Beauty & health deals

From freebies to money off, if we spot a great deal on beauty products we’ll list them here.

You can always get beauty discounts and freebies at various retailers. Here’s our pick of the best savings right now.

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Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Space NK offers

Space NK: up to 20% off with £5 charity donation

This is a decent opportunity to stock up on beauty essentials (and luxuries) as you can get up to 20% off at Space NK until 2 June 2025

You must donate £5 to the charity Switchboard LGBT+ via Space NK’s link, and then you’ll get a unique code to use.

This includes rarely discounted brands such as Diptyque – only a handful of items are excluded, which you can see here. You can’t use the deal on gift cards or sale items either.

It ends 11.45pm on 2 June 2025

Body Shop discounts

£5 Body Shop voucher on your birthday

Love My Body members get sent a £5 voucher on their birthday every year. You can sign up for the scheme (for free) here.

Health deals

Vision Express: free eye test with £50 spend

Download the Lidl Plus app, and in the partner offers section you’ll find you can claim a free eye test (worth £30) and get 30% off frames, as long as you spend £50 on prescription glasses at Vision Express.

Ends 10 October 2025.

Grüum beauty deals

Grüum: skincare and/or haircare bundle for £3.95

You can get two or three full-sized products from Grüum (worth up to £43) for just the cost of delivery (£3.95).

There are several bundles to choose between, although some are often out of stock. The options include skin cleansers, shampoo bars, body wash bars and body oils, to name a few.

You have to pay £3.95 for delivery, but for a couple of products, that’s not bad.

Boots offers

There are often regular offers and savings at Boots so we’ve set up a page just for those deals.

Holland & Barrett offers

£3 free spend via Holland & Barrett loyalty scheme

Sign up to the H&B Rewards for Life scheme and you’ll get 300 bonus points straight away – worth £3.

You’ll then earn 4 points for every pound you spend, and vouchers are sent out four times a year (minimum 50 points needed).

Lush beauty deals

Lush: £3 Lush Club bonus (expired)

If you join Lush’s UK loyalty club then new or existing account holders can get a £3 welcome voucher if they sign into the latest version of the app before 8 October 2024.

You don’t need to do anything to trigger the coupon, though do check if it’s showing in the banner on the app or in the ‘Rewards’ section of the app.

You’ll be able to use the £3 in-store or on purchases via the app. It’ll last three months from activation.

Liberty beauty deals

Liberty: Subscription box offer

You can get an unusual beauty subscription box from Liberty. If you deposit £25 per month into your Liberty “beauty bank” (essentially buying store credit), then you get a “Discovery Box” four times a year for £5 per month, worth a total of £300 per year. 

You’ll still have the credit in your account that you deposited (except the £5 fee for each box), but it can’t be refunded or withdrawn.

What’s in the beauty box?

The box is called The Beauty Drop. You get four per year full of trial-sized products. They’re sent in January, April, July and October and they’ll be worth up to £300 throughout the year. 

Remember that just because Liberty would sell the products for £300, it doesn’t mean they’re worth that for you.

The drawbacks

Your typical bank account has protection – you’re protected by up to £85,000 if your bank goes bust. However, your money in the “beauty bank” at Liberty isn’t protected. This means that if Liberty were to go bust, the money you have in the account likely won’t be refunded to you, much like a gift card.

You could mitigate this by spending the money you deposit as soon as you can and not letting a large balance rack up, but Liberty’s high prices might prevent this. 

The best birthday freebies and how to get them

Get more than £60 of birthday freebies from shops and restaurants

Birthday freebies

Everyone likes to feel extra special on their birthday. Which is why some companies offer birthday freebies, with everything from free cake to a bottle of Prosecco. The best thing about some of these is that you often get a few weeks to claim your freebie, letting you take advantage of more, and spread your birthday out even further. 

One birthday, Editor-in-chief Andy managed to bag himself a free meal at his favourite burger joint Meat Liquor, some posh Hotel Chocolat treats, a Body Shop shower gel and he saved money on some flatpack furniture at Ikea, totalling £28 worth of freebies.

And here’s how you can get up to £60 worth of freebies for your birthday. 

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

How to get birthday freebies

While most retailers’ emails end up unread and clogging up your inbox, when it comes to a few weeks before your birthday, it’s time to pay a little extra attention to them, just in case you’re getting a little gift. 

Of course, these brands aren’t giving you something for nothing. In all cases, you need to be signed up for their newsletters, loyalty schemes or apps, which means handing over your data and dealing with constant emails.

If you’re selective, and only pick the brands you regularly shop at and want to hear about, then it’s well worth doing. And often the birthday freebies aren’t the only offers and deals you’ll get sent during the year.

Don’t forget that you can always unsubscribe from emails once you’ve had your birthday, and possibly even sign up again – though it’s worth doing this at least a month before your birthday to allow time for your details to be processed.

One of our writers Nicky Selwood, says that she always gives a different birthday, so she’s got birthdays all year round to make the most out of. The odd one might want ID, so use your real birthday for these ones.

Free food and drink

From smoothies to doughnuts, here’s all the free food and drink you can get on your birthday. We’ve ignored a lot of the offers where you get a free main or bubbly when you buy a main, though there are a couple listed at the bottom of this page. They’re still decent offers, but we’re more excited about the freebies. 

If you manage to get a bill for £0, it’s still pretty good form to leave a tip.

Barburrito – free burrito

Barburrito is offering a free burrito on your birthday, as long as you’re signed up to the loyalty app. A few days before your birthday, you’ll be emailed a voucher for a free burrito, which should also show in the app. Show this at the till, and you can eat for free. 

You only get four days to claim it, so you have to be quick. 

Benugo – free drink

Coffee shop chain Benugo is giving away a free coffee on your birthday. You just need to sign up to the mailing list and you’ll get a free coffee and another on your birthday.

Boost – free drink

If you sign up for the Boost Vibe Club (you can do this online), you can get a free drink on your birthday. 

This can be claimed up to 3 days before and 3 days after your birthday.

You need to have earned at least one point and you’ll need to show ID proving that it’s your birthday. 

Burger King – free whopper

Add your date of birth to the BK Rewards app and you’ll get a free burger!

Caffé Nero – free cake

If you’re signed up for the free Caffé Nero app and ensure you have your birthday in your settings, you’ll get a voucher for a free slice of cake on your birthday. Plus you can get a free drink for signing up here.

Costa – free cake

If you’re signed up for the free Costa Club you’ll notice a reward for a free slice of cake appear in your app. Costa lets you know it’s there with an email too. 

Make sure you’ve told Costa when your birthday is, you can do this in the app.

Greggs – free cake or doughnut

Sign up to the Greggs Rewards scheme via the Greggs app and you’ll be able to claim a free doughnut, cupcake or cream cake. The voucher is valid for a month.

Krispy Kreme – free doughnut

You get a free doughnut via the Friends of Krispy Kreme scheme each year, though it’s only in full shops, not the ones you find in Supermarkets. 

With this offer, you can choose any doughnut during your birthday month. When it comes to claiming it, you will need to add the birthday reward to your wallet in the Krispy Kreme app. 

Lidl – free doughnut

If you haven’t quite had enough free doughnuts on your birthday, donut worry — you can claim another one from Lidl. 

This one is found in the Lidl Plus app and is valid for 7 days from the birthday listed in your Lidl Plus Account. 

Lola’s Cupcakes – free 5-inch cake

If you join the Lola’s Cupcakes Love Club more than 30 days before your birthday, then you can get a free small cake on your birthday for free.

You have to show ID that confirms your birth date and you have to prove you’ve been a member of the Love Club for at least 30 days. This excludes Lola’s Bakery in West Hampstead.

Muffin Break – free Muffin

There’s nothin’ like a free muffin on your birthday. By signing up for the Muffin Break loyalty scheme, you can get a free muffin in the month of your birthday.

