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1If you sign up to secret seat-filler sites such asShow Film FirstandCentral Ticket, you’ll be alerted to last-minute tickets at rock-bottom prices – sometimes nothing at all. The only catch is you have to keep this on the quiet to maintain the illusion that performances are packed with paying punters.
2Want to read the New Yorker article everyone’s talking about, but don’t have a subscription? You can do so for nothing with many library memberships andthe Libby app, which gives access to pretty much every magazine you can think of, with no loan limits. Libby and a similar app,BorrowBox, also lend thousands of ebooks and audiobooks; read or listen on your phone, iPad, Kindle or laptop.
3An underutilised benefit of Amazon Prime is Prime Reading: hundreds of free Kindle books and audiobooks are included, as are magazines such as Grazia and Radio Times.
4Bagging tickets for concerts and festivals has never been more competitive. Tools such asVisualpingalert you as soon as a webpage has changed – so you can be first in the queue when seats are released. It’s also handy for securing a table at hot restaurants, knowing when a sought-after pair of trainers is back in stock, or alerting yourself to events such as the Eurostar flash sale.
5Don’t let theatres fool you into thinking restricted view seats are a false economy. For instance, the end-aisle seats for Hamilton in London’s West End are consistently rated five stars by users of the siteSeatPlan, who report that, as Hamilton is primarily performed at the centre of the stage, you won’t miss any key plot points or songs. SeatPlan collates hundreds of thousands of seat-view photos, so you can check the vantage point before you buy.
6You should rarely be paying full price for the latest blockbuster either. Sky Cinema customers get free Vue tickets, Amazon Prime members get discounted Odeon tickets, Tesco Clubcard holders can spend their points at Cineworld, and Lidl Plus members get membership of the Cinema Society, with 40% off many screenings. Buy your insurance throughcomparethemarket.comand Meerkat Movies gives you two-for-one on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at a range of cinemas, including Picturehouse.
7“JustWatchis a brilliant tool that shows the different places you can stream shows and films, and how much they might cost you,” says Francesca Steele, culture critic and writer of theTrash Culture newsletter. “For example, you might assume you can only watch the latest season of The Last of Us if you have a Sky subscription. But the JustWatch site shows that you could also sign up to a free seven-day trial on Now, or buy the series on Apple TV.”
8TheDice applists cultural events in cities across the UK, which you can sort by price. It’s a quick way to discover free or affordable gigs, live comedy, podcast recordings or new art exhibitions.
9Work out when the hardest-to-book restaurants open their reservations and set an alarm (or use an AI monitoring tool). For example, Gymkhana in London’s Mayfair releases tables at 6am two months in advance; for Tom Kerridge’s The Hand and Flowers in Marlow, it’s six months to the date you’d like to book. Sign up to restaurants’ email lists too: some offer early access to loyal fans. L’Enclume, Simon Rogan’s three-Michelin-star restaurant in Cartmel, Cumbria, sends priority booking invitations and cancellations via its newsletter.
10Follow chefs, restaurants or front of house on social media to hear about last-minute tables. Oisín Rogers, landlord of the much-hyped and usually booked-solid Devonshire pub in Soho, London, has been known to announce cancellations on his Instagram Stories.
11Sushi chains Itsu and Wasabi sell off whatever is left from the day at 50% off 30 minutes before closing.
12Before you book a restaurant, check for money-off vouchers on the new breed of restaurant discount apps, says Amelia Murray, money expert atbecleverwithyourcash.com. “There are a few to choose from, includingTheFork, which is free and offers discounts of up to 50% off your meal, plus you can earn points every time you use it, which can be redeemed against future bookings.” Or tryEatClub, co-founded by Marco Pierre White, “as a way for restaurants to optimise spare capacity and generate predictable revenue”; it has just launched in London and offers discounts of up to 50% off your bill.
13Get wise to “menu engineering”. This is a whole area of expertise that helps restaurateurs boost their profits, and it pays not to be taken in by the tricks. “The top-right corner of a menu is prime real estate,” says Ben Floyd, a chef and the managing director of Lumière Consultancy. “That’s where your eyes tend to land first, so you’ll often find the most profitable dish there. You’ll rarely see pound signs any more – they remind people they’re spending money. And often there’ll be a ‘decoy’ dish – something expensive to make the rest of the menu seem more reasonably priced.”
14Before booking any element of your holiday via a third-party site, have a look at what you could get by going direct. On flights, online travel agents often charge more for seats or bags than the airline itself. As for hotels, Zanna van Dijk, a travel and fitness content creator, always books direct: “You often get better rates, they might throw in breakfast and you’ll have a higher chance of an upgrade on arrival.”
