I’m a self-confessed bargain hunter and I rarely pay full price for anything. There’s certainly no shame in it - why pay more and all that. While I’m in the very fortunate position of not struggling financially, it shouldn’t take a cost of living crisis for people to stop shaming others for saving both money and food waste where they can. I’ve been scrimping and saving for years - house deposits aren’t cheap.
One of my favourite ways to save a few quid is by using the Too Good To Go app to find cheap meals and treats, and over the years I've saved £282, according to the app. However, those of you who have been here a while will have seen my magic bag hauls, and I totted up that I’ve actually saved much more than that, having saved £220 in the last six months alone - and I’ve been on the app for three years.
During that time, the free-to-download food-waste saving app informs me that I’ve rescued 39 bags of food - 24 of which were since February - and offset 98kg of CO2e.
READ MORE: Everywhere you can get cheap mystery bags in Manchester on Too Good To Go
What is Too Good To Go?
The popular food-surplus app not only helps people save money, but reduces food waste, too, partnering with dozens of venues in Manchester, many of which have prime lunch-time collection slots between 12pm and 3pm. The app has a massive social following, with Facebook groups dedicated to people showing off their hauls from the likes of Starbucks, Greggs and Pret A Manger, which would have wound up in the bin otherwise.
In August, there were 9.8 million people using the app, which partners with more than 22,000 businesses which have helped save 14 million bags of food to date.
For those who have never used the app, Too Good To Go partners with retailers where customers can reserve a magic bag for up to 70 per cent off the retail price, saving the food from going to waste, bagging a cheap meal or three in the process. The bag is often worth more than the suggested contents, and if you wind up with too much food for yourself, the app actively encourages sharing with neighbours, friends or members of the homeless community.
How I saved over £200 in six months
I’ve shared plenty of reviews of what I’ve received in my mystery bags, and as a regular user of the app, I’ll continue to rescue food when I find bags available to reserve. Below, you’ll find a break-down of how I saved more than £200 on cheap meals just by searching out these nearly past-best bags in the last six months.
February
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Spent £6.38
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Saved around £23.30
In February, I rescued two magic bags on the Too Good To Go app - one from my local Morrisons and a second from Toby Carvery.
At the supermarket, I paid £3.09 for my bag, which contained around £18 worth of produce, despite only having promised around £10 worth. Bargain. Inside was a punnet of strawberries, salad, mushrooms, pastries, hot cross buns, french sticks, and the jackpot? Five blocks of cheese.
The salad, mushrooms and french sticks were ideal for pairing with items already in my fridge for lunch, while the pastries and hot cross buns sorted breakfast for more than a week. The strawberries, while soft, were perfect for serving up in an Eton Mess style dessert, while the cheese was perfectly okay to use for sandwiches, salads, mac n cheese and more.
Meanwhile, my Toby Carvery bag contained a roast dinner that would otherwise be destined for the bin. I paid £3.29 for the bag, and during the week, these carveries cost £7.49, however, on Saturdays, the meals cost £9.29, rising to £11.49 on Sundays, so a potential saving of up to £8.30.
Inside the plastic container was a decent amount of turkey and a sausage, as well as a huge helping of stuffing, some cauliflower, mash and some sliced potatoes with a bit of cabbage and peas hiding under the Yorkshire pudding. You also get a pot of gravy, which is arguably the best bit, but it was a delicious and cheap roast that was even cheaper than making it yourself at home.
March
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Spent £9.55
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Saved around £18.40
Greggs, Millie's Cookies and Costa were my March Too Good To Go bags, which reminded me just how much of a lottery the app can be. You don’t always get the good stuff, but nine times out of ten you’ll be on to a winner.
At Greggs, my £2.59 bag contained around £8 worth of goodies, including a chicken bake, cheese sandwich and half a dozen doughnuts, which went down well with friends.
Millie’s Cookies was another great one to share containing 16 cookies for a fraction of their retail price . While these could have sat in the biscuit tin for weeks to enjoy with a cuppa, I took them down to the local dog grooming salon for the ladies to share on their lunch break.
On the Millie's Cookies menu, 12 cookies cost £8.99, and four cost £4.39, so a total of £13.38, but I paid just £3.99, so it was a huge saving of nearly £10.
However, at Costa, my mystery food bag was much less fun, containing an unappetising looking vegan mac n cheese and two children’s pizzas from M&S. The bag had cost me £3, and still saved around £3 on the value of the items , but it certainly wasn’t the best bag I’d received on the app.
April
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Spent £51.36
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Saved around £140
April was by far by highest spend month, but that was mostly because I went to see how many Too Good To Go bags I could collect in one night at Manchester Piccadilly train station, where I saved £90 in one day, giving myself enough food to feed my family for over a week.
Before my huge station haul, though, I’d been to Starbucks, where their mystery bags cost £3.59 and promise the customer £10.75 worth of goods. However, I got almost double that in mine.
Inside my bag were two pots of overnight oats and granola with yoghurt, plus three wrapped sandwiches, all of which had the same days date on, but would be fine to eat the following day, too. In total, my bag was worth a whopping £19.60, which was a whopping saving.
A week later, I reserved a Papa Johns XXL pizza for £3.99 instead of £11.99, however, their online menu states these are actually worth £20.99, so the savings were massive - as was the pizza. The margherita pizza was delicious and we all know takeaway pizza tastes better the next day, too, so this lasted us all two two days.
On my trip to Manchester Piccadilly train station I reserved bags from the Pasty Shop, Upper Crust, Costa, Starbucks, Caffe Nero and James Martin Kitchen, with a total spend of around £22, picking up things like sausage rolls, gourmet sandwiches, pastries, cakes and more.
I managed to bag approximately £87 worth of food, saving around £70 in total, and spend days making my way through the grab-and-go offerings with my family. There was nearly an argument over an Italian Prosciutto panini from Upper Crust because we all wanted it.
Throughout the rest of the month I got a haul from Wrights Pie in Staffordshire, paying £4.50 for more than £10 worth of pies, sausage rolls and cakes, and bagged some cut-price wraps and paninis at Pret-a-Manger, saving £3 after spending £4 on the bag.
At Auntie Anne’s in the Arndale centre , I snapped up three sweet treats for the price of one, saving around £8, and enjoyed a delicious Mediterranean carvery from Manchester institution Katsouris for £3, also saving myself £7.
To finish the month off, I snagged three breakfast muffins at Leon for the price of one at McDonald’s, paying around £3 for £9 worth of menu items, while Peter Street’s Frurt dished out large frozen yoghurts for £3.33 on the app, saving me £7 and providing a cooling iced treat in the warm weather.
May
- Spent £3
- Saved around £6
May was a quiet month on the app, but I did pick up a cheap hotel breakfast from Manchester’s Moxy city centre . The hotel gives away mystery bags of breakfast items for a fraction of the usual price - and you don’t need to have stayed there to order one.
I reserved a bag for £3, with around £9 worth of ‘delights of a breakfast buffet’ inside, and the contents were a little unusual. First up was a chicken, sweetcorn and iceberg lettuce sandwich, followed by slices of ham and chicken which had been individually wrapped in cellophane.
Also in the bag was a handful of cherry tomatoes, two peeled boiled eggs, three cinnamon rolls and some croissants. Like I said, it was a bit of a mixed bag, but it all got used in some way or another - the ham, for example, was fed to the dogs.
June
- Spent £8
- Saved around £16
Another jackpot month was June, where I managed to bag not one, but two boxes of cupcakes from separate cafes on the app. I visited Hey Little Cupcake and Alex’s Bakery both on the same day, walking home with a bumper crop of homemade cupcakes.
At Hey Little Cupcake my box contained two Lotus Biscoff cupcakes , as well as a decadent chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, and a vanilla cupcake with pink frosting, two mini Oreos and an edible bow made to look like a Disney character.
The cakes themselves were as good as fresh, and worked out at a third of their usual cost at around £1 each.
Around the corner at Alex’s Bakery, I received five vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate stars, as well as a cherry bakewell style blondie. All of the cakes - bar one, which I ate on the train - made it home to be shared out with family at a weekend BBQ, earning me extra brownie points in the process.
July
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Spent £8
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Saved around £17
Last month I saved £17 on quick and easy meals using Too Good To Go, including £8 at Pret, where I received two wraps and a pot of soup for just £4. I bagged a veggie wrap, as well as a chilli burrito and tomato soup, which sorted me out for three meals.
The following week I visited the Bagel Factory in Spinningfields , where I paid £4.10 for a bag containing approximately £12 worth of food, but after totting it up, I realised I’d probably saved about £9.
I was treated to one well-filled salt beef bagel as well as three plain ones, a strawberry granola pot and a single packaged cookie. The plain bagels, each topped with various flavours like poppyseed and seasame seed, are ideal for freezing and then popping in the toaster whenever you fancy one, meaning that none of them went to waste.
In all, I've had great success using the app regularly in the last six months, only ever receiving a handful of items that were too far gone to eat, or that I didn't like. That said, it's not difficult to find someone who will eat the things I don't fancy. It's great fun to see what you can find, and the mystery makes it all the more exciting.
While I don't recommend relying on Too Good To Go to replace your usual food shop budget, sometimes it's a great supplement or top-up, and perfect for treating yourself guilt-free, because it's cheap and helps prevent food waste.
You can download the app for yourself and give it a go here.
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