The 9 little-known discount apps to save YOU £100s this summer – slash cost of petrol, parking & food… & get free stuff

The Irish Sun

08-07-2025

SUMMER is when you want to splash out on fun in the sun – so make your money go further.
There are loads of apps to help you get the best
bang for your buck
, including cheap food and takeaways, free trips to the cinema, thrifty days out, and even low-cost petrol.
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Grab your phone and download these need-to-know apps to save a fortune this summer
Credit: Getty
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Check out Three+ for discounted coffee and cinema trips
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Sky's official app has loads of rewards including free cinema tickets
Credit: Sky
#1 – YOUR REWARDS APPS
Chances are, you're paying for a phone bill – and maybe a telly subscription, too.
Well the
The
Three+
app gets you £1 coffees, £3 Cineworld tickets, and 15% off at River Island right now.
Vodafone customers can use
VeryMe Rewards
to get Adventure Days (with 50% off zoos, theme parks, and attractions via Kids Pass).
O2 Priority
gives you a load of rewards, such as a free weekly snack from Greggs, discounted Disney+, and two Vue cinema tickets for £9.
If you're signed up to Sky TV, you can claim a free movie from the Sky Store by going into the
MySky
app and looking for your VIP rewards.
And if you're paying for Sky Cinema too, you'll be able to get a pair of
#2 – CHEAP FOOD (AND THAT'S NOT ALL)
The average weekly food shop - without any booze - is around £103, up around 18% from two years ago.
One way Brits are dodging the price hikes is with
.
It's a food waste app where shops, cafes, bakeries and restaurants can flog their surplus food at discounted prices instead of binning them.
How to save on your supermarket shop
THERE are plenty of ways to save on your grocery shop.
You can look out for yellow or red stickers on products, which show when they've been reduced.
If the food is fresh, you'll have to eat it quickly or freeze it for another time.
Making a list should also save you money, as you'll be less likely to make any rash purchases when you get to the supermarket.
Going own brand can be one easy way to save hundreds of pounds a year on your food bills too.
This means ditching "finest" or "luxury" products and instead going for "own" or value" type of lines.
Plenty of supermarkets run wonky veg and fruit schemes where you can get cheap prices if they're misshapen or imperfect.
For example, Lidl runs its Waste Not scheme, offering boxes of 5kg of fruit and vegetables for just £1.50.
If you're on a low income and a parent, you may be able to get up to £442 a year in Healthy Start vouchers to use at the supermarket too.
Plus, many councils offer supermarket vouchers as part of the Household Support Fund.
You're throwing away money on Netflix – I found three common mistakes sending your bill soaring but the fixes are easy
You'll usually pay less than half price for the grub – and you're doing a good thing, because it would've just ended up in the bin.
Just download the app and you'll be able to "rescue" food near you.
Simply pick a location, confirm the choice, reserve the food, pay in the app, then go collect it at the specified time.
Another similar app is called
Olio
, which is a free giveaway app.
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Too Good To Go can get you extremely cheap food
Credit: Too Good To Go
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Olio is a great way to get your hands on freebies locally – including fresh food
Credit: Olio
Maybe someone bought too many biscuits for a birthday party, and has loads of packs spare – so they're giving them away.
You might bag yourself free bread, tins of beans, or bits and bobs for baking.
It's not just food either. There's a whole non-food section that could see you scooping up, car seats, lamps, pots and pans, or unwanted books.
The app is meant for local community giveaways so you shouldn't need to travel far. And you won't pay a penny, which makes the deal even sweeter.
#3 – NATURE NEAR YOU
There's nothing cheaper than Mother Nature, but it's hard to know where to start.
That's what
AllTrails
is for.
It's basically a giant guide to great walks near you, and it previously won Apple's App of the Year award.
You just look for where you are (or where you're going) on the map, and you'll be able to see brilliant walks that people have planned.
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AllTrails is a cheap and easy way to find amazing nature near you
Credit: AllTrails
It'll show pictures of the walk, how difficult it is, and how long it'll take you – plus it helps you navigate once you get started.
And a reviews section will reveal if it's actually any good.
Plus people will often post about conditions ("it's muddy, so bring
boots
!") to save you from making a clothing error.
It's a great way to explore an area you don't know, or find a hidden gem of a walk near you. It also warns you if you've taken a wrong turn, which is obviously very handy.
And if you want to make your stroll a bit more exciting, consider downloading the
Merlin
app.
This listens out for bird noises as you walk along, and it'll pick out the species in real-time.
It's shockingly accurate, and even flags when you've picked out something rare.
It's fun for kids to try to spot the birds – and the family can compete to see who can clock up the most rare species on a stroll. It's just like Pokémon, but in
real life
.
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Merlin can turn almost any walk into a fun game for the family
Credit: Merlin
#4 – FAIRER HOLIDAY BILLS
You know when you go on holiday with pals or family members, and it feels like you end up paying for everything?
Sometimes it's
nice
to be generous, but you don't want the difficulty of splitting bills over a whole holiday to leave you out of pocket – while your mates get a free ride.
Think about using
Splitwise
, which is a simple free tool that lets a group track bills and shared expenses.
You all add bills, who paid what, and then at the end of
the holiday
, you hit Settle Up and it'll work out who owes what to whom.
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Splitwise makes it easier to share bills, especially on holiday – and it'll help you dodge arguments too