15Speaking of upgrades, if it’s a significant event – a milestone birthday, say, or a honeymoon, or if you just want to try your luck – email your hotel at the time of booking to say why you’re looking forward to your stay and ask for an upgrade. If you don’t ask, you probably won’t get.
16The same hotel room may be significantly cheaper booked on a mobile phone rather than a laptop, but you’ll be none the wiser unless you check. Sites such asBooking.comoffer mobile-only deals; some hotels will give bigger discounts if you download their app or join their mailing list.
17That’s not to say that boutique travel agents don’t earn their commission, especially if you’re travelling with kids. Francesca Collinson of Tiny Travelship, a family-focused travel agency and hotel directory, says, “We have the insider intel on when luxury hotels have sales running, when the best time of year to book flights is – 11 months in advance. We can unlock free transfers, free creche sessions, or complimentary upgrades to room and board.”
18Hiring a car for a foreign trip? Go to the destination country’s website. Research from Which? found that, in the US for example, booking the same car throughHertz’s site thererather thanhertz.co.ukcut the cost by £347. In general, just replace the end of the url with the relevant country’s top-level domain.
19A local bus can be a cheap way to see the tourist sites. Lonely Planet rates the 101 that runs along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia, towards the scenic rock stacks making up the Twelve Apostles. I rate the number 7, down the hill from the Tuscan hilltop city of Fiesole into Florence, Italy, which costs less than €2.
20Before you travel overseas, open a Monzo or Starling bank account if you don’t already have one. You can do it with a quick selfie video and a picture of your passport, and you’ll get a card in the post within a week, which you can use for all holiday spending, free of currency conversion charges.
21Luton airport lets you skip queues, without any cost, byprebooking security. But don’t automatically pay in advance for fast-track access at all other airports: for example, Manchester and Stansted will let you buy it on the day.
22When buying any item online, try adding it to your basket then sleeping on it before you hit pay. Not only is this the best way to reel yourself back from a late-night emotional spending binge, but you will very likely wake up to a discount code in your email inbox from the retailer who wants you to complete the purchase.
23Add the Honey tool (powered by PayPal) to your browser, such as Safari, and it will alert you when you visit a website where you can use a discount code or get cashback on your purchase.Coupert, an AI-powered shopping assistant available on Google Chrome, automatically tracks prices of products and tells users when discounts are available.
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24“Type into ChatGPT: I have a loyalty card (use any example you want). Are there any hidden benefits I can use here, such as double-points days, referral bonuses or rewards?” advises Harriet Meyer, consumer journalist and creator of AI for media. “I found I had £50 worth of Nectar points I didn’t know I was entitled to. Or try, ‘I’m buying XX. What’s the best combination of cashback sites and discount codes to maximise savings?’” You could also upload an image of your supermarket shop and ask how you can save money on your food bills.
25Supermarkets have taken the obvious expiry dates off fruit and veg to reduce food waste. But if you’re buying food and you would like it to last for as long as possible, you can hack their codes.According to Which?, at Asda and Tesco, look for a letter followed by a number: “A” is January, “B” is February, “C” is March, while the number is the day of the month. For example, the best-before date of an item with the code “I27” is 27 September. Sainsbury’s codes begin with “J” and end with “S”, standing for J Sainsbury, and contain the date in the middle. So the best-before date of an item with the code “J0910S” is 9 October.
26As former operations director with butchers The Ginger Pig, Lynsey Coughlan recommends buying meat on the bone, which is always cheaper, to save money when cooking at home. “If you buy chicken breasts, you’re more or less paying for the whole bird, and you can use the carcass for soup and the thighs for curry. The same goes for any kind of meat. Ask your butcher to bone it out, and keep the bones for stock.” Sausages can be a cheaper substitute for mince. “With Italian sausage, you’ve already got the perfect fat balance, you’ve got all the seasoning to make a proper ragu and it’s a time saver, too.”
27The packaging for many household products seems designed to make it impossible to use every last drop. That’s why everyone needs a tube-squeezer key (for toothpaste, moisturiser, puree;try Lakeland) and a foam pump bottle, which reduces liquid soap use by turning it into foam (try Muji).
28If you take at least five empties to be recycled at Boots – these have to be packaging you can’t recycle at home, such as mixed metal and plastics, or old mascara wands – then spend £10, you’ll receive 500 Advantage Card points (worth £5).
