If you are a foodie like me, who enjoys eating out at restaurants and visiting grocery shops.
You have likely wondered if its possible to get paid to eat food.
Now the idea of it sounds great but at the same time, it may seem has not possible.
After all, why would someone pay you to have a bite to eat?
But the truth is companies out there will pay you because there is something they can gain from it.
Whether that be helping them with market research.
Or if its a particular restaurant or shop, they can gain a loyal customer who will visit them frequently.
Now saying this, you won’t be surprised now to hear there are plenty of apps that will pay you to eat, and in this post, I will go over 10 of the best ones you can get started with today.
Table of Contents
1. Swagbucks
When it comes to earning money online, there aren’t too many sites with a name as big as Swagbucks.
They have been around for years and have paid out millions.
A lot of this money has been given back to people when they buy items, and with several food stores supported by Swagbucks, they are a great site to use.
Now how it works is Swagbucks is partnered with big brands, where for each purchase of food you make, they will pay you money.
So you could buy some groceries at a supermarket or even order a takeaway and essentially get paid money that you would otherwise not get.
Its not just getting paid to buy food that you get with Swagbucks, as you can also get paid to watch ads and complete surveys.
Funnily enough, from my experience with the site, many of these two things seem to involve food.
With that said, though, Swagbucks is worth checking out.
They also have a $5/£5 free sign-up bonus that they give to every user who signs up.
2. Ibotta
With over 10+ million downloads, Ibotta is a great option for an app to use if you want to get paid to buy food.
Ibotta is a reputable company that works with over 120+ brands in the US and Canada to give people cash-back opportunities.
These include grocery stores in Walmart and Target, but you also have a ton of fast food and restaurants where you can get as much as 30 per cent back on every purchase made.
Their lineup of food places is quite stellar, with 81 to choose from, including Dominos, TGI Fridays, Dave and Busters, and Taco Bell.
Now there are two ways to use Ibotta; you can shop in-store and also online. When shopping in-store, all you need to do is take a picture of the receipt and upload it on the app.
The other way is shopping online, which is even easier.
Here, you choose your favourite retailer and shop with them online with the qualified cashback being added to your account.
Now the best way to look at Ibotta is if you are someone who is buying food regularly, then you can save a lot of money to the point where you will be able to get free food out of it.
3. MyMcDonalds Rewards
It took Mcdonald’s a while to incorporate a loyalty scheme for there millions of customers.
But as of mid-2022, they launched the MyMcdonalds rewards, where you can get free food.
Now I will be honest when I say its not entirely free, as to get points, you do need to get points, similar to how other cashback sites and apps work.
But you get single items for free on occasion, such as cheeseburgers and fries, when you visit Mcdonald’s with your app.
If you are even a casual consumer of the fast food giant, though.
You will be able to pick up easy points that you can use to redeem various items on the Mcdonald’s menu for free.
I like it, as in the past you would buy food, getting only food in return.
However, you can now build up your points on every visit.
The best part is you can keep saving with these points redeemable at any point, with fan favourites like Big Macs and Cheeseburgers included on the list and charity donations.
4. Shopmium
Shopmium is a cool app I discovered a few years back that gives you the opportunity to either try the food for cheap or, in some cases, for free.
With the app, you can browse through grocery items for supermarkets Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Waitrose, with a lot of the items being new products released by big brands.
Now how it works is you choose what item you want from the Shopmium app.
You then go to the supermarket and pay for it as you would normally.
After you have purchased the item, you can then get the cashback for that item, so this means you are essentially getting food for either really cheap or, depending on the food item, free.
The app is nicely laid out, making it easy to browse, and with a referral program that gives you £3 for every user you invite to the app, there are plenty of incentives to use it.
5. Quidco
Another highly regarded app that will help you save money on food to the point where you can get it for free is Quidco.
The best way of which I will talk about just in a second.
But first, let me explain what Quidco is; so its a company that gives you money back on over 4500 brands across the UK.
Hundreds of these are food places consisting of supermarkets, online food shops and takeaway services that even include JustEat.
This means you have a ton of choices to save a lot of money on purchases you would usually make for free.
You can use it through their website or via their app.
All you need to do is go through Quidco when you go to pay for goods.
