Latest news with #budgetmeals
The Independent
16-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Here's where kids can eat for free over the summer holidays
With the summer holidays just around the corner, you might be on the lookout for activities to keep the family busy. There are few things as special as a delicious meal with your family, but costs can quickly add up. That's why we've compiled a list of the restaurants, cafes and supermarkets where your kids can eat for free or for a reduced price during the school summer holidays. However, view the term 'free' with some suspicion. Most locations require you to purchase an adult meal in order to get your child's meal for free. With this in mind, we've also done some digging to find out how much an adult meal costs so you can estimate your total bill. Whether it's a coffee break in the middle of your weekly shop or a lunchtime pizza treat, there is a range of cuisines and options that suit different budgets. As you plan a day out, don't forget to check our list below to see where your kids can eat free or for £1 this summer. Where can kids eat for free or £1 this summer: Free kids buffet at Pizza Hut Pizza Hut's lunchtime deal includes one free kids' buffet when you spend more than £10 at the restaurant. Using the code KEF1 when you book will secure you the freebie, which you can redeem from Monday 21 July to Thursday 4 September, up until 3pm each day. Kids can choose from a variety of pizza, pasta and salad options, so there's plenty for even the pickiest eaters. If your kids love pizza and pasta, you can get a free piccolo meal (aka the restaurant's kids' menu) when you order any main course from the standard menu. The offer runs from Monday 28 July to Sunday 10 August, so it isn't around for as long as others. Kids receive dough balls to start, a pizza, pasta or salad as a main, plus a dessert and bambinoccino. Keep in mind that if you're going as a group, you'll only get one free kids' meal per adult at the table. A classic margherita at a Pizza Express in London costs £12.25, so you won't need to spend too much to make the most of the offer. Free kids' meal at Prezzo Children up to 12 years old can get three courses from Prezzo's kids menu for free, with the purchase of one adult main meal from Monday 14 July to Friday 5 September. Kids can tuck into a starter, main and dessert with fried mozzarella, bolognese, pepperoni pizza, and lots mor e. A kids' meal at the Italian restaurant chain usually costs around £8.50, so you can make a decent saving with this offer. An adult meal will cost you £15 upwards, depending on the location. Free kids' meal at Bill's Whether it's a stack of buttermilk pancakes for breakfast or a bowl of meatball pasta for lunch, children can tuck into a free meal at Bill's this summer. Up to two kids can eat for free if one adult orders any main, so this beats most restaurants, which offer one free kids' meal per adult. The offer is valid all day from Monday 21 July to Friday 29 August, excluding weekends. Adults can get avocado on sourdough for around £11.25 or a Greek salad for £13.95, so you're looking at spending around £20 as a group of three, once you add on a service charge. Free kids' meal at Ask Italian When you sign up for Ask Italian's rewards app, you'll get a code that entitles you to two free kids' meals with the purchase of an adult meal. Kids can pick from carbonara, pizza, chicken goujons, and more, so there's plenty to cater to different tastes. The offer is valid from Friday 18 July to Sunday 31 August, so it can be used throughout most of the summer holidays. Free kids' meal at Las Iguanas You can save all year round at Las Iguanas, not just during the summer holidays. Kids eat free when you download the Las Iguanas app and can choose from quesadillas, coconut curry, guacamole and more. The cheapest main at the restaurant is the rainbow salad for £14, so even with a drink, your bill could come to less than £20. French-inspired cuisine might not be top of your child's list, but Côte Brasserie has options for little gourmands, such as steak frites or French onion soup, as well as classic comforts like tomato pasta bake and burgers. Parents have from Friday 18 