How To Get Cheap Meals In The City (If You’re NOT Lazy)

Eating out and going to restaurants with friends and family is all part of making the most out of life. But if it becomes a regular occurence, it can really start making a big dent in your bank balance. What if you could save a bit of money every time you go out to eat?

Let’s get something straight before I give you these eating on a budget ideas though. When I say cheap meals, I never mean the bottom of the barrel beans and rice kind of stuff. Don’t go back to eating like a student… unless you are one, in which case sorry, go right ahead! No what I mean is great value meals – cheap meals that are actually still pretty yummy and/or healthy. You should know by now that here at Sensible Reviewer we promote value over cheap every time, we still want you living a fun and fulfilling life. And in this case I’m promoting stuffing your face with the yummiest of cheap meals.

Making little changes to how you spend your money can make a big difference, and you don’t even need to change what or where you eat. Or stick to tap water and a side dish/starter. Just be frugal.

 1/ Use Tripadviser and Yelp To find Places That Sell Cheap Meals

Check out where you want to eat in advance, especially if you’re making plans with friends or a partner. If you’re choosing the place altogether, this is a great way to judge whether the restaurants or cafes in the area you’re looking in are selling cheap meals that’ll keep you eating on a budget. For some reason we don’t tend to use these sites so much in the UK, but they’re so useful. You’ll notice a lot of the reviews will be from travellers coming to visit your city, which is fantastic for seeing whether the cheap price still provides great food. Yelp isn’t known for being the friendliest of sites, so don’t worry about people lying, they usually speak their mind.

Within 2 minutes of searching on Tripadvisor for cheap eats in London (although you can obviously do this for whichever city you’re in) I found a place called ‘The Punch Tavern’ which has a price range of £4 – £11 and sells fresh fish and chips every Friday for just £6.50. Perfect! With a little bit more effort you’d easily find a whole bunch of places for eating on a budget.

2/ Use Voucher Code And Deal Websites

Cheap meals don’t always come cheap to begin with. This is a pretty obvious tip but I’m always so surprised by how many people just don’t bother with it; ALWAYS Google the place you want to eat at followed by either ‘voucher codes’, ‘deals’, or ‘special offers’. Trust me, 9 times out of 10 I get a discounted meal thanks to this. You can do this before you choose where you want to eat, or even when you’re already sitting down to a meal. But, if you’re taking someone out to eat, don’t do this in front of them. They might not be too impressed. But if you’re out with friends then by all means show off your new savvy prowess, they’ll be thanking you when the bill comes back!

Subscribing to Groupon for your city is a great way to have the deals come to you too. Groupon works by offering discounted things, like meals, that you buy in advance. You print off the resulting email you’re sent by them and, in the case of a restaurant, book a table with the code you’re given. This takes a little bit of forward planning, but if you’re serious about eating on a budget that shouldn’t bother you too much. It’s all worth it to live in the city! Groupon can help with other things than just food too, like days out, fitness and even presents.

3/ Make Your Food At Home

Ok, this one should have been obvious. If you really want to stick to this eating on a budget thing, you need to be making the majority of your food at home. You can even go one step further than just making your three meals a day here and invest in a coffee machine (I wrote about the 7 best coffee machines whatever your favourite hot drink is in this post, and it even includes the best 2 coffee shop replacements). If you get one you like, and a good flask, you can save yourself hundreds each year by making your daily coffee shop favourite at home in the morning.

To keep you making cheap meals, and to stop you from just lazily giving up every so often each week and buying something from one of those tempting expensive café’s near your work, invest in a good bento type lunch-box. I mention a bento styled box because it means you’ll have all the different compartments for food in the same box, and won’t need to carry a bunch of different boxes into work with you. You can get similarly styled containers for soup and noodles as well. If you have a good lunch-box, you’re more likely not to think ‘ah well, everything keeps spilling’ or think you have nothing to pack anything in for work. Trust me, it works.

You can find a whole library worth of recipes online, from cheap meals to healthy cheap meals. And if you’re not only cooking for yourself, and need some inspiration to feed your whole family, you can look at Netmums Recipes to get some inspiration.

A good cheap bento styled box is the Sistema Salad To Go Lunchbox (£5.32) that you can find here.

4/ Take Advantage Of Chain Stores And Restaurants

Sometimes, but not always, chain restaurants find it within their hearts to give big cities the same food prices as the rest of the UK. And even more occasionally, they put on nationwide deals that include big cities. This is usually true for where we’re based in Birmingham, and I’ve used many a TGI Fridays deal and Dominoes Two for Tuesday takeaway, but I can imagine it’s a little bit more difficult for those of you in London.

I’ve spotted places like the Gourmet Burger Company having similar prices in London as the rest of the UK though, so it’s just a case of taking a look at the menu and seeing whether their cheap meals are still cheap in your city. Eating out shouldn’t be something you do everyday though, no matter what city you’re in. You think you’re made of money or something? For a one off, chains are sometimes great for saving money.

This is a great tip to keep in mind for those times you forget your lunch. Because I know you’re not always going to make your food at home, we all have our lazy days. Sometimes your local café will be selling the cheapest meals for miles, but in big cities it’s likely well overpriced. Check out your area, but if all else fails search for meal deals in chain stores. Tesco has a lunchtime deal for a main like a sandwich, fruit / dessert, packet of crisps and a drink for a set price and a ton of savings. As a last resort, this will save you more money than a coffee and a cake at starbucks would.

5/ Read Blogs From Your Area That Focus On Food

If you’re reading our blog, I’m going to go ahead and assume you read others too. Try to find some for your area; there are tons of foodies in each city that are always trying new places and writing about them. It saves you from having to try them out yourself! I’ll try to post any great places for cheap meals I find in Birmingham here on the Sensible Reviewer blog or over on our Twitter, but if you don’t live in Birmingham just try doing a google search for food bloggers in your area.

Just today I stumbled across Pretty, Posh, Oh My Gosh who posted about taking advantage of special offers in a restaurant in London with some beautiful photos. And if you’re active on Twitter, there are usually accounts dedicated to finding deals in different cities across the UK. Skint London actively post each day, and today I spotted free fish burgers as one of their finds. It’s all about keeping your eyes open and keeping yourself motivated for eating on a budget!

And don’t forget, these blogs are written by people! Look them up on Twitter and ask where they’d recommend for eating on a budget and you’ll more than likely get a reply. On the same note, ask any friends or family you have in the city for their recommendations too.

6/ Go Out To ‘Foodie’ Places

Looking to do something different with your partner for an anniversary or birthday? Maybe you’re in charge of organising a friends birthday or a special event? Let it include food, and then you won’t have to think about where you’re going to eat before or after! Just don’t tell them that’s why you’re doing it, they might not be as chuffed about the savings as you are…

An amazing example of this is when Curious London went to a macaroon making masterclass that provided all you can eat macaroons and all you can drink martinis for £80pp. That sounds steep if you’re just looking for cheap meals, but if you’re looking for more of an experience for a special event it’d be perfect.

7/ Stay At Home

I know I know, this is the boring option. What’re you possibly meant to do inside? The lure of expensive cocktail bars and fancy restaurants is tempting, I’ll give you that, but I’m sure you and your friends need to give your bank accounts a break sometime. And there are so many things you can do at home when you throw a few friends into the mix.

You could throw a house party, have your own cocktail night with some of the recipes we’ve mentioned on the blog before that you can find here, or even set your own ‘budget restaurant’ night where each of your friends brings some ingredients and you all make a cheap meal together. Make your living room into a cinema and have a movie night. Host your own book club. The world is your oyster, as long as whatever you do is at home and for very little money. So maybe that saying doesn’t quite apply…

So that’s it, all my tips to keep you eating on a budget in a big city. In the future I’ll be looking at how to eat healthy on a budget, so look forward to that. Did I miss anything out in this post, or have you got any better tips for eating on a budget in the city? Let me know in the comments below or over on Facebook or Twitter.

SEE MORE: Your Body’s Paying The Price For Your Poor Eating Habits >>

Picture Credits: Tripadviser, Didriks, Coralie Ferreira, Janne Hellsten, Andrés Nieto Porras