Express & Star

Money Saving Amy: Night out tips without blowing your budget, and bag a birthday treat

Hello everyone. Spring is here apparently, but nobody has told the weather, which has been miserable.

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Cosmo restaurant

No better reason then to treat yourself now and again, especially if you can bag a bargain along the way.

There are plenty of offers out there at the moment, so it is worth spending a little time seeing what is available.

With a bit of planning you can enjoy a night out with friends or family without blowing your budget.

Here are just a few ideas that you may want to try out.

Everyone likes an all-you-can-eat buffet and one of the most popular is Cosmo, which can be found at Bentley Bridge Leisure Park in Wednesfield, just a few minute’s drive from the M6.

It has food from around the world all under one roof, which means you can pick and choose what you fancy, and is always busy.

Did you know that if it’s your birthday, you can dine for free at Cosmo either on your special day or up to seven days afterwards?

The offer is valid on Sunday to Friday’s and you must show ID which verifies that it is your birthday. You must also book online and give at least 24 hours notice.

The offer valid when at least four people are dining. Full T&Cs can be found on the Cosmo’s website.

This free meal freebie is worth up to £20.99! Alternatively, if there are six full paying adults, you can get a free bottle of Prosecco on your birthday or up to seven days after, again valid Sunday-Friday’s.

The O2 priority app is offering a free drink every Thursday between 5-7pm with wine, beer, cocktails and soft drinks included.

But only 6,000 codes are released and they go fast, so be quick!

If you don’t manage to grab the freebie you may be able to get a buy one get one free drinks code between 5.30-7.30pm instead. These free drinks are valid at your local O’Neill’s, Ember inn or Sizzling pubs.

If you would rather get the food brought to you than make the effort to go out, then there are deals to be found too.

Deliveroo is offering £10 off a £25-plus spend on the app, although check your account as these offers can sometimes be account specific.

Now, while you do have to be a little careful on apps like these, as prices can be significantly higher than in store, they have recently introduced a “in store prices” section, and if you choose a nearby supermarket with a lower delivery cost, you may actually make a saving, plus you’ll have the convenience of having the shopping delivered to your door in a short amount of time.

Plus, did you know that if you’re an Amazon Prime customer, you can get Deliveroo plus for a year for free.This then means when you spend £15-plus on selected restaurants, you’ll get free delivery. Deliveroo offer 20 per cent off selected restaurants on a Thursday which would be a fab offer to combine with the free delivery.

Sign up to the Co-op rewards app to receive personalised weekly discounts. And the best part is, you can combine them with other offers.

I regularly use this to get the ‘free favourites’ £6 deal for even less! For example, if you get a ‘£1 off your shop’ offer, you could get an item worth £1 or less totally free!

And here’s an extra tip as they often do ‘40p off fresh fruit’.Iif you buy a single banana, that usually works out around 18p for a small one, the remaining money will come off the rest of your shopping.

Lidl do 30 per cent off bakery items between 7pm and closing everyday! It means you can grab a treat or maybe buy some bread that can go in your freezer to use later.

Just ensure you ‘activate’ the offer on the app. And don’t forget to regularly check the app for your personalised discounts, there’s often freebies up for grabs too so be sure to keep your eye out for those.

You can’t beat actually handling your photographs – it is far more satisfying than swiping on your phone!

The FreePrints app is a fantastic app for getting those photos printed out for free.

You can get up to 45 free 6x4 prints every single month – you just have to pay postage which is £1.49-£3.99 depending on how many prints you order.

There’s also a ‘FreePrints photobooks’ app where you can get a free 7x5 or 6x6 soft cover photo book free each month with postage being £5.99. These books are such a lovely way of getting your precious memories off your phone and into a lovely book to enjoy looking through.

FreePrints now also do a ‘FreePrints tiles’ and ‘FreePrints cards’ too. Sometimes these apps also offer free postage on your first order via an email offer.

Have a great week everyone! You can find more tips on my Moneysavingamy Instagram.