WITH the cost of living putting a huge strain on our day-to-day lives, most of us are looking for new ways we can help curb our spending.

And with that, we decided to try out a popular app that aims to do exactly that.

Too Good To Go is an app that not only helps people limit their spending, but also to cut down on food waste.

It has been around for years and works by connecting customers to restaurants, takeaways, coffee shops and supermarkets that have an unused surplus of food.

Big names such as Greggs, Starbucks and Pret A Manger have all signed their services up, as well as local businesses.

Essentially, businesses sell all their unsold goods in ‘magic bags’ – sold at a discount price – but here’s the catch. You don’t know what you’ll be getting in the bag until you go to pick it up!

Playing it safe and sticking to what I know, I decided to grab myself a £4 ‘magic bag’ from Starbucks in Newport city centre.

The app told me my order was ready to collect at 4pm so I made the short walk over from the office to go and grab the goods.

And it seems I wasn’t the only one jumping on the Too Good To Go bandwagon today, as the Starbucks barista greeted me with “do you all come at once?!”

Immediately when I picked up the bag, I thought there were a good few items in there judging by its weight alone.

Putting temptation to one side, I headed back to the office to find out what would be inside the ‘magic bag’.

It’s safe to say I was gobsmacked by how much food I’d been given.

Two bacon rolls, a tuna sandwich, a cookie, and a brownie – all for four pounds. That’s enough food to easily get me through the day.

Working it out with colleagues, we came to the conclusion that the £4 ‘magic bag’ was about a quarter of the price of what the items would usually be individually. It worked out at £4 for around £16-worth of food.

Unfortunately, having already eaten lunch today I wasn’t feeling up to packing away two bacon rolls and another sandwich – but be assured that my breakfast and lunch are sorted for tomorrow!

As for the brownie, well that was the perfect pick-me-up to get me to the end of a busy day.

South Wales Argus: Five items of food for found pound, not bad at all.Five items of food for found pound, not bad at all.

Would I use Too Good To Go again? Absolutely.

Not only was it incredibly good value for money, but it was also really easy! It takes two seconds to download the app, and it’s a pretty simple process for placing your order.

Perhaps the most time consuming bit is deciding where to get your ‘magic bag’ from as there’s plenty of options to choose from.

And yes, it’s a bit of a roulette as to what you might get in the bag, but that’s part of the fun of it.

If you’re looking to cut down on your eating-out spending, this is a cost-effective way to still enjoy food from the places you love.

For more on our campaign go to: https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/national/uk-today/20142859.cost-living-crisis-uk-mission-help-save-money/