29Price tags are not set in stone. The thought may make you shudder, but you can haggle at many high-street shops. Martin Lewis reports that a member of staff at a big DIY store told him that if anyone asked for a discount, they would automatically give them 10% off. Of those who dared to try, 57% of people got a discount at B&Q, 49% at Currys and 38% at Waitrose,according to a surveya few years ago by Money Saving Expert.
30Monitor Vinted or eBay when there’s a popular beauty subscription box or Advent calendar on sale. You can pick up a bargain when people resell unopened makeup or perfume that doesn’t suit them. Last year that included dozens of Le Labo Rose rollerball perfumes, from Liberty’s Beauty Advent calendar, for £20 or so (they’re £78 new).
31Shops discard skincare, hair care or makeup products when external packaging is damaged or opened, even if the product is untouched. Sites such asThis is BeautyandBoopbuy them up and sell them on, often at a 70% discount, to avoid landfill. The product is quality-checked and it’s made clear what is wrong.
32It’s frustrating that with some bills – water and council tax, for example – it’s impossible to shop around. Martyn James, a consumer-rights expert, says there is one way to ease the pain of your council tax payments, “and it’s so simple, you’ll kick yourself. Almost all of the local authorities in the UK will bill you over 10 months, so you get February and March for free each year. But you can ask your council to spread the payments over 12 months instead. If you’re paying £1,800 a year, then over 10 months you pay £180 per month. But over 12, you pay £150.” When it comes to water, if you have the same number or more rooms than people living in your house, a meter will most probably save you money. This is because you’re being charged for the actual water used rather than an estimate based on the rateable value of your property. Look on your water company’s website for water-saving gadgets; some are free. A tap aerator can reduce water consumption by up to 50%.
33Before paying for software – or signing up for trials you might forget to cancel – look for the open-source alternative.Gimpis the free rival to Adobe Photoshop;Audacitylets you record, edit and manipulate audio files; andKeePassis a free, open-source password manager.
34The best deals on mobile contracts are available from smaller companies that use the same infrastructure as the big four, such as Lebara (on Vodafone), or 1p Mobile (EE). Both score higher inWhich? customer satisfaction ratings, too. You’ll feel extra smug on holiday: while three of the big four now have roaming charges in the EU on their standard packages, many of these small companies don’t.
35University libraries are peaceful but vibrant co-working spaces, at a fraction of the cost of a WeWork. The University of Manchester, for instance,offers annual community membershipfor free, with access to its 2,000 study spaces and guest wifi, and it’s open into the evening. Members of the public can get reference access to UCL libraries from £7 a day, £30 a month or £200 a year – less than the cost of just one month at many private co-working offices – giving access to study space across all campuses in London, including Senate House, as well as the subsidised student canteen.
36Buy discounted gift cards online, or through cashback websites such asTopCashback. You can then use them to pay for your normal shopping, services such as Spotify and Uber, food prep services like HelloFresh, and most supermarkets and chain coffee shops. It’s a faff, but will work out a little cheaper as long as you don’t forget to spend them.
37Comparison sites are constantly competing for business, so they offer generous freebies. “I got a £20 Sainsbury’s voucher and a monthly free coffee at Greggs when I bought car insurance viaconfused.com,” says Clare Seal, a financial coach and presenter of the podcastHelp Me, I’m Poor. She also ratesthe app Sprive, which lets you overpay your mortgage using cashback from everyday spending, “potentially knocking years off your term”.
38Don’t pay for mobile data you don’t need. Switching on low data mode on your phone saves battery life, but also bills, if you have a low-data package, by reducing how much you’re using. Adjusting your app settings to lower the default video quality and turning off auto-play on social media helps, too.
39Got a parking ticket? If a car park operator is not a member of the British Parking Association (BPA) or the International Parking Community (IPC) and they leave a ticket on your car, they can’t access your details from the DVLA. Citizens Advice says you can choose to do nothing, if it’s a private parking firm, as it’s a civil rather than a criminal matter.
40The best interest rates on savings often fall away after a year and providers bank on their customers not having time to shop around. By signing up to a platform such asRaisin UKyou can easily move your money between different accounts when rates fall or rise, without having to fill out new application forms each time.
41If you open a bank account with a subscription fee jointly with a partner, you can both take advantage of add-ons, such as mobile phone and travel insurance, for no extra monthly cost.
42Check if you can access financial advice through your employee benefit scheme for the whole family. One money coach says that she offers the opportunity for employees to bring a partner to one-on-one coaching sessions, free – though hardly anyone takes her up on it.