July to Monday 1 September to redeem the offer and need to order a main to get the free two-course kids' meal. The cheapest main at a Côte Brasserie restaurant in London is a chicken salad, for £14.95. Free kids' meal at Subway For lunch on the go, head to Subway, where kids can enjoy a free meal when you buy a footlong sandwich. These can start from around £8.49, depending on the branch. The kids' meal includes a 4in mini sandwich, snack and drink. The offer is available in participating Subway restaurants from Monday 28 July to Sunday 17 August. £1 kids' meal at Asda cafes Asda's £1 cafe meal deal runs all year round, and you won't need to buy an adult meal or spend a certain amount to use the offer. Kids can choose from pasta with meatballs, chicken nuggets, fish fingers or pizza, and they'll receive a free piece of fruit with their hot meal. Babies don't have to miss out either, with the supermarket offering a free Ella's baby food pouch for children up to 18 months with any cafe purchase. Free kids' meal at Morrisons cafes When you spend £5 or more on an adult's meal at a Morrisons cafe at any point in the year, not just the summer holidays, you'll also get a free kids' meal for those under 16 years. If your child is picky, they can build their own breakfast or main meal, and they'll get a drink included too. Two adult meals with a drink each cost £15 in total, so if you're a family of four, you can all eat at Morrison's cafe for just £15. Free kids' meal at Tesco cafes and coffee shops You can spend as little as 65p on a piece of fresh fruit at a Tesco cafe or coffee shop this summer, and you'll be able to claim one free kids' meal worth up to £4 when you use your Clubcard. Breakfast options for little ones include pancakes and beans on toast, while the lunch menu has fish fingers, chicken goujons and tomato pasta shells with garlic bread. The offer is valid in England and Wales from Monday 21 July to Friday 29 August; in Scotland from Thursday 7 July to Friday 22 August; and in Northern Ireland from Monday 30 June to Friday 29 August. £1 kids' meal at Dobbies garden centre Take a break from garden centre shopping this summer with Dobbies's offer. Kids can get a meal for just £1 when you buy a traditional adult breakfast or main course lunch option, both of which start from around £9. Kids can choose from cooked breakfasts, jacket potatoes, fish fingers, pasta and more. Some Dobbies restaurants also have soft play areas, so you can relax while they play. Free kids' meal at Heathrow airport If you're flying from Heathrow airport this summer, there are restaurants across the airport's terminals where kids eat for free. When you spend £14.95 or more on an adult meal at a participating restaurant, such as Leon or Giraffe, you'll get one free meal from the restaurant's children's menu. You can claim a maximum of four free kids' meals per table, and the offer can be used all through summer from Friday 18 July to Tuesday 2 September.
South China Morning Post
13-07-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China's luxury hotels sell street food to survive tough business climate
Catering at luxury hotels typically involves high-end banquets and formal entertainment, with exquisite decor and masterfully crafted dishes often seen as worth the high price tag. But for many consumers in China, that is changing. In July, the five-star Zhongwu Hotel in Changzhou, Jiangsu province – ranked second among 10 luxury hotels in the city on – surprised observers when it launched a street vendor service offering budget meal boxes prepared by its catering team. 'You must first solve the problem of survival. If you can't even solve your own problems, what else can you talk about?' said Chen Yonghua, Zhongwu Hotel's manager. The decision reflects a sluggish business environment for China's high-end hospitality sector, as cautious consumers tighten their belts amid concerns about a slowing economy. Priced between 20 yuan and 100 yuan (US$3 and US$14), the boxed meals are a far cry from the several thousand typically charged for a banquet table. Offerings include popular night market favourites like braised dishes, spicy crayfish, a selection of dim sum and other delicacies.
