Martin Lewis’ MSE reveals how to get FREE meal at Greggs – but you need to be quick

MARTIN Lewis’s MSE has revealed how to get a free meal at Greggs – but you need to be quick.

The Money Saving Expert founder included the tip in his latest newsletter.

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Writing on the MSE website, his sidekick Sarah Monro said: “Think there’s no such thing as a free lunch?

“Yes, you really can get totally free food at cafés, restaurants and supermarkets.

“Fast-food chains often offer discounts and freebies to new and existing customers through apps and membership ‘clubs’.”

Sarah explained that Greggs is offering a free pizza slice and hot drink if you sign up to its app before Monday October 16.

The chain has in past served up free sausage rolls and doughnuts to customers with the app.

You can download the Greggs app from either the App Store for iPhones or Google Play for Android mobiles.

Here are four other secret ways to save money at the UK’s favourite bakery chain.

Grab and go

It actually pays to take your Greggs away.

Most Greggs fans will have spotted the duel pricing that’s displayed in some of the chain’s stores.

And that’s because Greggs charges two different fees depending on whether you eat-in or take-away.

There’s a VAT charge on eat-in products and the store has confessed to a “little extra” charge in its café shops to cover “additional services”.

You could take your sausage roll away in a bag though, and find a nice comfy park bench nearby and find yourself saving 10p-20p.

Waste not

Ever wondered what happens to all the treats that don’t get eaten at the end of the day?

Shoppers can buy the leftovers from the shop which would have only been chucked out otherwise.

And because they were on their way to bin anyway, it means these goodies are charged at rock bottom prices.

The Too Good To Go app lets you buy “magic bags” of the discounted food that Greggs, along with plenty other shops and cafes, haven’t managed to sell.

Greggs offers them for around £2.59.

It’s pot luck as to what’s inside, but some shoppers have managed to chance upon impressive hauls in the past.

One shopper managed to bag £14 worth of Greggs goodies for just £2 with the app – and even the shop worker was grateful and thanked her for “saving” the food.

Another savvy shopper nabbed an even more impressive £23 worth of Greggs grub including a steak bake AND four doughnuts for just £2.95 too.

Find a freebie

Every now and then Greggs will offer out freebies and limited time rewards for customers – particularly if its got new products that customers need to taste.

At Christmas Greggs gave away 50,000 free festive bakes and vegan festive bakes, for example, to get fans in the spirit.

But there may be a ‘hack’ to bagging freebies in store at any time too.

An ex-employee revealed how staff are allowed to offer customers a freebie if they’re genuinely disappointed with the food available.

They claimed: “If ever there are no sausage rolls or if there are cold products, Greggs can offer the customer something free of charge.”

Usually a Greggs sausage roll costs £1.75, and it is the most popular item on the store’s menu.

Employees can only offer customers a freebie if the store doesn’t have any fresh pastries available though, or if the hot product you pay for turns out to be cold.

But keep in mind that you can’t just expect the free food as it’s given out at the discretion of the staff, and only if you’ve genuinely had a bad batch of food.

Shop around

It’s not just at Greggs that you can buy all your favourite pastries.

Iceland sells Greggs products you can heat at home.

Okay, it might not taste exactly the same, but you’ll save the most money by picking up your favourite dish from your local supermarket.

You can grab a box of eight sausage rolls for £3.75 – which works out to be 47p a roll.

If you bought a sausage roll every day for a week, maybe treating yourself to two at some point over the weekend too, you’d be spending £3.93 more than that buying them straight from the store.

You can get other Greggs favourites at Iceland as well, such as the popular chicken bakes and cookies.

If you don’t mind heating them in your own oven at home then there’s a massive saving to be had.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk