From free food and drink to cashback cards, Money Saving Amy shares her handy hints and tips as the cost-of-living crisis rumbles on

Hello everyone.

I’ve got some great money saving tips for you all this week and I really hope these help families through the summer holidays.

Food and drink

A lot of the supermarkets, pubs and shops are offering cheap or even free kids meals this summer. Asda, Ikea, Hungry Horse, Morrisons and more are offering free or very cheap children’s meals. Some deals require an adult purchase and some don’t.

My personal favourite one is Tesco Kids Eat Free. You can get a free kids hot meal, which includes options such as sausages, fish fingers, chicken goujons or mac and cheese plus a vegetable side and an additional side such as chips or garlic bread. Plus kids get a drink of water, milk or juice included too. Or you can choose a kids packed lunch for free, which includes a sandwich, drink, piece of fruit and two snacks. You can get these for free with the purchase of any item in the cafe, in my local Tesco the cheapest item I could see was an 85p bottle of water, there were also things like gingerbread men and chocolate bars for just £1. Purchasing multiple items means multiple free meals. You must be a Clubcard holder to access this offer. If you fancy a bite to eat for yourself too, you could grab a toasted tea cake for only £1.60, a breakfast bap would cost you £3.50 or a jacket potato with filling just £4.95. If you’re treating yourself to a hot drink, taking your own reusable cup would save you 25p.

At my local Tesco they even had little activity/sticker books available for free next to the packed lunches, so we took those home to play with, not only that but I used the paper bags that the packed lunch came in to set my children up a play shopping game at home!

Morrisons are offering free crumpets through to the August 13. You simply go into a Morrisons cafe and “ask for Ellen” to receive two crumpets with butter and jam. The offer is valid for one portion per person, per day. You can even ask for vegan butter.

At IKEA, kids can eat from just 95p for pasta, and just £1.50 for a meal such as fish, chips and peas, with a soft drink and a piece of fruit included. Hot dogs and vegetarian hot dogs in Ikea are as little as 60p too! Plus you can get a free hot drink, tea or coffee, every Monday-Friday at IKEA with a family card. Be sure to also check out the Ikea website as they are running free activities for kids over the summer holidays.

O2 priority are offering a variety of free food and drink currently, they are often adding new offers so be sure to check the app regularly. Did you know you can also access o2 priority as a Virgin media customer? You can get a free Greggs hot drink (even a large drink!) Monday - Friday, on top of a free sausage roll/vegan sausage roll, hot drink or breakfast bap every Friday and Saturday.

O2 priority also currently have various other free deals such as a free pint of Strongbow, a free kids monster meal at Pizza Hut (no other purchase required) and most recently, a free kids meal at Frankie and Benny's (adult purchase required).

Cash back apps

There are so many brilliant cash back apps. My current favourite being “Jam doughnut”. This is an app that you purchase gift cards from for a wide range of shops and restaurants, such as Tesco, Aldi, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Ikea, Pizza express, Nando’s, B&Q and so many more. When you purchase a gift card, you get instant cashback into your Jam doughnut wallet, when your wallet reaches £10 or more you can withdraw the money. This is such a brilliant way to make money back on the money you’re already spending! The cash back rates vary from around 1.75 per cent up to around eight per cent and often, these rates get boosted. Plus Jam Doughnut do a daily prize where 10 people win £10 in the “daily doughnut” section of the app.

These gift cards work the same as any other, each one will say how long they last for, usually this is a year or more. You pay with the gift cards at the till just as you would with any payment method, the cashier will just scan the voucher instead of you paying with your card or cash. Don’t worry if you buy a gift card and it doesn’t cover the whole shop, you simply pay the difference with your usual payment method at the till. If you buy a gift card and it still has some remaining on it after your shopping, you simply use the rest next time. Don’t forget, you can still scan your reward apps when using a gift card, so not only are you getting cash back, you’re still getting your rewards such as Tesco Clubcard points or Asda rewards cash.

These gift cards can also usually be used in conjunction with offers such as Pizza Express offers, this is often a brilliant one to deal stack to get the most for your money.

If you use my referral code, EHRY, when signing up to the Jam Doughnut app, you will receive a £2 bonus on your first purchase.This is an app you really don’t want to be missing out on, you could be getting hundreds of pounds back per year just on groceries alone. If you add in meals out and purchases for clothes and home items, there’s a lot of cashback to be made.

I hope this weeks tips have been useful. You can find me sharing daily tips and the latest freebies on my Instagram @_moneysavingamy.