If you’re anything like me, your monthly food bill is a horrific experience and one that, with inflation, is only ever getting worse. Each month, families worldwide spend a large proportion of their monthly income on the weekly food bill, but does it have to be this way?
What if I said to you that you don’t need to spend money on food. Yes, you guessed right, as I am talking about free food. I know some of you might feel guilty since free food services are not for those who can afford them. But saving is essential, and you can’t save without lowering expenses.
You can save on food in multiple ways. In this article, you will learn how to fill your stomach without having to spend a penny.
Pay-What-You-Want Services
Particular restaurants and cafes don’t have a fixed price for their food. Of course, they expect you to pay whatever you can for their services. It isn’t necessary to pay for your food with money. You can always do free marketing for them or help with their services.
These are “pay-what-you-want” cafes and restaurants where you can have your meal without burning a hole in your pocket. London has quite a few of them. You can check out The Brixton Pound Café offering the same services.
Explore The Food Markets
Exploring the food markets is your second option for getting free food. If you are from Camden, you should know where to look for free grub. Some stalls in the food market offer potential customers to try their food.
Camden Market has similar services too. If you are lucky, you might even get to eat fried chicken from one of the Asian food stalls for free. Spitalfields is yet another spot where you can taste multiple foods items.
Become A Mystery Diner
Do you want to dine in your preferred restaurant for free? No, you don’t have to eat and run away. You can do it professionally by becoming a mystery diner. Many restaurants and café owners try to ensure that their customers are getting the best services.
To do that, they engage with agencies willing to do their bidding. These agencies then assign people ready to visit restaurants and write a report on their services. Apart from having free food you get to make some money too.
So, how can you get this opportunity? For that, you must sign up for an agency. After that, the agency would let you know which restaurant to dine in.
Ask Help From Food Bank
Food banks are committed to helping people in need. So some criteria need to meet for getting food from the food banks. You need to provide the necessary information that would decide if you are qualified to get their help. Usually, social works, doctors, and schools refer individuals who could benefit from these services.
Look For Restaurant Openings
New restaurants and cafes often offer free food samples to the people who came to attend their inauguration. You can get the best offers and discounts too. Restaurant openings are ideal for getting a massive discount on your food.
Often all you have to do is leave a review, ideally a good review on a review site about the restaurant and their food. Your review will help the restaurant gain the necessary traction to take off, and thus this helps the restaurant.
Make The Most Of Your Birthday
This is a once-in-a-year opportunity that smart people don’t hesitate to use for their gain. Many restaurants and cafes offer free food to make their customer’s birthdays even more memorable. You can make use of your birthday and get free food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Download The Zero-Waste Apps
You will not be the first person that has made a mistake and bought more food than needed. You can’t always estimate correctly, can you? Again, if you are going somewhere for few days, what is left in your fridge will not stay fresh and therefore will go to waste.
With this in mind, mobile phone apps have been developed to try and reduce food wastage. Olio is this kind of app. The app works by taking food contributions from the local community and distributes them to those that need them. You can find vegetables, meat, cooked food, fruits and so on.
The same type of thing has been developed for the restaurant industry. Apps like Karma or Too Good To Go ensures cafes and restaurants can decrease food wastage. These establishments buy ingredients in bulk which they can’t always use. With these apps, they let other people buy unused ingredients at low prices. It’s a chance for both parties to save some money.
Restaurant Newsletters And Sign Up
Fast food joints like KFC have a tradition to encourage you to sign up for their newsletters by offering something free. As an example, you could get a free KFC just for signing up for their monthly emails.
Subway does something slightly different. For every sixth time you buy something, you get a free item. As an example, every time you buy a sandwich meal, they stamp your card. On the sixth time, you get a free meal.
If you have a favourite restaurant or happen to go to a café more often, it’s a great idea to sign up for their newsletter. If you don’t get freebies the right way, don’t get disheartened. Wait, and you might get lucky with excellent offers.
Jobs With Free Food
Catering industry-related jobs typically offer free food to their employees. If you work in a restaurant, you can save money on food either for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
For this reason, many students look for jobs in fast food joints. Apart from the food, the pay is excellent too.
Experimental Subject
Don’t freak out. I’m not saying you should give yourself to science. You have to take part in the experiments of future culinary experts. Colleges have training restaurants to sharpen the skills of their students.
Unfortunately, you cannot find this type of opportunity all year round.
They are available from the end of September to May, when the students will be judged based on their cooking skills. It’s a huge opportunity to eat a full course meal without parting from your money. There are plenty of training restaurants scattered around the UK. So it doesn’t matter in which part you are living, finding a training restaurant is easy.
Final Thoughts
Food is expensive, and as such, if you can get a free meal, it’s worth doing some basic research.
