow you to win extra points or freebies, like the recent Lidl Plus spin to win game where you could get a free bakery item. It really is worth checking for loyalty apps at places you shop at regularly so you can be unlocking these freebies – because we all love a freebie!
Get free coffee
What’s better than a nice coffee? Free coffee, that’s what! There are a number of ways to bag yourself a free coffee from your favourite coffee shop.
You just can’t beat the feeling of walking into your favourite coffee shop, choosing a mocha, latte or a cold brew and knowing that it’s going to be completely free! I love getting free food but free coffee is one of my favourite freebies, especially as coffees can easily be £5 a cup now!
Lots of retailers offer you a free coffee after a set amount of purchases like Costa, Pret a Manger and Marks & Spencer, and if you’ve got a Waitrose nearby you can take your reusable cup in-store and scan your myWaitrose card to get a free tea or coffee from the self-serve machines. You can also claim a free hot drink from Monday – Friday in-store by scanning your IKEA Family card.
I’ve actually got a full list of 20+ easy ways to get free coffees which you can read by tapping below.
Read more: 20+ Easy Ways to Get Free Coffee in the UK
Get free food when you use cashback grocery apps
Shopmium is a free cashback app that allows you to save money on your food shopping. You can get free food or cheap food. If you love to buy branded goodies then you’ll love Shopmium.
Each week Shopmium has a variety of different offers available where you can receive cashback when you buy specific items in-store or online with selected retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and other well-known grocery retailers.
Shopmium is a little like using a paper coupon, without the hassle of holding up the queue at the till. You just buy your items as normal then you scan the item’s barcode on the app and upload a photo of your receipt too.
To get started, all you need to do is download the Shopmium app and create an account, completely free, using your basic personal information. Use my referral code T2FA5Z to get free food as a thank you for joining. The current offer is you’ll get a free bag of Cadbury’s chocolate buttons when you sign up – yum!
Become a mystery shopper to get free food
Have you ever wanted to get paid to eat a takeaway? Or do an online food shop? Mystery shopping will allow you to do exactly that!
You can get free food thanks to the likes of Marketforce, iShopForIpsos, Mystery Dining by HGEM, Shepper and ProInsight, plus there are plenty of other mystery shopping apps too.
You’ll get reimbursed for your groceries, takeaway or coffee and sometimes there’s a small fee on top to cover your time.
Great brands, such as Five Guys, Wagamamas, Dishoom, Brewdog, Pret a Manger and Papa John’s are just some of the brands that I’ve seen on mystery shopping apps recently as well as grocery deliveries from Waitrose.
On the topic of Dishoom… next time you go, ask for a keyring at the front desk and if you’re lucky you’ll be given Dishoom’s secret Matka keyring. Then when you’re dining with up to 12 people before 6pm Monday-Friday, you’ll be able to play the Dishoom Matka board game and if you roll a 6 on the dice your meal will be free!
Get free food on your Birthday
Your Birthday is the perfect excuse to indulge a little, right? Receiving birthday cash and gift cards gives you a great excuse for a little retail therapy, but if you want to get free and cheap food you can take advantage of Birthday freebies from some of your favourite brands.
You’ll be able to get free food, discounts when shopping and much more. There are a variety of ways to get free and cheap food when it’s your birthday and I’ve rounded up over 30 birthday freebies you can get below.
Read more: 30+ Best Birthday Freebies You Can’t Miss in the UK
Try the TooGoodToGo app to pick up cheap food
Now this one can be a bit hit or miss…
TooGoodToGo is a marketplace app that helps local shops, supermarkets, restaurants and cafes to sell their excess food and drink to help cut food waste. The app is free to download and you’ll be able to buy “magic bags” from well-known retailers.
Magic bags are often available for about one-third of the original retail price of the contents. If a bakery would sell goods for £12, you should expect to see them being sold in-app for around £4. The prices do vary depending on the retailer but this is a great way to get cheap food.
If you’re extra lucky then your magic bag will be larger than expected. Some well-known brands such as Costa and Starbucks, will typically stay close to the advised retail value, while others are very generous – it really just depends on what surplus food they have left at the end of that day.
I’ve been able to get free food added to my magic bag just by being polite and having a friendly chat while waiting to collect the bag.
The retailers on TooGoodToGo are subject to change and vary depending on your location but there are some fantastic brands including ALDI, Costa Coffee, M&S, Pizza Express, Morrisons, Greggs, Toby Carvery, Spar, YO! Sushi, Pret, Wasabi, Caffe Nero, Burger King, Krispy Kreme, Chopstix and many more.
I got myself an ALDI bag for £3.30 and it had items worth £14.30 inside, which seems good but it included 1kg of carrots (75p) which were mouldy and only fit for the bin and two heads of lettuce – one of which has gone bad. It put me off buying another TooGoodToGo bag for a while.
So TooGoodToGo can be a bit hit or miss so I’ve only bought about 4 bags in the last 5 years as you don’t know what’s going to be inside the bags. But every so often I get a notion to buy one and share the contents of the bag on my Instagram for you to rate.
Give Olio a whirl to get free food
If you want to get free food rather than just cheap food, you’d do well to take a look at the Olio app. Olio, which started out as a free food and drink sharing app, has extended to allow people to give away books, clothes, toys and other household items.
You’ll find people emptying out their own fridge or decluttering their pantry, but you’ll also find that you can get free food from well-known shops such as Pret a Manger, Holland & Barrett, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and more.
