How to get the best food and drink deals
Reduce the cost of your weekly food shopping and spend less when you go out to eat with our food and drink deals at Save the Student. From great deals at top restaurants, to amazing supermarket freebies, we’re here to help your student budget stretch further!
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Make the most of meal deals
While you’ll almost always be able to eat for less if you make your meals from scratch, if you’re a self-confessed microwave chef or looking for something easy to pop in the oven, meal deals can save you a lot of money.
For lunch, look out for meal deals at Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, and Sainsbury’s. A Morrisons meal deal allows you to select any main, any snack and any drink from the 370-strong range, and will only set you back £3.
Planning a date night? Impress your guest with one of the popular M&S meal deals from £5 per person. Sometimes they even include wine or beer!
Don’t forget to combine your student discount with meal deals too, wherever you can. Opt for the Co-op frozen meal deal, and save an extra 10% with student discount, or flash your student ID when you pick up a Greggs sandwich meal deal to get a freebie.
Sign up to newsletters
So many bars and restaurants offer free food, free drinks or money off your bill when you sign up to their newsletters. It might be worth signing up with an alias email to avoid potential spam.
One of our favourite newsletters for free cocktails is Pitcher & Piano, who send a new free drink offer to your inbox every month, but there are a ton of others worth signing up to including Be at One</a and Browns.
Get free food and drink samples by post
Make sure you keep an eye on our free stuff page so you don’t miss out on free food and drink samples by post. Is there anything better than free food being delivered to your door?
We’ve made use of a load of free food and drink postal samples in the past, from free biscuits and chocolate, to free olive oil, popcorn, and more. Even our office dog, Harry, has enjoyed free treats delivered by the postman!
Use apps for free food
If you’re looking to score free food, your smartphone is your best friend. There’s an abundance of apps you can download to help you grab freebies and cut down your food shop spend.
Supermarket cashback apps like CheckoutSmart, GreenJinn, and Shopmium often have 100% cashback offers on new and exciting food and drink products, so you can try them out for free.
Zero-waste apps such as Olio, Karma, and Too Good To Go give you the chance to pick up free or heavily discounted food which would have otherwise been discarded.
If you’re ordering a takeaway from somewhere like Deliveroo or Uber Eats, keep an eye out for any first order offers and you could enjoy free sides, a free drink, or even an entire meal for free!
Restaurants like Nando’s have great loyalty apps which let you earn rewards which you can exchange for free food, and even >McDonald’s give away free McMuffins, fries and more through their app.
Look out for in-store only offers
Some of the best bargains on food and drink are found in-store. Sometimes offers are store specific, but almost all stores slash the products on soon to be out of date produce.
Try visiting your local supermarket at different times of the day to find out when to get the best ‘yellow sticker’ bargains.
Supermarket wine deals are also worth watching out for, and you can often find cheap beer in the reduced section.
Use coupons and vouchers
Coupons have grown in popularity in the UK in recent years, and while we’re unfortunately still not at the same level as the US, there are more available now than ever before! The Sainsbury’s coupon trick is a student favourite.
If you want to take your couponing game up a notch, try emailing or writing to your favourite brands to give feedback on their products. More often than not, they’ll show their gratitude with some money-off vouchers!
Use your student discount
Some restaurants are more generous than others when it comes to student discounts, so make sure you check out our guide to the best restaurants for students. In selected restaurants, you can enjoy as much as 50% off by showing your student ID – that’s a huge saving off your bill!
It’s always worth a quick search in our food & drink discounts directory when you’re planning a meal out to see what you can save.
To make sure you don’t miss any food and drink deals, join our Telegram group, like our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram!