We all love a quick, convenient fast food pitstop every once in a while - for the most part, it’s affordable, easy, and saves on doing the washing up at home, too - not to mention avoids putting the oven on. With more and more people worried about the impact of the rising cost of living, many are looking for ways to make their money stretch further.
Manchester Evening News have been looking at some of the different ways you can get your fast food order even cheaper by maximising discounts, offers and reward schemes, as well as hacking the system to make big savings each time you visit.
From free Whoppers and Krispy Kremes to sign up bonuses and surveys, there’s so many simple ways to get your order cheaper in the likes of Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Subway, Greggs, Krispy Kreme and Starbucks.
READ MORE: Greggs is giving away FREE hot drinks and bakes worth £4 for certain customers
Most of these hacks take little to no time but could seriously pay off in savings. It could be as easy as ordering on the app instead of at the till, to keeping your bus tickets and receipts. Many places will also send you a special discount to use on your birthday, while students can get free add-ons with their regular orders.
Here are all the different ways you could save the next time you’re feeling peckish.
Burger King hacks
Turn a main into a side course
If you spend £3 on your first click & collect order with Burger King, you can get your hands on a flame-grilled Whopper totally free. That means if you grab yourself a side order, the burger is all yours at no extra charge.
£1.99 burgers
Every Monday vegan burger fans can get a Plant-Based Whopper or Vegan Royale to celebrate meat-free Mondays, while Wednesday sees Whoppers slashed to £1.99.
Feed the family for £4.50 a head
Feeding the fam? Most people don’t know, but via the Burger King app, you can get your hands on two Whopper or Royale meals for £9.99, and two kids meals for £3.99 each – feeding a family of four for under £18 and earning a tasty saving of nearly £15.
Turn two burgers into three
There’s a sneaky way to get an extra burger at Burger King when you sign up to the YourBurgerKind rewards app, where you can earn 10 points for every £1 spent. 150 points gets you free chips, cheeseburger, hamburger or a regular drink. That means if you spend £15 - the equivalent of two gourmet burgers - you’ll get 300 points, which is enough for a double cheeseburger.
Some items are cheaper on the app
Sometimes, even though you’re ordering the same thing from the same place, it’s worth checking if prices differ depending on how you place that order. For example, you can get six chilli cheese bites for £1.99 on the app, which is 15p per bite cheaper than going through the Drive Thru or ordering at the till.
More app hacks
Signing up to the YourBurgerKing app will get you an instant freebie. New customers are automatically given 200 points - enough for a free cheeseburger, hamburger or drink without needing to spend a penny.
Similarly, we’ve crunched the numbers worked out that you can get your sixth visit on the house, too. Using the 200 free points upon registering and based on the average Burger King customer spending, customers could earn enough points for a totally free meal in less than five visits.
Not only that but rumour has it, new Burger King menu items are available exclusively via its app first, so loyal customers can have the first taste days before they launch nationwide.
Student deals
Uni students up and down the country can get their hands on a free burger every day of the week if they show their Student Beans ID at the till. Simply spend £4 and flash the ID to get a flame-grilled Whopper JR completely free of charge.
Receipt surveys
Make sure you keep hold of your Burger King receipt, so that you can complete the five-minute survey accessed from the link on the receipt. Once completed, you’ll earn a free Whopper when you buy regular fries and a drink.
McDonalds menu tricks
Receipt survey
Like Burger King, you can get a cheap meal when you complete a survey from the QR code on your receipt. Follow the instructions on your receipt and complete the two-minute survey - write the completion code at the top of your receipt and you can get a Big Mac and fries for just £1.99.
Keep that receipt, and repeat, and you’ve got yourself a Big Mac and fries for less than £2 for LIFE!
Check the ingredients
The dressings and salad are exactly the same on a mayo chicken as they are the McChicken sandwich. Granted, the McChicken sandwich is a little bigger than the saver menu mayo, but it’s considerably more expensive at £3.89.
We recommend getting two mayo chickens for £1.98 and still save some money. They may not be exactly the same, but it still fills that hunger.
Student deal
Show your student or Student Beans ID at the order point and you can get a free cheeseburger, mayo chicken or McFlurry when you buy an extra value or wrap meal. Your Student Beans ID can also be uploaded to the MyMcDonalds app so you can earn points and double up on discounts.
20% off first app order
If you haven’t signed up to the MyMcDonald’s app yet, go and do it right now. You’ll get 20 per cent off your first order through the app if you’re new, which is a pretty tasty saving, if you ask us.
App deals
Every Monday, McDonald’s launch new deals in their app, which can be anything from cheap McMuffins to Chicken McNuggets or a Big Mac for 99p. These offers are exclusive to app customers, so it really does pay off to sign up.
Monopoly
While it may only run for a few weeks of the year, McDonald’s Monopoly is one of the chains most popular promotions, where diners can win instant prizes when they peel the stickers back from their meals. This year, McDonald’s Monopoly ends on October 18, so if you’ve got any free McFlurrys, apple pies or Big Macs to cash in, you’ve only got a couple of weeks to do so.
Reward points
Also on the MyMcDonalds app, diners can earn points every time they spend at McDonalds, racking up rewards to spend on key menu items. Once you reach 1500 points you can redeem your first reward, like a small fries or hash brown. You will receive 1,000 bonus points on your first order, giving you a boost to more than half way there. Or wait until you have 4,000 points and treat yourself to a free Big Mac.
Free pickles
Did you know that you can get free pickles at McDonalds? I’ve tried and tested this a couple of times now with a 100% success rate. If you’re in the Drive Thru, just ask for some pickles when you collect your order and the cashier will put some in a box for you. You might get turned down if the kitchen is super busy, but it’s a good one to know.
Hold the ice
Order your drink without the ice to get more liquid for your money. The servers will still fill your cup to the top, so you’ll get more drink and it won’t get watered down, either.
Free hot drink
Remember the days when you would peel the coffee bean stickers from a McDonald’s cuppa? While those days are gone, you can still get your sixth hot drink for free when you order on the McDonald's app.
Check your bus tickets
Some bus tickets and car park tickets still have McDonald’s vouchers on the back, usually for a burger and fries for £1.99 - be sure to save them and use them for a cheap meal! Sometimes there are also members of staff handing out similar vouchers in city centres, so be sure to take as many as they’ll allow you to and spread the discounts with friends and family, too.
Greggs freebies and discounts
Free bake and drink
Those who sign up to the Greggs app between now and January will be able to claim a free bake or roll, such as the Steak Bake or Vegan Sausage Roll, saving shoppers up to £1.80 on their lunch. They’ll also receive a free hot drink of their choice, which even includes the seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte - meaning you could save a total of £4.
Mobile rewards
If you’re an O2 or Vodafone customer, listen up. Those who are with the O2 network, you can also grab a free hot drink from Greggs once a week if you sign up to the O2 Priority app. Meanwhile, the Vodafone app VeryMe, often gives away free Greggs coffees, sausage rolls, sweet treats - so be sure to have your notifications on so you don’t miss them.
Birthday treat
Shoppers who sign up to the Greggs app will be asked to input their birthday, and when the big day comes around, you’ll be sent an offer for a free sweet treat. We won’t spoil the surprise, though - you’ll have to wait and see what it is.
Student discount
Students can get a range of freebies at Greggs whenever they buy a sandwich deal. For every meal deal, you can get a free sausage roll, cheese & onion bake or sweet treat from the bakery.
Collect stamps
Those signed up to the Greggs app will find various different stamp cards inside. Stamps can be earned on drinks, sandwich and salads, breakfast, savouries, bakes and pizza, sweet treats and hot food ranges. When you order, the app will automatically stamp your cards and once you've collected nine stamps in a single category, your 10th of that category will be free.
Bring your own cup
To help cut down on single use cups, Greggs gives customers 20p off their order when they bring a reusable cup. While there’s an initial investment in a reusable cup, it’ll soon pay for itself in savings, while being better for the environment.
Too Good To Go
Greggs are one of the hundreds of retailers partnered with the Too Good To Go app, which offers bags of food nearing its sell-by for around a third of the cost. These are a great way to get cheap food for around 60 per cent off, but the contents are a surprise, so bear that in mind. In a previous Greggs Too Good To Go bag I paid £2.59 for a bag of good worth £8, receiving six doughnuts, a sandwich and a chicken bake. You can read our full review here.
KFC offers and rewards
App offers
Customers who download and order via the KFC app will receive an invite to play on the KFC Reward Arcade where they can win free food. Think of it like McDonald’s Monopoly, but all year round. There are some rules though, such as you can only play twice a day, but you could win burgers, buckets and more!
Student freebies
If you have a Student Beans account, you can get a free snack box when you spend £3 in store. Just bring the student ID up and show it at the till to bag this sweet offer.