When you do this, you don’t need to do anything else as everything is recorded automatically, and the cashback is added to your account.
Now, as I was alluding to a second ago, there is a way to get food for free if you have never used them before.
If you purchase £5 worth of food, then Quidco will give you that amount straight back as a bonus you can withdraw.
This makes them a solid app that will pay you to eat food in 2022.
6. HelloFresh
Fancy a week’s worth of meals for free?
Well, a company called HelloFresh can give you exactly that.
Now HelloFresh is a subscription service that delivers fresh food to people’s doors to give them meals to eat for a week.
You can feed from 2-4 people and get meals lasting up to 6 days.
Unfortunately, though, to get a free box full of food from them, you will need to know someone who has HelloFresh themselves.
Any friends or family you know that have the service can gift you a box for free.
If you don’t know anyone who has it, then don’t worry as its actually possible instead to get four boxes quite cheap, thanks to the discounts they give to new users.
So while its not completely free, you can get 50% off your first box and then 35% of your next three boxes after that.
This gives you great value, as if you wanted to have meals for a month, you would at least get a week or two for free due to the massive savings you get.
Being a member myself, I can personally recommend them.
As they deliver meals with clear-to-follow instructions that will help you as a complete beginner to cook high-quality food.
6. YourBurgerKing
If your go-to fast food restaurant is Burger King, or you are even a casual eater there, then chances are you are missing out on free food.
That is because thanks to the rewards scheme they run, they give out food for free to members of the YourBurgerKing just for being signed up.
As a new user, there are two offers of note. This includes completely free regular fries aswell as a whopper when you spend £3.
Once you have used these, that is not it, as they continually update their offers with new ones for you to take advantage of.
Similar to McDonald’s too, you get points for every pound you spend at one of their chains.
So after a few orders, you will have points that will allow you to walk into a Burger King and use the app to get food for free.
7. Greggs
If you want a drink with no strings attached, then Greggs’s loyalty program is worth checking out.
By getting their free app on your phone and creating an account, you can redeem a hot drink from one of their stores.
You don’t need to make a purchase to get it. However, you have a month to redeem it.
Now there is more free stuff to be gained here, which will benefit any of you who, like me, go to Greggs regularly.
What you can get are various food items they sell when you buy enough items within that category.
There are six types in total: breakfast, savouries, drinks & snacks, sandwiches & salads and sweet treats.
When you buy nine of each item, you get a 10th for free.
While I know it takes a bit more investment on your side, which is why it is only really worth it if you like or shop at Greggs regularly.
It does offer a way to get something free, which you would miss out on if you weren’t signed up.
8. GreenJinn
GreenJinn is an app that makes grocery shopping a little bit cheaper but gives you discounts on popular household items.
Featuring the leading supermarkets in the UK, users can save £10’s of pounds, with you able to get multiple additional items for a lot cheaper than the retail price.
The app is free to use and works in a similar fashion to Shopmium where you first purchase the goods shown on the app at the supermarket.
All for Greenjinn to award the discounted money straight back to you as redeemable cashback.
To do this, you need to upload a copy of the receipt, this is to prove that you have brought the goods from the app.
It is an established app that has been online for 5 years now and has had over 400,000 downloads since its release.
9. Shoppix
Shoppix is an app with a big demand right now that rewards you for sending copies of the receipts you get from shopping.
When you hand over a receipt, you will be given tokens which can be exchanged for actual rewards.
But its not just actual receipts that they take.
You can also forward email receipts too, to make it easy to get money back when you buy items like food.
Now I signed up to Shoppix years ago when they were new, however, due to high interest, the company now has a waiting list that you need to join to have a chance of getting a space.
10. Subway
Subway’s loyalty program, which has been giving free food away from subs to cookies, has been around for years.
But, many people, likely aren’t taking advantage of their loyalty scheme.
Especially when you consider that the company will and has for years been giving a free cookie to anyone who downloads their app and signs up.
This is, therefore, a great app to use if you live close to a Subway and want a sweet treat on the house.
To add to that, their loyalty program also gives you points for every purchase you make.
Once you have hit certain milestones with these, you are able to then redeem items on their menu without spending another dime.