There’s also a free doughnut for joining, too.

Starbucks – free drink

One for regular Starbucks users. If you join the free Starbucks Rewards scheme and reach Gold level (you need to earn 450 Stars, roughly a spend of £150) you’ll get a free drink on your birthday. You’ll also get other freebies throughout the year at this level. You get a free drink for every 150 stars you collect, so you’ll get 3 free drinks on your attempt to reach Gold. 

Subway – free cookie

Join Subway Rewards, add your date of birth and you’ll receive a treat on your birthday, usually a free cookie.

Our podcast

Listen to Cash Chats, our award-winning podcast, presented by Editor-in-chief Andy Webb and Deputy Editor Amelia Murray.

Episodes every Tuesday.

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Free birthday vouchers

With these retailers, it could be worth signing up in order to get a free voucher on your birthday. These are often only £5, but you could get yourself a few freebies or take a discount off something you’ve been eyeing up. There’s often no minimum spend, so you can get something for absolutely nothing. 

I’ve ignored those that give the likes of 10% off as those kinds of codes are regularly available.

Hobbycraft – £5 voucher

Register for Hobbycraft Club and you’ll be sent a voucher to spend in-store or online on the month of your birthday. You’ll also get a 15% off voucher when you sign up.

Marks & Spencer

M&S didn’t used to guarantee a freebie or voucher on your birthday, but it recently changed the Sparks scheme to get one for everyone signed up to the M&S Sparks card who has signed up for marketing and enters their birthday more than 35 days before via the app.

Freebies could include:

  • Chocolate Marks bar
  • All Butter Cookies 8-pack
  • Outrageously Chocolatey Rounds
  • All Butter Scottish Shortbread Assortment
  • Percy Pig sweets
  • Colin the Caterpillar sweets
  • Grapes
  • Blueberries

Hotel Chocolat – £5 voucher

For a free fiver with a £5.50 minimum spend, you just need to be signed up for Hotel Chocolat’s VIP.ME scheme.  

The voucher can also be combined with other offers. 

Andy actually forgot to do this and registered a few days after his birthday and I still got sent the £5 voucher a few weeks later, so it’s worth giving a go!

Extra points on your birthday

Boots – double points for the whole month

Boots Advantage cardholders get double points for their whole birthday month. This will pop up in your Boots app on the first of the month, and you need to load the deal to your card before you scan it in-store. Check your details in the app to make sure Boots knows its your birthday.

Superdrug – triple points on your birthday

If you have the Superdrug Beautycard, you get triple points on your birthday. The offer is valid for 2 weeks after your birthday. You don’t have to opt in or add it to your card, just make sure Superdrug knows when your birthday is.

Birthday gifts

Shopmium – free gift

Cashback app Shopmium often provides a special extra offer on your birthday. Andy’s managed to snag a free box of Celebrations. 

You’ll need to buy the item and scan the receipt to get the cashback. Here’s more on how the app works and a sign up offer.

Hobbs – free gift

Sign up for the Hobbs newsletter to get a free birthday gift. We’re not sure what you get, but in 2021 it was a candle. You also get 10% off your first purchase when you sign up.

Space NK – free gift

Again, it’s often a £5 off code but it could be a free miniature. And again you’ll get it by signing up to a membership scheme – for Space NK it’s called N.dulge

This is a loyalty scheme, so you’ll earn points each time you spend money, which can be converted into money off future purchases.

Free alcoholic drinks on your birthday

Slug & Lettuce – free bottle of Prosecco

If you’re signed up for the Slug & Lettuce newsletter, you’ll be emailed a code to claim a free bottle of Prosecco on your birthday. 

The email says that you have to book a table but we tried it twice (for two birthdays in July) and didn’t book a table either time. 

We simply popped the Prosecco into our basket in the app, entered the code and checked out. Within minutes, we had a bottle of Prosecco at the table, and we didn’t even have to order food.

You get lots of time to take advantage of this offer, with the voucher valid for 6 weeks.

Since being signed up for Slug & Lettuce emails, we’ve also nabbed a free Pina Colada on National Pina Colada Day – not to mention that two arrived at the table because it was Happy Hour!

Good birthday offers that aren’t freebies

Sometimes you’ll be sent a discount voucher or a free meal/ bottle of bubbly as long as you get another meal. These can be good and might be worthwhile if you’d like to eat there anyway, but they’re not strictly birthday freebies. 

Here are some of the things you can be offered:

Meat Liquor – 20% off the bill

Meat Liquor is one of Andy’s favourite burger places. A few years back you could get a free main meal and a side on your birthday, which he took advantage of. 

Sadly it’s now 20% off the entire bill – but that’s still decent if you like the food there. Sign up to the mailing list and you’ll get sent a unique code to use, valid for a week before and after your birthday.

Bills – “free” bottle of Prosecco

Again, not strictly a freebie, as each diner has to order a main meal. 

Make sure you’re signed up for the Bill’s Newsletter 4 weeks before your birthday and you’ll get an email with the gift. 

You’ll also need to pre-book a table. It’s valid for 5 weeks from the date that you get the email. 

Do you know of any other birthday freebies or discounts worth signing up for? Let me know in the comments below.

Our top deals

Here are a few ongoing and recent offers you might have missed:

Banking offers

Savings and investing offers

Shopping vouchers and other deals

Entertainment deals

Food and drink offers

Amazon Prime review: is it worth the money?

Wondering whether you should shell out for Amazon Prime? Here are the pros and cons.

Amazon Prime is a popular choice of subscription, but it comes at quite a cost. Here’s what you get if you sign up and our thoughts on whether it’s worth getting and when it should be avoided.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Amazon Prime homepage image

What is Amazon Prime?

Amazon Prime is a paid-for membership to the online giant that gives you a series of benefits that normal customers don’t have access to or have to pay more for. There’s a long list of these extras further down.

How much does Amazon Prime cost?

The free trial

Everyone can try Amazon Prime free for 30-days. It’s best to time your trial for when you think you’ll most need free delivery or when there’s a big promo event such as Prime Day, which tends to be in June or July each year; or Black Friday, which is on the fourth Friday of November each year.

Since every adult in the household can take out a free trial, if there’s more than one of you it’s possible to double up – or more. Once again, you can time these trials for times you’ll need to make more purchases, like ahead of an event or to prep for things like Christmas gifts.

You can repeat your trial a year after a trial has finished, so there’s the potential to do this every 13 months. And sometimes there’s even an offer earlier.

The annual membership: £95 a year

Amazon Prime costs a hefty £95 a year. This is a lot so you’ve got to use at least two or three of the perks for it to represent good value.

There used to be a couple of times a year where you could get the membership for around £59. These were usually in the run-up to Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday, though they’ve not happened in recent years. We always list these on our Amazon deals and discounts page, so bookmark it and check back!

The monthly subscription: £8.99 a month

If you don’t want to pay for the full year then you can opt for an £8.99 monthly subscription instead, which you can cancel whenever you want. It will work out cheaper than the annual plan if you pay for nine months or less, or practically the same for 10 months.

There’s a cheaper £5.99 option but this is just for the Prime Video streaming service and not the other features. This can be difficult to find so we have a guide to find Prime Video.

The student / young person discount: £47.49 a year

There’s a cheaper option for students or young people aged 18-22 who aren’t at Uni. They’ll get six months free, then three years at £47.49 a year. A monthly option costs £4.49.

To get this you need to have a student card or age ID (. Sadly, the loophole where anyone could get a student card is closed, though you might be able to get an alumni card.

Or if you’re 18-22 year olds will also get access even if they’re not at Uni.

Again, each household member can have the trial, so you can easily double up if you qualify.

What you get with Amazon Prime

Here are the key extras you’ll get as part of your subscription.

Free next-day, possibly same-day, delivery

There’s no minimum spend for delivery from Amazon when you’re with Prime, except if you want same-day delivery, where there’s a £20 minimum or a £1.99 fee. If you order from Amazon a lot, the free delivery can be pretty handy.

Normally you’d have to pay extra to get things sent through if the order is under £35, or £10 for books. The minimum amount quietly changed from £25 in June 2024, up 40%. This is standard delivery, so it takes a few days.

Generally non-Prime delivery will cost £3.99 for media (books, CDs, DVDs and games) or £4.99 for everything else. You can sometimes knock these down to £2.99 if you get your order sent to an Amazon “pickup location” such as a locker or newsagent.

So if you’re mainly thinking of Prime for delivery, you’ll need to make 20 orders under £35 in a year to break even with the pickup deliveries, or 16 at the higher £4.99 charge.

However, since not everything on Amazon is sold by Amazon, there will still be items that aren’t eligible for Prime delivery.

Two Odeon tickets for £10

Once per month, Prime members can get two Odeon cinema tickets for £10 or two recliner tickets for £15 at Luxe cinemas on Mondays to Thursdays. This can be stacked with discounted gift cards, so for example a 20% off gift card would mean the two tickets cost £8.

There are better Odeon deals and offers available, especially when you consider that tickets at some Odeon venues are typically £5 with myODEON anyway and can be booked with Meerkat Movies, making the tickets half the price.

Exclusive access to flash sales such as Prime Day

In the middle of July, Amazon marks its birthday with Amazon Prime Day. This usually features some big discounts on Amazon products like Kindles, Echos and Fire TV, as well as all sorts of other items. These deals are only open to Prime members.

The Black Friday sale which tends to run for about 12 days, if not longer, is another big sale with extra offers for Prime members.

We find that most of these deals are stock clearance or encourage you to buy things you don’t need. However, there are bargains to be found, especially if you utilise some of the extra vouchers to buy things you actually need.

Early access to ‘Lightning Deals’

As a Prime member, you can buy the daily deals 30 minutes earlier than everyone else. Since stock is usually limited, this could be the difference between getting the item and missing out. Here’s more about how Lightning Deals work.

TV and movies with Prime Video

There are some good exclusive TV shows such as The Boys and The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, and plenty of other box sets.

There are also some decent recent and classic movies. Amazon is making more original movies and has purchased the legendary studio MGM, so we’ll see even more films appearing just on Prime.

You can stream from your computer, smart TV or devices such as a Chromecast or Fire TV stick, or download to your phone.

Don’t forget though that Prime Video costs £5.99 a month on its own (without the other Prime benefits), which might be a better option for you.

You can’t get ad-free streaming, though. Amazon introduced an extra £2.99 monthly charge for ad-free Prime Video in January 2024.

Pay less for your streaming

Find out which streaming service is the best value for money

pay less for streaming services

Live Champions League Football

Amazon is also increasing the sports you can watch exclusively via Prime Video. Next season you can watch Tuesday night Champions League football with it, though it no longer offers selected Premier League matches.

You can read more about the cheapest ways to watch football in our summary.

Ad-free streaming with Amazon Music Prime

This included streaming service is better than it used to be. It’s ad-free and has grown to 100 million songs (similar to Spotify) so there’s plenty to keep you occupied if you don’t want to shell out extra for premium music streaming.

The problem is you can only shuffle your tunes. That’s ok if you’re mainly listening to playlists (which you can create), but it can be annoying if you want to hear an album from start to finish.

You can also listen to podcasts ad-free – including our one, Cash Chats.

There is an extra Music Unlimited service which you pay £10.99 for, and there’s a £1 discount for Prime members, however, there’s a trick to pay upfront for a year to get Music Unlimited even cheaper.

Digital books and magazines with Prime Reading

Every month Prime members get access to a few thousand ebooks and magazines to read via a Kindle, Kindle app, or even your computer. There are a few big titles, such as the Harry Potter series, but otherwise don’t expect to pick up all the novels on your reading list.

The magazine offering isn’t bad, but the titles change every month. It’s better instead to see if you can get digital magazines from your library.

There’s also “First Reads” where you can pick up a free Kindle book each month from a selection of six or so titles. But don’t expect any future award-winners. You can see previous ‘First Reads’ titles here.

Games via Prime Gaming

You’ll get a Twitch channel subscription each month, along with some free PC games to play.

Unlimited photo storage with Prime Photos

Amazon’s cloud-based storage will keep the photos you take safe if your computer or phone is lost or stolen. You also get 5GB of storage for other file types with Amazon Drive – the same you get with Apple iCloud, but less than the 15GB with Google Drive.

Free Deliveroo Plus

You can sign up for a year of Deliveroo Plus Silver, which will save you money on delivery costs, worth £3.49 a month. However, there’s still a minimum spend of £15 per order. Here’s more about Deliveroo Plus.

Access to Amazon Fresh grocery delivery services

Prime members also get to order food from their local Morrisons, Iceland or Co-op and from Amazon Fresh. It’s free delivery for baskets over £60 but charges you £2 for orders between £40 and £60 and £4 if the total is under £40 or if you want the delivery within two hours.

Free Hello Fresh delivery

Prime members get free delivery on their Hello Fresh orders for a year. Delivery usually costs £4.99 for each box.

What you don’t get included with Amazon Prime

You’d be forgiven for expecting Prime to give you all the extra services Amazon offers. But no, you need to pay extra for the following:

  • Amazon Music Unlimited – an extra £10.99 a month
  • Kindle Unlimited – an extra £9.49 a month
  • Ad-free Prime Video – there’s an extra charge of £2.99 per month for this
  • Audible audiobooks – an extra £8.99 a month
  • Amazon Channels – costs vary for extra TV channels such as Paramount+ and Discovery+

What’s good about Amazon Prime

People obviously love the next-day delivery, and it’s certainly a service that other retailers find hard to compete with. And there’s much more you can get on top.

If you use most of the features that come with Amazon, you’re getting a lot for your money – effectively £7.92 a month if you pay for the year. Here’s a quick comparison of how this stacks up against some key competitors:

Prime MembershipCost with PrimeAlternativesCost of Alternative
Free next-day delivery£95Paying for delivery charges elsewhere (three orders a month at £2 an order)£72
Prime VideoIncludedNetflix (standard) at £10.99 a month£131.88
Amazon Music UnlimitedExtra £99Spotify Premium (annual subscription discount)£120
Total £194Total £333.88

We’ve assumed three online orders a month with a charge of £2. Often you’ll get free delivery from other retailers, but charges will also vary. And, you might order more or less, and delivery charges might be different too, but this gives you an idea.

With TV and film streaming, Prime Video is cheaper than Netflix, even when subscribed for full Prime rather than on its own.

And even with the extra charge for Music Unlimited, it’s cheaper than buying the same service with Spotify if you are also using the other parts of Prime.

Prime members can also get access to extra vouchers and discounts, which are great if you are going to spend the money with Amazon anyway.

What’s bad about Amazon Prime

There’s a reason that Amazon packs so much into the membership. It doesn’t want you to spend money elsewhere. If you’ve already paid for delivery with Prime, you’re not going to want to make orders with other retailers and pay for delivery, or get it later than you could with Amazon. This stops you from shopping around. And you could easily end up spending more money as a result.

In part, that’s because Amazon isn’t always cheaper. Across my year without Amazon in 2021 I actually saved money on his purchases – even when you factor in the delivery costs.

Plus, you’re much more likely to buy more because you have Prime. Not just because you’re more likely to be on Amazon more often and open to more temptation, but also because those extra discounts encourage you to make unnecessary purchases — such as on Prime Day and during Black Friday.

You also lose the friction that added delivery costs can add to your purchase, which might usually make you think twice before buying something you don’t need.

Let’s also look again at the table above. Yes, it’s potentially a huge difference in spending, but that’s assuming you don’t also pay for the other services elsewhere.

If you do want Disney+ or Netflix, then also having Prime for film and TV won’t be saving you cash – it’s an extra cost. It’s only cheaper if you ditch the others.

And if you need to shop elsewhere (not everything is on Amazon) you’ll pay for delivery on top.

Is Amazon Prime worth it?

So, does Amazon Prime offer good value for money? Well, it can, as long as you use at least a couple of the services. Most people will get enough use from the free delivery and exclusive discounts on Prime Day and Prime Video to justify the £95 fee.

However, if you end up buying more and not shopping around because you have Prime, you’re likely to spend more money having Prime rather than not having it.

Don’t forget you can still shop at Amazon without Prime. Yes, you might pay between £2.99 and £4.99 for items under £25 (it’s under £10 for books). But you’d need to order something under that threshold roughly every fortnight to cover your £95 fee. Do you order low-cost items that often from Amazon?

And of course, you need to consider where else you shop. It ultimately comes down to whether you are dedicated to Amazon or happy to shop and stream elsewhere.

If you don’t want to stop completely, then maybe you could cancel your annual membership and go monthly. And then pick and choose the months you need to use it. So perhaps it’s just around Prime Day, Black Friday and when you want to binge on some new box sets. Just see how you go!

My year without Amazon

Why I cancelled Amazon Prime membership

I actively chose to go without Amazon in 2021, so I obviously cancelled my Prime membership – even though I was paying just £39 a year.

This was largely a step to proactively support other retailers (ideally on the high street). But I also wanted to make sure my money didn’t help Amazon continue to grow its profits while it manages to (legally) avoid paying a fair rate of tax here in the UK and elsewhere.

Of course, you might think that going without isn’t possible, but I’d urge you to give it a try. I found it so much easier than I thought I would, and I’ve been surprised by how much less I bought and how much less things cost at the same time.

You can read more about my year without Amazon and how much money I saved.

How to cancel Amazon Prime

Watch this video to see how you cancel – and why you might want to think about using Amazon less.

Other ways to save at Amazon

Make sure you check out our Amazon deals and offers. This is where we’ll list flash sales, gift card bonuses and other extras. For example, you can often get a free top-up when you buy a gift card. All this and more via the link below.

How to watch BT Sport for free and deals to save

BT Sport isn’t the cheapest channel out there but it is possible to pay less, and sometimes even get it for free.

BT Sport is now TNT Sports

TNT Sports replaced BT Sport in 2023, following a merger with Warner Bros Discovery. We’ve got a page with the latest TNT Sports deals and offers so you can carry on watching your favourite sports for less on that channel.

The cheapest ways to watch BT Sport are if you’re a BT broadband / TV or EE mobile customer. There’s a pay-as-you go option for those with different internet and mobile providers.

Here are the best offers right now to save you cash.

BT Sport and Be clever with your cash logo on blue background

Pay as you go passes

BT Sport month pass – £30.99

For the first time, BT has introduced a monthly pass at £30.99 a month. This means you don’t need to have any other service with BT or to sign up to a long contract – though you will have to cancel to stop the subscription rolling over to a new month.

The pass lasts for 30 days and includes all the BT Sport channels and discovery+, including 4K and HDR options if your TV supports it.

Sadly there’s no day pass as you get with NOW TV.

* The price increased from £25 on 17 February 2023

30-day pass via Virgin Media Stream – £16.20

If you get your broadband from Virgin Media then you can pay £18 a month on a rolling 30-day contract (so effectively a monthly pass), and get 10% credited back to your bill. You will need to buy a £35 Virgin Media Stream box though (here’s my review).

Get it with your broadband

If you get your internet services from BT or Plusnet then you can get the BT Sport channels for an extra charge each month. This starts from £15 a month and you can watch via the BT Sport App. It goes up if you also add other BT TV channels and get a Freeview Box to plug into your TV.

If you’re adding it to an existing BT contract then it could mean you start a new contract for all your BT services. Shop around for deals that’ll bring the price down, such as using cashback sites for an added bonus.

Get it via Virgin Media

Virgin Media Stream: £8 per month

You can currently get BT Sport channels for £8 a month via Virgin Stream. It’s a 30-day rolling contract so you can cancel at any time. You’ll get the price for 18 months max, when it will then revert to full price (currently £18).

However you do need to be getting broadband via Virgin Media and there’s a £35 one-off set up charge (this can often be haggled to zero if you call up).

Check out our review of Virgin Media stream to find out more.

Get it with your mobile

If your mobile phone is via EE you can buy passes to watch on your phone using the BT Sport app. You’ll get access to BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport 3, BT Sport/ESPN and BoxNation channels.

There are add-ons that let you watch it via the BT Sport app on your TV or improve picture quality to 4K.

Three months free with EE

EE customers can get the BT Sport app free for three months by texting SPORT to 150. Unless you cancel after this you’ll move on to the monthly paid subscription.

£10 a month mobile pass via EE

Access to the BT Sport app costs £10 a month. You can only watch it on your device and this is just for EE customers.

£15 a month to use BT Sport app on TVs and smart sticks via EE

The next level up is £15 a month the BT Sport Large Screen package lets you watch it on a TV via devices such as a Chromecast, Xbox, Amazon Fire Stick and some smart TVs.

The step-up to UHD/4K viewing is a package called BT Sport Ultimate which costs £20 a month.

10 months Big Screen & BT Ultimate for £15 a month via EE

This season pass lets you watch the channels on your TV and also upgrades picture quality to 4K. It’s £15 a month, so you’re saving £5 a month on the Ultimate package – but you are committing to 10 months.

There’s an early cancellation charge if you want to stop early, which you’ll also be charged if you switch away from EE for your SIM. To get this text SEASON to 150.

“Free” with EE Swappable Benefits

If you have a reasonably expensive “Smart Plan” contract with EE you can choose BT Sport as one of your swappable benefits. However I’d say you’re probably better off shopping around for a cheaper SIM-only deal.

You can pay £5 more to upgrade to the Large Screen package.

Three months BT Sport and Chromecast for £40 via EE (out of stock)

The BT Sport in a Box promotion gives EE customers (on a 12-month SIM-only contract or pay monthly tariff but not 30-day SIM-only deals) three months of BT Sport Large Screen and get a standard Google Chromecast (RRP £30) for £45.

You’re effectively getting a free Chromecast with this deal, though you might want to check out offers for the new Chromecast instead.

If you’ve not had the free trial, those three months will automatically be added to your account when you sign up.

BT Sport on YouTube

Watch the Champions League final for free

For the last five or six years, BT has shown the Champions League final and Europa League final for free via BT Sport’s YouTube channel and on the BT Sport website for free! So anyone can watch without paying.

In 2023 the games are as follows:

  • 31 May: Europa League Final (Sevilla vs Roma)
  • 7 June: Europe Conference League Final (Fiorentina vs West Ham)
  • 10 June: Champions League Final (Manchester City vs Inter Milan)

Free Discovery+ with BT Sport

If you get BT Sport via BT TV, EE or Plusnet, you can get the Discovery+ package for free, which includes Eurosport. This is worth £5.99 a month for £59.99 a year.

This should include the monthly BT Sport pass, but not if you pay Sky and Virgin Media direct for BT Sport. You’ll need to activate the offer here.

How to watch BT Sport on your TV

So how do you get these options on your TV? 

Check for an app on your TV or smart device

You can watch BT Sport on your TV if you have the BT Sport app. This is available on

  • Samsung Smart TVs
  • Amazon Fire Sticks
  • Chromecast
  • Roku devices
  • NOW sticks
  • Xbox
  • PlayStation
  • Apple TV
  • Netgem

Buy an HDMI cable

As long as you have a laptop with an HDMI connector, you can just buy a cable to connect to your TV. This should be the cheapest option – but I prefer the smart stick options!

Sport on other channels

You can watch sport on Sky, Eurosport and Premier Sports. Here’s my guide to the ways to save on each of them.

The best deals

Find our picks of the best offers in our dedicated deals library

Club Lloyds review

With free cinema tickets and up to 6.25% interest on savings, is it worth opening this current account with Lloyds?

Regular readers will know I’ve got a lot of current accounts as I like to take advantage of the offers and benefits they each provide. But you don’t need to have as many as me – you’ll be fine with three or four.

So how do you decide which ones to go for? The Club Lloyds account is definitely a contender right now thanks to a choice of free cinema tickets, Disney+ or magazines. Plus, there are regular switching offers worth around £175.

Here’s what you need to know about the account.

What is Club Lloyds?

Club Lloyds is a current account from Lloyds Bank with some extra benefits over the standard classic account. It comes with a fee – though you can easily avoid paying it.

If you are going to get an account with Lloyds, this is the one you’ll get the best value from.

How much does Club Lloyds cost?

It’s not a free account. There’s a monthly £5 fee (increased from £3 on 2 June 2025).

However, if you pay in £2,000 every month you will get that £5 refunded. £2,000 a month is roughly what you’d get paid if you earn £30,000 a year (not including pensions or other contributions).

That means it’s affordable for most people, which means there’s really no reason why you should pay the monthly fee.

Top Tip

You don’t have to keep the £2,000 in the account if you don’t want to. When you get paid you can transfer the cash in and then transfer it back out to another account.

You can even do it in smaller amounts, four lots of £500 for example.

Here’s more about how I find extra Direct Debits and pay minimum amounts into multiple current accounts each month.

Can you get a switching bonus?

Lloyds regularly offers switching bonuses between £100 and £175 for the Club Lloyds and Club Lloyds Platinum accounts. There tend to be three or four a year.

New and existing customers are usually able to claim the offer if they open a new account and switch to it from a different bank. I’ve shared more details on the latest offer over on this page.

Club Lloyds Lifestyle benefits

When you open up a Club Lloyds account you can claim a free gift each year.  You get to choose from four different ‘Lifestyle Benefits’. 

You need to select your choice within 30 days of opening the account and this gift remains fixed for 12 months. You can swap to a different benefit once that period ends, or stick with the same offer.

There’s also the ability to earn up to 3% interest on savings, access a 6.25% monthly saver and get cashback on some purchases.

Free cinema tickets

You can select six tickets to use at either Odeon or Vue. You’ll get all six tickets at the start of the year and they’re valid for 12 months.

These tickets are valid for 2D and 3D showings. At Vue you can also use them at VIP or Xtreme screenings. Odeon will let you use them for Premier or recliner seats and some Luxe screens. You can’t use them at the BFI Imax, Odeon Luxe & Dine or screen 1 at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square.

Though technically you can’t use them with another offer, I’ve seen them combined with things like Meerkat Movies – doubling your saving. 

They can be used any day of the week – so they’re probably best to save for expensive days like weekends, if you want to see a movie in 3D or at pricier upgraded locations.

Free Disney+

Alternatively you can choose a year of Disney+ with Ads, the streaming service with Disney, Marvel, Fox and Star Wars content. This is worth £59.88 a year.

You aren’t able to upgrade to a Standard or Premium tier without adverts or additional features.

Free magazine subscription

There’s a decent choice of 29 print or digital titles available. All are Hearst Magazine or Bauer Media publications (full list below). You won’t get the first issue for up to eight weeks which can making it a challenge to know when to stop buying copies if it’s something you already read.

Club Lloyds magazine choices (print or digital)

  • Bike
  • Bird Watching
  • Car
  • Classic Cars
  • Cosmopolitan
  • Country Living
  • Country Walking
  • ELLE Decoration
  • ELLE
  • Empire
  • Esquire
  • Garden Answers
  • Good Housekeeping
  • Harper’s Bazaar
  • House Beautiful
  • Improve Your Coarse Fishing
  • Landscape
  • Men’s Health
  • Modern Games
  • Mojo
  • Practical Classics
  • Prima
  • Red
  • Runner’s World
  • Spirit & Destiny
  • Steam Railway
  • Today’s Golfer
  • Trail
  • Women’s Health

Free Gourmet Society membership

This restaurant discount card will give you 25% off your bills, including drinks at selected restaurants. There are also extra discounts available like cinema tickets, theme parks and movie rentals.

Which freebies are the best value for money?

Here’s a quick summary of how much it would cost you to buy those freebies yourself:

The value of the cinema tickets freebies depends on where you live as tickets can really vary in price. I’d say it’s within a range of £30 to £90. But if you choose to go for 3D and VIP seats then they could easily be worth more than £100.

Disney+ with Ads is £4.99 a month, so its worth just under £60. Though this saving assumes you’ll actually watch Disney+ every month. If you have other streaming services it makes sense to mix and match over the year, paying only for ones you’re actually watching.

The magazine value obviously depends on which title you get and how many issues there are a year (e.g. Esquire has only six issues). But to give you an idea, a year’s subscription to Empire is currently discounted to £59.99 via Great Magazines.

The Gourmet Society membership could cost you as much as £79.99 a year, but it’s easy to find offers reducing it to £35 for a year.

Which lifestyle benefit should you choose? 

Andy’s Analysis

Ultimately it comes down to which one you’ll actually use – and how much you’d spend on it.

It’s possible to save money on tickets most days, but it is harder to get discounts on weekends or for posh seats. So if you go to the cinema at least six times a year (or three times if you’re a couple), it’s likely this is the best option.

Or if you know you’ll have Disney+ all year around, no matter what, picking that is a locked in saving.

Club Lloyds savings rates

You can earn interest on money held in the account and in a separate regular saver.

6.25% Monthly Saver

Pick of the bunch is a monthly saver that’s exclusive to Club Lloyds customers. This offers 6.25% and you can pay in between £25 and £400 a month. 

The 6.25% is fixed for 12 months when the interest is paid and the savings account closed. It’s really easy to open this via your account. I did it via the app. You can’t access the money More details here.

You can also open a standard Lloyds Monthly Saver if you have more to put away. This has a lower rate of 5.25% and the max you can add it £250 a month.

Up to 3% interest in your account

There’s also some in-account interest. To get it you must pay out two direct debits every month.

For the first £3,999 you hold in your actual current account you’ll get 1.5% interest. Then you’ll get 3% on the next £1,000. So if you always have £5,000 in your account you’ll earn the equivalent of just under 2%.

Linked 3.25% Advantage Savers

You also get access to an ISA or normal savings account paying 3.25% – as long as you make three or less withdrawals in a year.

Is Club Lloyds worth it for the interest?

The monthly savings account is a great option, especially since it’s fixed for a year. But the in-account interest and other ‘Advantage’ savers can be easily beaten by savings rates elsewhere.

Other Club Lloyds perks & features

Free spending overseas

You can use your card abroad for spending and cash withdrawals without any charge. That means it’s a decent pick for your holidays, though a handful of alternatives will earn you cashback on top.

Club Lloyds overdraft

With a Club Lloyds account, you get a £100 interest-free overdraft. Beyond this you’ll pay 39.9%. Here’s more on your alternatives.

Cashback on purchases

All Lloyds accounts also give you access to Everyday Offers, worth up to 15% off when using your debit card.

You will be offered retailers based on your spending and will need to activate them before spending. I’ve only really used this for LNER trains, otherwise my experience of these offers with other banks, is that it’s very hit and miss. Plus the deals are often available elsewhere. 

But it’s worth checking to see what you are offered. And where these do work is that you can use them in combination with cashback site savings.

Our podcast

Listen to Cash Chats, our award-winning podcast, presented by Editor-in-chief Andy Webb and Deputy Editor Amelia Murray.

Episodes every Tuesday.

Andy and Amelia with the text "Cash Chats Personal finance podcast"

Lloyds app

The app is effectively the same one as Halifax, and it’s relatively easy to use. In fact, it’s one of my favourite ones outside Starling, Monzo and Chase. If you want to see how it compares to apps from other banks, check out this guide.

Here are some of the features worth knowing about:

Account details and management

An important feature for me is the ability to copy and share account details from the app – and Lloyds let you do this. You can also amend your address.

Card details and controls

You can see your PIN, long card number, expiry date and security code in the app. You can also copy the long card number to paste into online shops.

There are a handful of controls too. You can set your own contactless limit and freeze the card for a handful of reasons (overseas, online, in person, gambling and contactless).

Cheque payments

Lloyds is one of a handful of apps that lets you pay in cheques via the app. More info on how this works here.

Save the change

This is available to all Lloyds current accounts and it’s pretty cool. You may have seen it already via digital banks such as Monzo.

The idea is every time you spend money with your debit card the bank will top up the amount to the nearest quid from your account, and move it to a separate savings account.

So, say you spend £2.80, an extra 20p will be taken from your account. It’s a nice way to automate your savings and put money away without any effort.

You do need to activate the feature so it won’t happen unless you give permission. 

However you won’t be earning any interest on this money so I’d get in the habit of transferring it across to a better paying account on a regular basis – which kind of defeats the purpose of making it something that happens without you doing anything.

Budgeting and tracking

It’s relatively limited but you can see where your spending goes via a spending insights option. You’re able to view upcoming payments, to help you ensure there’s enough money in your account.

As with more and more apps, you’ll get notifications of spending and money coming in via the app.

Subscription Monitoring gives you the ability to cancel subscriptions within the app. You’ll also be told when subscriptions are due to end. It’s a handy way to avoid overpaying for services you don’t use or stopping subscriptions where it’s a nightmare to get through to someone on the phone. But it’s not a reason to get the account.

Multiple account hack

You’re only allowed one personal Club Lloyds account, but you can get another as a joint account. That means if you’re in a couple, between you there are three accounts up for grabs, and three ‘lifestyle benefits’. You can only get one Club Lloyds Monthly Saver each though, not a third joint one.

Summary – should you get it?

Club Lloyds Current Account

Rewards‘Lifestyle Benefit’ giving you a choice of 6 free cinema tickets, Disney+, a magazine subscription or Gourmet Society membership

Limited cashback
Monthly Saver6.25% AER up to £400 a month (must apply separately)
Interest on savings1.5% on balances between £1 and £3,000; 3% on balances between £4,000 and £5,000
OverseasFee-free spending and cash withdrawals abroad
Fee£5 a month (£0 if you pay in £2,000 a month)
RequirementsThe account requires two active monthly Direct Debits to earn interest
Overdraft£100 interest-free buffer

Then 39.9%

Andy’s Analysis – Is Club Lloyds a good account?

The Club Lloyds account is a decent all-rounder. Not the best reward, best interest rate or best banking app. But all are still better than what you’d get from most accounts. If you already have it, I’d keep hold of it.

Personally, I think you should open one up as a spare account rather than a main account. It’s always useful to have another account as a backup, and you can claim the lifestyle rewards even if this isn’t your main account.

And you can get that freebie year after year for free as long as you transfer in £2,000 a month – which is easy to do. The same goes for the monthly saver.

But should you switch from another bank to get it? Well if there’s a switching bonus then it’s definitely worth it. But if not, then no, I wouldn’t switch. There are better accounts out there to priotitise, including some offering an incentive to switch.

Energy price cap to fall by 7% from July 2025

The average household will pay £1,720 a year

The energy price cap is going down, taking a typical bill to around £143 a month.

Though energy prices are well down on their 2022 peak, they’re still almost double what we’d pay pre-pandemic and pre-Ukraine invasion.

Here’s what you need to know about the cap and how much you’ll pay.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

How the energy cap works

The energy price cap is a limit set every three months by Ofgem, the government’s energy regulator. It restricts how much an energy company can charge customers.

The cap applies to the price of your gas and electricity on your energy company’s default or standard variable rates. These basically can go up and down whenever the energy company likes. With the cap, the energy companies have to make sure their tariffs aren’t higher than the set rate.

Despite how it looks, it’s not the most you can pay for your bills. Instead, the prices set on the cap are the maximum price per unit of energy you use. Ofgem announces the figure as an annual price, as you probably don’t have a clue how many kwh of energy your family uses. 

The quoted “cap” (£1,720) is an annual price based on a typical household. If you use more energy, you’ll pay more than the cap every year. Use less and you’ll pay less.

There are separate caps for gas and electricity, and each cap is also made up of a standing charge (a set amount each day, regardless of whether you use any energy) and a usage charge. 

The cap will also vary depending on where you live in the UK. Prepayment caps have always been a little higher, though that changed earlier this year. The new energy price cap also applies to those with a prepayment meter. 

Crucially, if you’re on a fixed-rate deal the cap doesn’t apply and the price you pay won’t change until that fix ends.

What is the new energy price cap?

The latest announcement is rise to the price cap from 1 July until 30 September 2025.

The new cap for a “household with average use” is £1,720 a year. This is down by about £129, or 7% from the current rate.

If you break it down to each actual unit cost, the average caps are:

 Energy price cap per unit and standing charge 1 April to 30 June 2025Energy price cap per unit and standing charge 1 July to 30 September 2025  
Electricity27.03 pence per kWh
53.80 pence daily standing charge     
25.73 pence per kWh
51.37 pence daily standing charge
Gas6.99 pence per kWh
32.67 pence daily standing charge 
6.33 pence per kWh
29.82 pence daily standing charge 
Source: Ofgem

This does vary based on where you live, though the Ofgem website has a full breakdown of the regional caps for all standing charges and units.

What is the new average monthly energy bill?

Despite Ofgem attempting to present the information in a way we understand, the total annual cap figure isn’t always the easiest to comprehend – especially since our energy use changes throughout the year but this cap only applies to three months,

At the same time, it’s not a flat increase to all bills as there could be different percentage changes to standing charges and unit rates.

So we think it’s easier to understand the price cap when you view it as a monthly direct debit. Your energy company calculates this by taking the predicted cost for a year based on your previous energy usage and dividing it by 12. It’s not 100% accurate, but it’s a handy comparison.

For the latest cap, the average monthly bill will be £143 which is £11 less every month than the current cap.

What is the current energy price cap?

The current price cap (1 April to 30 June) is £1,849 a year, based on the average household. This is with the new typical use figures.

When will the new prices start?

This new energy price cap will come into play on 1 July and will remain in place until 30 September.

How much will you pay under the new energy price cap?

Remember, the price cap figures are based on average use. If you use more than this average you’ll pay more, if you use less you’ll pay less. Plus, it can vary regionally so you’ll need to check where you live to see exactly what it’ll be for you.

If you want to get a rough quick idea, you can take away 7% from what you pay at the moment (multiply your current monthly bill by 0.93). This doesn’t take into account the balance between unit and standing charges, or whether you’ve got an accurate direct debit set-up, but it could give you a sense.

Will you pay more or less money with the new energy price cap?

If you’re on a variable tariff

Broadly, anyone on a standard tariff will be charged less per unit of energy from 1 April 2025. Of course, the bill itself will be based on your actual energy use. 

If you’re on a prepayment meter

There is no longer a significant premium for those with prepayment meters. In fact, it’ll be slightly less at £1,672 on average for the year.

If you’re already on a fixed tariff

If you’re fixed onto a tariff, your prices usually don’t change when the price cap changes. That’s because you’ve already agreed on a price per unit of energy for a fixed length of time with your energy supplier, usually 12 months.

Should you fix your energy?

We’ve seen more fixed deals returning to the market since last summer and right now, the cheapest 12 month fixes are 18% lower than the cap. The price of these tariffs do depend on where you live but it’s still worth checking them out to see if you’ll save.