Receipt survey
Much like other fast food chains, KFC also offer an incentive for filling out the survey on your receipt. When you fill out the five-minute survey, you'll get a discount code to write on the bottom of your old receipt. Take this to KFC the next time you order and you’ll be rewarded with 15 per cent off when you spend £5.
Subway hacks
Free cookie
Subway cookies are heavenly, so you’ll probably want to try and get a free one, right? Next time you go to the sandwich store, save your receipt - yep, you guessed it - fill in the survey and return it with the code for a cookie on the house.
Split a footlong
If there are two of you dining out and you’re hungry, but not that hungry, instead of ordering a six inch sub each, order a footlong and split it. This one does rely on you both wanting to order the same thing, but it works out much cheaper. For example, a six inch chicken and bacon melt could set you back £3.99 each, but a footlong is only £6.39. That means you could save £1.59 between you.
Free doughnuts at Krispy Kreme
Free doughnuts
There are actually three ways to get a free doughnut at Krispy Kreme, and they’re really easy.
First, you can get a free doughnut just for signing up to the Krispy Kreme rewards programme, which you can do here. After that, you’ll earn 10 ‘smiles’ per £1 spent, and when you reach 100 smiles (or have spent £10), you’ll get a free original glazed doughnut then, too!
Krispy Kreme also offers a free treat to those celebrating their birthday. You just need to sign up to their mailing list and make sure you’ve input the correct date of birth to enjoy the treat.
Finally, Krispy Kreme have a limited number of ‘Hotlight’ stores, one of which is at the Trafford Centre. When the Hot Now sign is glowing red, you can get your hands on a free Original Glazed doughnut, fresh off the line. What sounds sweeter than that?
Starbucks tricks and tips
Free refills
Customers who buy a filter coffee at a participating Starbucks can enjoy a tall refill on the house. A filter coffee costs £1.55, and dine-in customers can take their mug back up to the counter to redeem their refill from the barista. But once you leave the store, your visit has ended and any subsequent coffee refill thereafter would be considered a new purchase.
Birthday drinks
This one only applies to customers who have the Starbucks Reward Card and have achieved Gold status, meaning that over time, they’ve collected 450 stars - a cumulative spend of £150. But for those who do enjoy a regular Starbies, this can be easily done, earning three stars for every £1 spent. Those celebrating their birthday can benefit from a free drink, within 30 days of their birthday. Nice!
Free refills for members
Much like the filter coffee refills, Starbucks Card members and app users can take advantage of a free refill - but have a little more leeway in choice. At participating stores, customers can get free refills of brewed coffee, including hot, iced or Cold Brew, or tea, also hot or iced.
These refills must be during the same store visit, as once you leave the store, any subsequent coffee or tea refill would be considered a new purchase. While non-members may not be able to get a free drink in this way, they can purchase a refill at a reduced price.
Earn points for free drinks
Starbucks card holders can earn three stars for every £1 spent, and can cop a free drink every time they hit 150 stars. Then, when you graduate from being a green member to a gold member, there are even more freebies unlocked, including free syrups added to your chosen beverage, or extra shots of espresso on the house.
Shoppers can also top their beverage with whipped cream for free, and can mix and match these customisations without paying an extra penny.
Reusable cups
Helping to prevent waste, if you take your own cup to Starbucks, you can get 25p knocked off the price of your drink. Within just a few visits, you’ll have saved enough money to get a ‘free’ drink, which really pays off over time!
Large iced latte for price of a small
This hack recently circulated on social media and when we tried it ourselves, it worked! Order a medium iced latte with no ice, as well as a large cup of ice, and then pour your medium latte into the large cup. You’ll note that it fills the cup, meaning you’ve paid for a medium for the exact same size as a large, saving 55p a time. Be mindful though that this does create some plastic waste.
Too Good To Go
Like Greggs, Starbucks are also partnered with the Too Good To Go app. Their mystery bags cost around £3.59 and promise the customer £10.75 worth of goods, but often contain much more. Inside one bag we tried were two granola pots and three wrapped sandwiches worth a whopping £19.60. You can find out more about Starbucks and Too Good To Go here.
READ NEXT:
- Plug-in heated device that costs 3p an hour to run could replace your tumble drier this winter
- Primark selling £8 oversized scarves ‘identical’ to £220 Acne Studios one
- Everything stores are doing to help shoppers amid cost of living crisis
- I tried a kettle-one cup hybrid and it’s the best way to make a brew and save energy
-
Shoppers swear by affordable Oodie dupes from £10 to save money on heating
