London on a shoestring

There are loads of sites with deals and discounts on everything from meals out and your weekly shop to insurance, holidays and household goods, to help you cut the cost of living and working in London. Here are just a few to get you on the road to saving money.

• As an NHS employee you’ll find NHS Discounts a good source of cost-cutting deals on a wide range of goods and services.
• Toptable has half-price and discounted offers on restaurant bookings. It even gives you points for booking, which can earn you free meals.
• Taste Card is a popular money-saving members club. Sign up and you can get 2-for-1 and 50% off deals on high-street restaurants across the capital and the rest of the UK.
• Groupon offers discounts of up to 90% in London on everything from restaurants and events to health treatments, clothes and even furniture.
• Gumtree and Craigslist are community-run sites where Londoners sell and trade large household items such as furniture and electronics. They also have flatshare and services listings. But be careful with sites like these as fraudsters have been known to use them to take advantage of honest buyers. Make sure you do not hand over any money without receipt of goods or without using a refundable form of payment such as Paypal.
• Travel Zoo specialises in cut-price breaks and holidays at home and abroad, plus cheap flights, deals on shows and events and discounts on travel by road and rail.