You’ll be comparing prices based on the price cap now, rather than July’s one, so this means your savings will be 7% more – so make sure you consider that.

If you go for one of these, bear in mind that some will charge an exit fee if you want to swap suppliers before the end of the term.

There are also some tariffs that track at below the cap, so you’ll always pay less – but not necessarily less than a fix.

Of course, these can change, so it’s worth using a comparison site to see what rates are available.

Will bills go up again?

The current predictions are that the price cap could stay at a similar level in October bringing bills up slightly to £1,726 a year, but a lot can change in that time.  

When is the next price cap change?

The price cap is reviewed every three months (though prior to October 2022 it was every six months).

The price cap will next change on 1 October 2025. After this, it’ll change again on 1 January 2026, a change that will be announced in November 2025.

Price cap announcements & changes

  • Announcement by 27 August 2025 for 1 October 2025 change
  • Announcement by 27 November 2025 for 1 January 2026 change

How you can reduce your bill

Paying by direct debit will reduce your bills, so it’s well worth doing this.

Otherwise, it’s hard to do much to reduce what you spend on energy other than by using less energy. The standing charges will still apply, and bills will still be sky-high, but cutting back on gas and electricity will mean you pay less.

It’s worth giving accurate meter readings if you’re not on a smart meter. This will mean you’re more likely to have an accurate direct debit on current use, rather than what you used last year, and stops you from falling into debt on your energy account. Your energy firm will probably not change this automatically, so you might need to ask.

Don’t forget a direct debit does average the spend out over the year so you should hope to overpay in the summer and underpay in the winter to help even out your bills.

How has the price cap changed?

As you can see, the really big changes have happened since October 2021. Before this the average direct debit was under £100, so even with this new cut, we’re still paying more, and even more on top if you had been saving with a lower fixed rate deal.

These are the energy price caps going back to 2019, we’ve roughly adjusted them for the new typical use figures. You can see the historical price caps with the old figures below.

DateCost per year with new typical use figuresEPG & grantsAverage monthly billChange (+/-)
July to September 2025£1,720N/A£143-7%
April to June 2025£1,849N/A£154+6.4%
January to April 2025 £1,738N/A£145+1.2%
October to December 2024£1,717N/A£143+9.5%
July to September 2024£1,568N/A£131-7.2%
April to June 2024£1,690£3,000 EPG£141-12.34%
January to March 2024£1,928£3,000 EPG£161+5.13%
October to December 2023£1,834£3,000 EPG£153-7.95%
July to September 2023£1,992£3,000 EPG£166-17.04%
April to June 2023£3,151£2,402 EPG£200+50.33%
January to March 2023£4,110£2,402 EPG & £67/m grant£1330.00%
October to December 2022£3,409£2,402 EPG & £67/m grant£133-15.62%
April to September 2022£1,893£158+54.35%
October 2021 to March 2022£1,227£102+12.21%
April to September 2021£1,093£91+9.21%
October 2020 to March 2021£1,001£83-7.46%
April to September 2020£1,082£90-4.50%
October 2019 to March 2020£1,133£94-5.98%
April to September 2019£1,205£100+10.29%
January to March 2019£1,092£91
Estimated costs, due to the change in the typical domestic consumption

Historical energy price caps

These are the energy price caps from before the typical use figures changed. This change made it difficult for us to compare new caps with the old ones, so we’ve converted the old price caps into ones with the new typical figures above.

DateMax annual bill for a typical householdAverage monthly direct debitChange +/-
October to December 2023£1,923 price cap / (£3,000 EPG)£160.25-7%
July to September 2023£2,074 price cap / (£3,000 EPG)£173– 17%
April to June 2023£2,500 EPG / (£3,280 price cap)£208 (£273.33 without EPG)+ 19% (-23.3%)
January to March 2023£2,100 (£2,500 EPG – £400 grant) / (£4,279 price cap)£175 (£356.58 without EPG and grant)+ 0% (20.5%)
October to December 2022£2,100 (£2,500 EPG – £400 grant) / (£3,549 price cap)£175 (£295.75 without EPG)+ 8%(+80%)
April to September 2022£1,971 price cap£162.25+54%
October 2021 to March 2022£1,277 price cap£106.42+12%
April to September 2021£1,138 price cap£94.83+9%
October 2020 to March 2021£1,042 price cap£86.83-7.5%
April to September 2020£1,126 price cap£93.83-4.5%
October 2019 to March 2020£1,179 price cap£98.25-6%
April to September 2019£1,254 price cap£104.50+10.2%
January to March 2019£1,137 price cap£94.75

Winter fuel payments u-turn

This week, Prime Minister Kier Starmer also announced he’d adjust the threshold for the winter fuel payments to allow more pensioners to claim it again.

People were in uproar last year when the payment, worth up to £300, became means-tested last year meaning more than 10 million pensioners lost out.

The details are yet to be confirmed and it’s unclear whether the changes will be made by next winter or how many more people will be eligible. We’ll update you when we know more.

Tastecard & Gourmet Society trials & offers

A Tastecard membership gives you 2-4-1 and up to 50% off meals and cinema tickets across the country

Tastecard, Gourmet Society, Dine Card and Hi-Life Dining are the leading restaurant discount schemes, which often also come with savings at the cinema. Here are the latest offers, as well as more about how the memberships work and whether they are any good.

The bulk of these offers are for digital memberships, which means you access your card via the app on your smartphone. However, at times there are a couple of deals which come with a physical card – but do check when you click through.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Tastecard logo

Top Tastecard offers

Most Tastecard offers are 2 for 1 or 50% off food. For when there aren’t any free trials of Tastecard, it’s got a £2.99 monthly membership option, which means you can still give it a go without paying for a full year.

Tastecard: 90 day free trial

There’s currently a free trial on offer through the link below where you can get a Tastecard membership free for 90 days. The membership will auto-renew at £29.99 at the end of the trial unless you cancel it, which you can do at any time.

Unfortunately we don’t know when this offer is ending.

Tastecard: Free 90 day trial with Lidl+

If you have the Lidl+ app then you can get a 90 day free trial of Tastecard. You’ll need to click through via the app. This is available until 19 January 2026.

Tastecard: £2.99 per month

If you want to give Tastecard a go without committing to a full year, then you can opt for the monthly membership for £2.99 per month, but remember to cancel it if you don’t use it.

Tastecard: One year for £29.99

Here’s a reduced option for a whole year if you know you’ll want it for a full 12 months. Sometimes there are offers to lower this further.

Tastecard: Free with Totum student card

If you’re a student, or if you’ve ever had a Totum card from NUS or graduated in the last three years, you can buy an NUS Totum card which now comes with a free Tastecard. You’ll also get discounts at Apple, Co-op and more.

Top Gourmet Society offers

On the surface, Gourmet Society looks like a similar offering. But the deals can be different. For a start, it tends to offer 25% off the full bill including drinks, which could work out as a bigger saving for you. So do check the restaurants and deals before deciding which is best for you.

Gourmet Society: 60-days free membership

This free trial will get you 60 days. When the deal ends it will auto-renew at £5.99 a month.

Gourmet Society: Free with Club Lloyds current account

You can get a year of Gourmet Society membership as a ‘Lifestyle Benefit’ via the Club Lloyds bank account. However, you might be better off choosing free cinema tickets or a magazine subscription. More details here on the account and the different benefits.

Other dining club deals

These are similar, if not the same, as Tastecard and might represent better value depending on where you live and places you eat at.

Meerkat Meals: One year for £1(ish)

If you buy a one-day travel insurance product via Compare the Market you get access to both Meerkat Movies and the new Meerkat Meals. It’s more restrictive than Tastecard and Gourmet Soc, but it’s not a bad deal when paired with the movie offer. We’ve written more in detail about what you get with Meerkat Meals and how it compares.

