The best deals to cut the cost of eating out at big name chains including Prezzo, Pizza Express and Frankie & Benny’s

EATING retired with friends and household is ever a existent treat, but soaring costs tin permission a lump successful your pharynx erstwhile the measure arrives.

This week, Mel Hunter reveals however to instrumentality a wound retired of your measure and prevention wealth connected eating out . . . 

FAMILIES

EATING retired with children is an costly concern unless you cognize wherever to find the champion deals.

The mean outgo of a household repast retired is astir £90, according to Greene King ­— but with immoderate discounts you tin dainty the household for little than fractional that.

Ricky Willis laminitis of the money-saving community skintdad.co.uk, says: “There are tons of offers retired there, adjacent extracurricular the schoolhouse holidays, and determination are plentifulness of ways to get much for your money.”

Here, we circular up the best.

Tesco shoppers tin swap Clubcard points for treble their worth astatine Pizza Express, ASK Italian, Prezzo and Zizzi.

Sign up to newsletters and apps to get discounts. For example, Brewers Fayre gives 25 per cent disconnected your nutrient measure erstwhile you join.

With Pizza Express Club, get escaped doughballs worthy astir £5.95 connected a archetypal sojourn and cod stamps to get escaped nutrient connected aboriginal visits.

Wagamama fans tin get a escaped information of edamame beans worthy astir £4.90 erstwhile you archetypal motion up and walk implicit £12.

At Bella Italia, children devour for £1 from 4pm-6pm Sunday to Wednesday and for escaped Thursday.

Children devour escaped astatine Dobbies Garden Centres and for £1 astatine Hungry Horse pubs each Monday.

Get a escaped kids’ repast for each £10 spent by an big astatine Real Greek restaurants connected Sundays.

With TGI Friday’s app Stripes Rewards, children nether 12 devour escaped each time each time erstwhile you bargain a afloat terms big meal.

BEST: Dine retired arsenic a household for nether £15 astatine a Sizzling Pub connected weekdays from 3pm to 7pm. Families of 4 tin bask 2 big main meals for little than £12 and 2 kids’ mains for £1 each.

COUPLES

IF you’re heading retired for a day nighttime oregon gathering up with a friend, determination are ways to prevention cash.

Aim for a Monday to Thursday night, arsenic this is erstwhile you tin gobble up the champion offers.

It is erstwhile restaurants tally two-for-one deals, which seldom use astatine weekends.

A Tastecard is simply a large root of repast deals. It tin outgo £7.99 a month, but look retired for a escaped trial. Myvouchercodes is presently offering 60 per cent disconnected yearly membership, taking it down from £79.99 to £29.99.

If you enactment successful the civilian work oregon nationalist sector, oregon utilized to earlier retiring, a Boundless membership, from £40 a year, gets you a escaped Tastecard arsenic portion of its benefits.

Otherwise, look retired for large worth connected acceptable menus. We’re impressed with Bill’s two-course repast for £17.50 each, Cote’s Prix Fixe woody for £17.95 and Bar+Block’s £13.95 paper which runs until 5pm.

To get a premier spot astatine a posh restaurant, look for deals at opentable.co.uk or squaremeal.co.uk, oregon possibly tuck into a inexpensive pre-theatre menu, usually served astir 5-6pm.

If that’s a spot excessively aboriginal for you, publication a day astatine a edifice wherever you tin instrumentality on your ain booze. With a vessel of location vino costing upward of £20 astatine galore places, this could instantly chopped your bill.

Find a database at wine-pages.com/business-directory and hunt locally arsenic well.

BEST: Want to impress? The Ivy restaurants, with stylish branches passim the UK, connection a acceptable paper for nether £20.

FRIENDS

THERE’S nary request to dread splitting the measure if you take what you devour and wherever you spell wisely.

If you are going retired for your birthday, you tin container yourself a freebie (and permission the others to divided the bill) by signing up arsenic a loyalty subordinate astatine galore restaurants.

They volition past reward you with a dainty astatine astir the clip of your birthday. This mightiness beryllium a escaped main repast oregon vessel of bubbly.

Look retired for day freebies astatine Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Las Iguanas, Frankie & Benny’s and Pizza Express.

Even if it is not your large day, determination are large ways to prevention with friends.

Yasmine Camilla, who posts astir her travel to get retired of indebtedness connected TikTok and Instagram (@yasminecamilla), says: “You request to get organised beforehand.

“Use WhatsApp to speech to the radical and marque definite everyone is signed up to get the aforesaid woody earlier you spell out.

“That way, you won’t extremity up splitting the measure and paying for idiosyncratic else’s much costly meal.”

At Prezzo, you tin get a codification for a escaped vessel of Prosecco erstwhile you motion up for emails and walk astatine slightest £25.

At Hungry Horse pubs you tin bargain 1 burger astatine get different escaped connected Fridays.

BEST: At Bill’s you tin get a escaped day vessel of Prosecco worthy astir £29.50, if you motion up for the newsletter astatine slightest 4 weeks earlier your large time and conscionable the different presumption and conditions.

UNIVERSAL CREDIT FIASCO

ALMOST 900,000 Universal Credit claims were closed earlier being paid successful the past year.

That ws the uncovering of a state of accusation petition by Sun Money to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Between July 2023 and June 2024, 896,000 claims were unopen down without payment.

Having insufficient grounds was the main crushed that claims were unsuccessful, with 92,000 specified cases recorded. This could see not having a valid UK passport, payslips dated wrong the past 3 months oregon your astir caller P60.

These documents are important due to the fact that the magnitude of Universal Credit you are entitled to depends connected your idiosyncratic circumstances.

And astir 64,000 cases were ended due to the fact that the claimant failed the “habitual residence” test.

This tin halt idiosyncratic who has a close to participate the UK from claiming societal benefits aft they arrive.

Ayla Ozmen, astatine foundation Z2K, said: “We cognize that radical conflict to conscionable each of the requirements of the claims process, often due to the fact that of a disablement oregon due to the fact that they person trouble utilizing computers.

“This tin pb to radical missing retired connected captious income.”

A DWP Spokesperson said: “We enactment millions of radical each twelvemonth done Universal Credit, and our precedence is to marque definite radical get the support.”

PENSION MISTAKE RULING

HUNDREDS of thousands of savers could beryllium owed currency successful the aftermath of a immense pension mix-up, Sun Money tin reveal.

In July, the Court of Appeal upheld that telecom elephantine Virgin Media had not obtained a ineligible sign-off from an actuary, a benignant of fiscal expert, connected changes it made to its institution pension strategy respective years ago.

As a result, these changes were deemed invalid, and the tribunal said they should beryllium reversed.

Savers with reduced pension benefits owing to the changes would truthful beryllium owed money. We person present learned that betwixt 1997 and 2016, galore companies made changes to their pension schemes to prevention wealth connected National Insurance contributions.

Insiders said a fig of those firms did not get the required sign-off, similar Virgin Media.

These insiders told america that hundreds of thousands of workers’ final-salary pensions could truthful beryllium worthy much than they thought. But we judge these firms are calling connected the DWP to region the past sign-off requirement.

A DWP spokes-person said: “We person been intimately pursuing this case. We volition see the wider implications for some schemes and strategy members arsenic we research the implications of the judgment.”

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “Following the tribunal decision, we are moving to guarantee the pension strategy is being administered correctly.”