The Sun
29-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Delicious healthy dinner that feeds a family of four for just 50p a head & it takes 10 minutes to make
A SAVVY shopper has revealed how she keeps her food costs down to feed four people for just 50p a head per meal. 26-year-old Scottish lass, only known as The Finance Gurl, took to TikTok to share the mouth-watering recipe that cost her just £2 to whip up. 2 2 The cash-savvy shopper regularly shares easy and affordable recipe ideas on her page - and this time, showed her 10k fans how to make veg and egg fried rice on the cheap. Ingredients For this, she explained in a recent video, you will need a bag of white rice from Aldi's Essentials range, 52p, a six-pack of eggs for £1.45 and 500g of fresh carrots for 40p. Whilst shopping, the Aldi customer also snapped up a pack of three bell peppers for £1.69 and spring onions for just 69p. The total breakdown of the budget-friendly dish was 16p for the rice, 97p for four eggs, 10p for two carrots, 56p for one bell pepper, as well as 20p for three spring onions. This comes to a total cost of £1.99 - or just 50p per head if you're feeding a family of four. Method Once you have all the necessary ingredients, start by boiling 300g of rice and leave it to cool whilst preparing the other items. When the oil in the pan is ready, add the diced carrots and bell peper to cook, with the optional garlic if you have some already. Stir fry for around five minutes before pushing the veggies to the side of the pan and crack in the four eggs before scrambling them. ''Once the eggs have cooked, I'm mixing them in with the vegetables. I spend £400 on a weekly grocery shop - and that's cheap for my family ''Then you're gonna add your rice in and mix all of that together. ''Finally, you're gonna add two tablespoons of soy sauce and your spring onion.'' Give all of this a good stir and cook for an additional three minutes and voila, you're ready to serve your family a delicious meal on a budget. The cash-savvy foodie wrote in the caption: ''This veg & egg fried rice is easy & delicious to make. ''If you want to you can add meat to this, but it's still great without!'' 'Must say that looks lovely' The recipe has clearly impressed many, as the video has racked up more than 130k views and almost 2,000 likes. How to cut the cost of your grocery shop SAVING on your shop can make a big difference to your wallet. Here are some tips from comparison site about how you can cut the cost of your shopping bills: Write yourself a list – Only buy items that you need. If it isn't on your list, don't put it in the trolley Create a budget – Work out a weekly budget for your food shopping Never shop hungry – you are far more likely to buy more food if your tummy is rumbling Don't buy pre-chopped veggies or fruit – The extra they'll charge for chopping can be eye watering Use social media – follow your favourite retailers to find out about the latest deals Be disloyal – You may want to go to different stores to find the best bargains Check the small print – It's always worth checking the price per kg/lb/litre when comparing offers so you're making a like for like decision as a bigger box won't necessarily mean you get more Use your loyalty cards – Don't be afraid to sign up to them all. They all work slightly differently – work out what bonus suits you better and remember to trade in your points for additional rewards One person commented: ''Well done. Type of post I like. Makes a change from people moaning about only having £20 to last them one day.'' Someone else chimed in: ''I think you're really inspiring, cooking healthy unprocessed food on a budget.'' ''Must say that looks lovely,'' a fourth penned.
Independent Singapore
27-06-2025
- General
- Independent Singapore
S'poreans share their 'I'm broke meal' when money is very low
SINGAPORE: In this day and age of high food prices and inflation, it does not hurt to have a money-saving hack or three to help us get by. On Reddit, after some Singaporeans shared their 'best money choices' earlier this week , another local user asked others about their 'I'm broke meal' in Singapore. 'If you've ever been broke. I mean like broke broke – $2 in your bank account kinda vibes for the entire week, what is your go-to meal?' wrote u/kittyprincessxX in a post on r/askSingapore on Thursday (June 26). The post author then went on to share their own favourite 'I'm broke' meal — Indomee, a cucumber portioned across three meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), bread, and Milo. The most upvoted comment simply read, 'Early bedtime', which is likely to mean skipping at least one meal each day. It also implies, of course, a person who does not go out at night to socialise and, therefore, spends nothing. See also Woman calls $4.80 chicken rice portion 'pathetic' 'Rice, egg, soy sauce' was another top comment, though someone else added that eating luncheon meat or chilli garlic oil with this meal would be most welcome. 'Queue up at a Sikh temple for free meal. They have it 3x a day btw,' another suggested, though others did not take too kindly to it, as these meals are earmarked for the needy in Singapore. A commenter wrote that they cooked a protein with rice and a vegetable — and one week's worth of these meals cost less than S$10. 'How do I know? This is what I did in poly and NS, for years, this was all I could afford for weeks. I couldn't even eat cup noodles because that was too expensive and I would literally die of health problems eating instant noodles for weeks on end. Chicken, rice and lettuce are what I built my body off growing up. I've tried so many variations and to this day I still eat it when I have no idea what else to eat and I have very standardised recipes that I cook.' See also 7 Unique Dining Experiences in Singapore You Need To Try in 2022 'I used to buy those red bean bun packets that had like 6 inside and tried to make it last for 2 days. I remember it was like S$1.80 back then. Now I don't know if S$2 can cover,' another noted. When one suggested cup noodles, another wrote that packets are cheaper. 'The extra saved can get cheap add-ons like eggs, imitation crab sticks and some fresh veggies,' they added. 'For breakfast it would just be some bread and water. A lot of cabbage potato veggie soup and rice to stretch it out for the week. If I'm lucky I can add egg and milk to these meals. The only seasoning would be salt and pepper. I'd rotate this with indomee if I have it on hand. I avoid cup noodles like the plague,' one commeted. /TISG Read also: S'poreans share the 'best money choices' they've made to help them save towards retirement
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Recession Recipes Are Taking Over TikTok This Summer
All indicators are that the U.S. economy is at high risk for a recession sometime this year, with forecasters estimating the chances at anywhere from 40% to 90% due to tariffs and trade wars. You may want to recession-proof your pantry by purchasing cheap non-perishables in bulk, but it'll also help to have a source of wallet-friendly recipes on tap. Naturally, TikTok has stepped in to supply them. Since successful content creators need to read the room, they've figured out that audiences no longer want indulgent recipes calling for two sticks of butter and half a dozen eggs. Instead, we're all out here trying to figure out what to do with dried beans and bologna, and savvy TikTokers have increased their output of videos with the #budgetmeals hashtag. (Its usage increased by 20% between March and April of 2025.) Many budget meals on TikTok are bean-centric -- now that eggs are so pricey, they're the ultimate low-cost protein. One such recipe calls for flavoring beans with smoked pork neck bones, while another mixes them with creamy sauce and cornmeal so they can be formed into a loaf. As for that bologna, there's a Mexican-inspired sandwich where the lunch meat is fried alongside jalapenos and onions. Of course, there's also Dollar Tree Delight, a take on pizza made with the chain's Texas toast, pasta sauce, cheese, and frozen meatballs, as well as a simple meal of nothing more than boxed mac and cheese mixed with ground beef. One of the bigger and cheaper dinners, however, is an extravaganza of chicken legs, macaroni and cheese, and assorted frozen vegetables that apparently feeds two adults and six children for about two bucks apiece. Read more: 6 Canned Meats You Should Be Eating And 6 To Avoid During the 2020 pandemic, it wasn't so much food prices as food shortages that had people worried, although more than nine million people also lost their jobs that year. Combine these concerns with the fact that students and anyone not employed in healthcare or other essential services suddenly had a lot more time on their hands, and what do you get? A bunch of newly-fledged TikTok creators sharing recipes for such Great Depression-era classics as prune pie and slumgullion, a stew made with ground beef, canned vegetables, and potatoes or pasta. (Fun fact: This dish features in the 1947 movie "It Happened on 5th Avenue.") Other recipes that hit big at the time included wacky cake, a chocolate dessert made without eggs or dairy, and water pie, which "magically" transforms a rather wet flour and sugar paste into something more or less edible. The obvious reason why so many Great Depression recipes were popular during the pandemic is that they tended to be made with limited ingredients that weren't too costly. Another, subtler reason might have been that making recipes passed down from your grandmother -- or even some total stranger's grandmother -- can be comforting because it's a reminder that others have lived through hard times before. It can be said to foster a sense of community, even with people who may have long since passed on. It's good to know our Depression-era ancestors (or somebody's) will have our backs in the coming recession, too, with recipes that can carry us through until we once again have fully-stocked store shelves filled with affordable groceries. (Or so we hope.) For more food and drink goodness, join The Takeout's newsletter. Get taste tests, food & drink news, deals from your favorite chains, recipes, cooking tips, and more! Read the original article on The Takeout.