What is Tastecard?

Tastecard restaurant offers

Tastecard is a membership scheme primarily offering money off at restaurants in the UK.

There are thousands of restaurants listed on Tastecard, from your local Indian to chains such as Pizza Express and Prezzo. They offer up to 50% off or 2 for 1 discounts. Do look for exclusions such as weekends or the number of people you can use the membership for on a table.

The membership is digital only, which you access via the Tastecard app. You simply show the card in the participating restaurant, normally before you order and certainly before you ask for the bill. Some restaurants require you to book in advance and to tell them you are using Tastecard. If this is the case, it will be listed on the specific restaurant tile on the app.

Tastecard + cheap movie rentals

A recent addition to Tastecard is the ability to get £1 off e-vouchers to use on movie rental site Rakuten. 

Tastecard + cinema deals

You can get discounted tickets at Showcase, Odeon, Vue, Picturehouse and Cineworld. Though do compare the discounted price with the box office price – it’s not always cheaper!

Gourmet Society and other schemes

Gourmet Society, High Life and Meerkat Meals are all run by the same company as Tastecard, and have a lot of similar deals. But each offers a slightly different discount and a few different restaurants, so it’s worth comparing them all to see which is best for you. Read our comparison of Tastecard, Gourmet Society, High Life and Meerkat Meals.

Are dining membership cards worth the money?

At full price (£79) I don’t think a Tastecard is worth the money, but around £30 isn’t a bad price as you’ll be even after a couple of meals out. Then the savings start. I’d definitely try a trial offer first just to see whether you’re likely to use it.

Before buying, check the Tastecard site to see what restaurants are included near you. If that looks good, take advantage of the offers below and go grab it!

For more details check out my comparison of all the different restaurant cards.

Cancelling your Tastecard

In the past, there have been issues with people forgetting to cancel before their free trial or annual membership ends.

Tastecard auto-renews your membership but you can cancel at any time in the app. To be safe, do it more than four days before your renewal date.

NatWest 5.5% Digital Regular Saver review – is it worth it?

NatWest is reducing the rate on this savings. Is it still worth it?

This monthly saver from NatWest (and also RBS) has had one of the highest interest rates since it launched in 2020 – but with a catch. The Digital Regular Saver is designed for those starting off their savings journey, and as such there’s quite a small monthly limit you can put away. Just £150.

And as rates begin to drop elsewhere, NatWest have followed suit and cut the rate here too Here’s what you need to know and whether it’s worth it.

Screenshot of the Natwest Digital Regular Saver in the app

How much can you save in the NatWest or RBS Digital Regular Saver?

Since late 2022, the maximum you can earn interest on will be £5,000. This is a big jump from the previous maximum of £1,000.

But it’s not as simple as adding all that cash to the account in one go. You can save between £1 and £150 a month into the account (at launch it was just £50).

If you keep the interest in the account, it’ll take two years and seven months of saving the full £150 to reach a balance of £5,000 (including the accumulated interest payments).

For those already with £1,000 saved in the account, it’ll be just over two years until you reach £5,000 (again including interest paid each month).

Unlike other regular savers accounts it won’t close after 12 months so you’ll continue to earn interest on your savings beyond this. You can also keep adding money once you get to the £5,000 cap, but I wouldn’t bother.

Another difference to normal regular savers is that you can take the money out whenever you want, not just when it matures. But taking £150 out doesn’t mean you can put extra back in. That £150 monthly deposit limit stays at £150 regardless.

The only way to add more than the £150 each month, and get to that £5,000 sooner, is to use a round-up function on your debit card.

How much money can you earn?

From 30 May 2025, the rate drops to 5.5% AER. This is a fall from a rate of 6.17% that was set in February 2023.

If you save the full £150 a month for the first year that’ll net you £53 in interest. Keep going until you reach £5,000 and the total interest will have been around £348.

However any new deposits will earn far less. Money saved beyond £5,000 will only earn 1.15%. This can easily be beaten elsewhere. Confusingly if you do have more than £5,000 in the account it’ll show the combined interest rate on the app as your earning rate. Don’t worry about this – you’re still getting the full whack on the initial balance up to £5,000.

It’s worth remembering the interest rate is variable. So though it’s changing to 5.5%, that could change again at any time.

Who can get this account?

You can only open one of these regular savers if you have a NatWest or RBS current account. There are free ones, or you can look at the NatWest or RBS Rewards account.

How many accounts can you have?

There’s only one per person, which means you can’t get another, even as a joint account.

However the same account is offered by both NatWest and RBS, and you can open up an extra current account and then digital regular saver at the other bank to get two.

Account summary

NatWest / RBS Digital Regular Saver (5.5%)

Account nameDigital Regular Saver
Interest rate6.17% AER (variable) / 5.5% AER from 30 May 2025
Max monthly deposit£150
Min monthly deposit£1
Max amount earn interest on£5,000
Account closesNo
WithdrawalsEasy access with no penalty
RequirementsMust have a NatWest or RBS current account
Must have a standing order of at least £1 every month from your Natwest current account

How to open an account

If you have an account you need to go to your online banking or app to open the saver. I did this via my app and it took just three minutes. There’s an “Apply” button on the bottom right, and then tap the savings option. It’s all self-explanatory from there.

You need to set up a standing order of between £1 and £150 from your NatWest account, though you can cancel this once you reach £5,000.

Should you open a NatWest Digital Regular Saver?

Andy’s Analysis

Even with the rate cut, it’s still a decent paying account. And the likelihood is that other rates will fall too in the coming months.

However, I’d focus first on the fixed rate regular savers from First Direct, Club Lloyds and Virgin Money as they’ll guarantee you a higher rate (for now – I’d imagine they’ll drop soon too). The problem is these all require a current account with those banks, and opening these will entail a credit check. That’s not an issue for most, but it’s something to be aware off.

If you don’t fancy that, and already have a NatWest or RBS current account then absolutely, I’d go for this Digital Regular saver instead (or as well).

Though there are similar paying regular savers, the big difference here is you will continue to earn interest on this one after 12 months. So in time it could be a better earner. Ideally you’d do both this and a strong competitor.

And for those not with NatWest, don’t forget there’s a £150 bank switch offer running at the moment

Of course, let’s not forget if you have a larger lump sum it’s better to prioritise opening up one of the best paying savings accounts.

Wine and spirits offers and deals

Pay less for wine and other booze in the supermarket, shops and in pubs

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Wine box deals

Good Pair Days: free cooler set with your first box

If you sign up for the wine subscription Good Pair Days then you can get a free cooler (with a cheeseboard lid), wine tumbler and insulated bottle with your first box. Look out for a pop up with the promotion.

You need to put at least three bottles of wine into your box – these can be just under a tenner each. Delivery costs £5 but it’s free if you order four or more bottles – so adding an extra £10 bottle will only cost you £5.

Ultimately it means the four bottles of wine and the freebies could come in at around £40, which we think is pretty good.

When we looked at some of the wines elsewhere they were £1-£2 cheaper, so this subscription box isn’t value for money without the freebie. Remember to cancel the subscription if you don’t want to continue it.

Zoe and Andy in the team have tried it and the actual cooler, tumblers and bottle are great quality, and the wines (so far) have been decent.

Laithwaites: 4 wines for £24

Laithwaites is offering four full-sized bottles of wine for half-price and delivery is free.

Andy got the link to the deal after ordering the mini bottles below, which Laithwaites says you can share with friends and family. So we’re offering it to all of our Be Clever with Your Cash community, obviously!

Choose from four red wines, four white wines or four mixed.

Supermarket wine offers

Head to our dedicated page sharing the latest 25% off multibuy wine offers.

Beer deals

There are lots of beer-related offers out there, so I’ve set up a separate page to help you save money on craft beer from supermarkets, specialist shops and online beer clubs, including discount codes for Beer52 and Honest Brew.