End-of-day food for next to nothing: Too Good To Go and Olio

Every evening cafes, bakeries and supermarkets throw out a mountain of unsold but perfectly good food. In Britain you can take it home for next to nothing — through apps that fight food waste. Here is where to find these deals and how much you can really save.

Too Good To Go: a Surprise Bag at half price

Here is how Too Good To Go works: a venue packs its unsold food of the day into a Surprise Bag, and you buy it in the app for much less — "half the price or less". You do not know exactly what is inside — hence "surprise". More than 200,000 businesses take part, including Greggs, Starbucks, Pret, Aldi and Morrisons. You reserve and pay for the bag in the app, then collect it from the shop at the set time.

ADV · A001ONLYWAY JEWELRY — gold, silver and platinumRings, chains, bracelets, earrings and pendants. Delivery across the UK.Advertise here

Olio: surplus food and items for free

Olio is the genuinely free option: neighbours and shops give away what they no longer need through the app, at no cost. People share not only food but also books, toys and household odds and ends. Surplus from shops (partners include Tesco, Sainsbury's, Pret and Asda) is collected by volunteer "Food Waste Heroes" and shared with neighbours for free. Some listings are sold "for a few quid", but plenty is completely free.

What else helps you eat for less?

An app similar to Too Good To Go is Karma, where cafes and restaurants sell unsold dishes at a discount. And in the supermarket itself, look for "yellow stickers": towards the evening shops mark down items near their use-by date, sometimes heavily. It is not free as such, but the saving is real.

What's the catch?

There is almost no catch, but a couple of things to know. With a Surprise Bag you do not choose the contents — it really is a lottery of what is left. You must collect within a narrow time window or you lose it. And on Olio popular free items go fast — first to message, first to collect. But there is no risk and no trick: you pay (or don't) in the app and simply turn up for the food.