Volunteers from your local community sign up to get free food from local stores and then they list it on Olio. You can even sign up to be a volunteer yourself and help be a food waste hero. You’ll get to keep some of the goodies for yourself too.
The best time to check the Olio app is later in the evening when the local volunteers have collected any surplus food and drink, usually with a use by or best before date of the same day. In some areas you’ll even see volunteers who make a listing on the Olio app to tell you what time they’ll be putting things live.
When you’ve seen free food you would like to collect then you just send a message to the poster and hopefully arrange a time to collect.
A bonus of Olio is that you can also list your own excess food and drink on the app to prevent food waste. I’ve done this a few times and listed food that we won’t eat (mainly mushrooms!) from our Gousto boxes instead of binning them.
Get free food from service providers
There are several service providers such as mobile phone companies and energy providers, that allow you to get free food. If you’re with Virgin Media for broadband, have a mobile phone on the O2 or Vodafone networks or use Octopus Energy for your gas and electricity, you can gain access to their perk apps and reward websites.
The O2 Priority app has had multiple ways to get free food including Gregg’s sausage rolls or hot drinks, Thornton’s chocolates, Hotel Chocolat goodies, M&S vouchers, free drinks at pub chains such as O’Neill’s, Ember Inns and Sizzling Pubs and much more.
Vodafone’s rewards app, VeryMe, has had similar offerings in the past and other ways to get free food and drink have included free Tesco gift cards, free wine at Majestic, and free healthy snacks from Morrisons. The freebies are often in the form of a supermarket gift card that you can actually spend on anything in-store – so this is a great way to get free food!
Customers of Octopus Energy, who have a smart meter, can join the Octoplus Rewards programme. Each week there’s a freebie available for a hot drink from Caffè Nero or Greggs as well as discounted cinema tickets and more.
Kids get free food during school holidays
We all know costs can quickly spiral during summer holidays but there’s an easy way you can save some money whilst keeping the kids well-fed and get free food too.
During the school holidays lots of supermarkets, restaurants and cafes offer kids eat free or kids eat for £1 menus. This is a great way to enjoy a family day out and have a nice meal without spending a small fortune.
Read more: Full List of Kids Eat Free or For £1 During Summer Holidays
Look out for yellow stickers in-store
If you shop in-store you’ll often find a reduced shelf area, packed full of cheap food, in both the meat and fish aisle, then a second one at the start of the fresh produce area. These yellow sticker areas are often found at the bottom shelves, and may have a large red or yellow label – it feels a little like supermarkets try to hide these at times and this can help you save money on groceries.
When visiting supermarkets early in the day the discounts are often around 25%, but these can go as high as 90% within an hour of store closing. On Sundays final reductions tend to happen around 2-3pm.
Check out Amazon Fresh reductions
When you’re at home, but need a top-up shop, you can use Amazon Fresh and have your groceries delivered just a few hours later. You can choose from 1000s of items from grocery retailers including Co-Op, Iceland, Booths, and Morrisons with Amazon Fresh.
To find the best deals at Amazon when shopping with Amazon Fresh you’ll want to search for the phrase reduced shelf life. You’ll typically see fresh produce including meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, dairy, eggs, and ready meals all with 1-3 days of shelf life left. This is a great way to get cheap food if you’re needing items last minute or can’t shop in-store.
Read more: Tips to Help You Find the Best Deals at Amazon and Shop Smart
Shop with online discounters
If you’re not fussy about sticking to best before dates then you’ll love Approved Food. You can find an array of discounted food and drink including biscuits, chocolate, crisps, snacks, cereal, sweets, soft drinks, household goods and much more. The dates of each item are usually available on their website, though they do sell mystery boxes too!
Many of the items have passed their best before date, but are still perfectly safe to eat. You can save as much as 70% against RRP and you’ll find products from brands such as Grenade, Coca-Cola, Walkers, Mr Kipling, Maggi, Cadbury, Seabrook, Betty Crocker, and many more.
If you’re struggling reach out to your local foodbank
If you’re struggling to afford food there are services out there to help you. You can get ingredients for free meals from your local food bank, though you’ll likely need a referral to receive support. Referrals usually come from doctors, health visitors, schools, or social workers.
Trussell Trust are one of the largest food banks, and you can use the Trussell Trust website to find services nearby, with regular drop-in sessions often held in community centres.
Another way to get free food is by visiting social supermarkets and community stores. The facilities available to you depend on where you’re located in the UK, but here are a few websites to get you started in your search for community meals, food parcels and other support.
- Community Grocery
- Company Shop
- Your Local Pantry
Get free food and pay with a gift card to earn cashback
If you’re going to be claiming back money for your free or cheap food then you can earn a little bit of money by paying for your groceries with a cashback gift card. Apps such as Cheddar, JamDoughnut and everup, plus cashback websites such as Quidco and TopCashback, have gift card sections that allow you to earn cashback.
All you do is purchase a gift card via one of these apps or websites and use that to pay for your shopping, instead of your credit or debit card. This is a great way to make a little bit of bonus money when you get free or cheap food thanks to the likes of the Shopmium app.
You’ll find cashback gift cards available for most UK supermarkets, and cashback rates for groceries often sit at around 2-4%, which quickly adds up!
Paying for your free and cheap food with a gift card adds an extra step to your shopping process, but you can purchase your gift card before you head in-store.
You can read more about Cheddar Cashback – 5 Steps To Earn Money Back On Your Shopping By A Money Expert and everup – Earn £100s While You Shop From Instant Cashback where I’ll take you through how to use gift cards.
If cashback gets confusing, you can read all about What is Cashback on my blog.