Credit: Splitwise
It's a free app, and could keep you out of the red on a big group trip.
For summer stags and hens, it's an absolute must.
#5 – FREE DELIVERY ON TAKEAWAYS
Here's one for Amazon Prime members: you can get cheap takeaways.
A lot of you have Amazon Prime. The member count for Britain is about 13 million, so chances are that someone in your home has it.
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Millions of Brits are owed a free year of Deliveroo Silver Plus
Credit: Amazon / Deliveroo
Other hidden Amazon Prime perks
Here's some advice from The Sun's Tech Editor
If you're forking out £8.99 a month for Amazon Prime, you better get your money's worth.
Yes, you can get a free year of Deliveroo Silver Plus worth just shy of £42 – but that's not all.
Gamers can bag free titles every month through Prime Gaming –
Another little-known Prime perk cuts 15% off new clothes, toiletries, and food.
You just have to buy at least four items from the
Prime members can also claim
Or you can pay £15 to upgrade to posh Luxe seats.
And you can also get
That's the meal kit service that sees fresh ingredients and recipe cards sent to your doorstep. That'll save you about £60 if you ordered one box each month for a year.
Picture Credit: Sean Keach
And with Prime, you're entitled to a
That'll nab you free delivery on takeaways if you spend more than £15 at loads of restaurants.
Normally this would cost you £3.49 a month, so you're getting a £42 membership free of charge.
#6 – BARGAIN PARKING
Just weeks ago, I wrote a rave
review
for
JustPark
. I still stand by it.
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JustPark unlocks discounted parking – and can even help you to earn some money
Credit: JustPark
The app lets people rent their driveways out for quick cash – or even long-term, which is great for commuters.
So you could certainly use it for that as a side-hustle. You can earn up to £1,000 tax-free this way.
But it's also a great way to dodge paying for pricey car parks. I recently revealed how I used it to find £6 full-day parking in London on a weekday.
If you're off to a big sports event at a stadium, or a gig at an arena, have a look at JustPark first and see if you could plonk your car on someone's driveway for way less than a commercial lot would charge you.
#7 – CHEAPEST PETROL
Of course you won't be able to get to a car park if you don't have any fuel – and that's hardly cheap either.
One way to shrink your fuel bills is with
PetrolPrices
.
It's a fairly simple concept, so you'll kick yourself for not installing earlier.
As the name suggests, it shows you all of the prices for petrol in your local area.
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Slash your petrol prices by shopping around – without having to actually drive all over the place
Credit: PetrolPrices
So you can sort by the cheapest to find out where has the best bargains.
It'll show you when the price was updated, and lets you sort by fuel type and brand.
#8 – SUPERMARKET SAVINGS
Just like PetrolPrices lets you compare the cost of petrol across different locations,
Trolley
does much the same for your groceries.
It compares prices for groceries across all of the major UK supermarkets.
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Trolley is an easy way to compare grocery prices without having to visit 16 different shops (or websites) yourself
Credit: Trolley
The list includes:
Asda
Sainsburys
Aldi
Home Bargains
Morrisons
Tesco
Boots
Wilko
Coop
Waitrose
Superdrug
B&M
Ocado
Iceland
Savers
Poundland
The app promises savings of up to 30% on your weekly shop, but your own bill reduction will depend on what you're buying, the size of your shop, and where you're going.
You can quickly make shopping lists for multiple stores, and then plan your weekly shop for maximum savings.
And there's also a barcode scanning feature to see if another supermarket is flogging at item for less, right there on the spot.
#9 – DISCOUNTED PHONE BILLS
AirTime
is a cashback-style app that lets you trim your phone bills.
You link your card, and then the app tracks your spending.
And if you spend at certain locations, you'll get cashback that is then knocked off your monthly mobile phone bill.
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If you're planning to do some shopping, see if it can trim your phone bill
Credit: Airtime
It works with major phone networks including O2, EE, Three, Vodafone, and giffgaff.
The app boasts that it has paid out over £40 million across four million members.
Cashback will range between 1% and 15% (though most are between 3% and 5%), and more than 200 retailers are on board.
That includes Deliveroo, Asos, Aldi, Tesco, Argos, New Look, and Selfridges.
It's not a bad way to save some money on your phone bill if you're already making those purchase.
Just be careful not to fall into the trap of spending more to earn extra cashback – you'll just be undoing your own hard work.
How to save on your mobile phone bill
NOT happy with your current mobile phone deal?
If you're outside the minimum term of your contract then you won't need to pay a cancellation fee - and you might be able to find a cheaper deal elsewhere.
But don't just switch contracts because the price is cheaper than what you're currently paying.
Take a look at how many minutes and texts, as well as how much data you're using, to find out which deal is best for you.
For example, if you're a heavy internet user it's worth finding a deal that accommodates this so you don't end up spending extra on bundles or add-ons each month.
Also note that if you're still in your contract period, you might be charged an exit fee.
Ready to look elsewhere? Pay-as-you-go deals are better for people who don't regularly use their phone, while monthly contracts usually work out cheaper for those who do.
It's worth using comparison websites, such as MoneySupermarket and uSwitch.com, to compare tariffs and phone prices.
Billmonitor also matches buyers to the best pay-monthly deal based on their previous three months of bills.
It only works if you're a customer of EE, O2, Three, Vodafone or Tesco Mobile and you'll need to log in with your online account details.
There's also MobilePhoneChecker, which has a bill monitoring feature that recommends a tariff based on your monthly usage.
If you're happy with your provider then it might be worth using your research to haggle a better deal.