London is a popular tourist destination for a reason! It is one of our favourite places we’ve visited because there is so much to do. To read about our favourite free things to do, we recommend, head to our blog post about that here. While we travelled around the city, we also discovered some great hacks to help us save money in London!

Kew Gardens is one of our favourite things to do in London. It’s easy to get to on the tube, big enough to spend a couple of hours wandering around, and has so much to see and do! There’s a children’s garden, a Japanese Garden, a Palm house, conservatory, a huge glasshouse and a treetop walk.

However it isn’t the cheapest garden to see, with adult tickets in peak times costing as much as £26.50. However, if you’re under 30, there’s a cheaper way to do it as you’re eligible for the young person ticket! Just make sure you have photo ID that includes your birth date when you arrive at the gate.

During peak times (1 February – 31 October) online weekday tickets are only £10 and on a weekend it’s £11. This price includes a £1 optional donation that is automatically applied when purchasing tickets. If you’re really needing to save your money, make sure you take that donation off to save that extra pound! In off-peak times it’s even cheaper: online weekday tickets are £7 and weekend tickets are £8. These prices also include the £1 optional donation.

You can also get tickets at the gate but these are of course a little more expensive. If you’re 30 or older and want to save some money, buying online for an off-peak weekday is your best bet. There’s also the option of an afternoon ticket where tickets are only £11 with a donation after 4pm. This is only valid from the 1st of May to the 30th of September. It’s not an amazing deal if you wanted to do the treetop walkway or go into the greenhouses as they close earlier than this, but if you’re just wanting to see the garden, it might be a great option for you.

There are a number of options for you to see the gardens for a little bit cheaper, but make sure to check out their website as there may be other ticket options that suit you better. Whatever option you go with, the garden is lovely and is a great way to spend a few hours in nature away from the city.

When in London, you will see the Shard from basically anywhere in the city. It has a viewing platform at the top, which is a great spot for incredible views. If you’d like free London views, we’d recommend heading to the Sky Garden instead. But we do have a hack that makes the Shard a better deal! The regular viewing platform ticket booked here is £28.50 per person and includes access to viewing platforms as high as level 72 and 4 digital photos.

However, if you’re not interested in the digital photos and are interested in having a drink or a light meal, there is a much better option. If you head to GÔNG bar on level 52, you’ll get much more bang for your buck. The bar has a minimum spend of £30 per person over the age of 18, which is only £1.50 more than the viewing platform. It is absolutely worth it if you’re the kind of person who might want to grab a drink anyway.

If you’re travelling with children, this is a particularly good option, as the minimum spend doesn’t apply for under 18s. However, after 5:30pm, it is an adults only venue. If you are travelling with kids, this will have to be a day time activity.

The cocktails are quite pricey, starting at £25, but they also offer beer, wine, spirits, and soft drinks available. They have a lunch menu and a variety of light meals. The view is absolutely beautiful, especially in the evening when the city is all lit up. It’s the perfect way to enjoy the view from the Shard and to make your money go a little further than just going to the viewing platform.

We always stay at accommodations with kitchens, so had almost all breakfasts and dinners in. When we did eat out, it was almost always one of these 3 places, because as I’m sure you are aware, London isn’t cheap for food 😅.

The first place for cheap lunches is our favourite UK icon, the legendary Greggs. We do not have an equivalent for Greggs in Australia, which is devastating, but our closest comparison is a bakery. Greggs sells food like sandwiches, wraps, doughnuts, and cookies, but what really sets it apart is its hot section.

Every Greggs has a heated section (although admittedly its not always that hot), that has a variety of baked items. There are sausage rolls (the vegan one is famously better than the regular meat one), pastry items known as bakes (like a puff pastry pocket with savoury fillings), pizza slices, and other pastry items.

Some Greggs also have a heated cabinet for fried chicken and wedges, but sadly this isn’t available in every store. For our Aussies reading along, tomato sauce is available with the fried chicken and wedges but we’ve been questioned when we ask for sauce for the sausage rolls and bakes. We were even denied it once because they, and I quote, “can’t give out sauce for pastry items”! Crazy!

Prices range from £1.50 to £3 per item, so you can usually get a pretty filling lunch on a budget.

One of our favourite lunch options was any meal deal. A number of stores in the UK do meal deals, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Boots. Our favourite was easily Tesco, as we found they had the best range for cheap and easy lunches! With a Tesco Meal Deal you get one meal, one snack and one drink for between £3.50 and £4.50.

The meals are all cold, for example things like sandwiches, wraps, pasta salads, or sushi. The snacks are packets of chips (or crisps, as they’re called in the UK), chocolate bars, bakery items like doughnuts and cookies, and some refrigerated items like fruit cups. For your drink, there are many to choose from, including cold juice, water, iced tea or a soft drink. Some Tescos have a Costa machine for you to get hot coffees too.

We found that there are some staple items that will be available in almost any Tesco you find, and some items that are a little less common (like Krissie’s favourite, the satay chicken wrap). Don’t count on your favourite always being available, but you’ll still be able to find something cheap and great!

Our last place for a cheap meal is somewhere we went for dinner multiple times, and this is Pizza Union. There are locations in both Holborn and near Spitalfields Market. We stumbled upon this place while looking for dinner before seeing a West End show. We we’re shocked by how cheap it is!

A margherita pizza is only £5.95, with prices up to £11 for more elaborate pizzas, which is amazing for London. We never had to wait for a table, and the pizzas come out very quickly, usually in about 10-15 minutes. You can also purchase bread sticks, olives and various dips for your pizza (something we still think is very odd as Australians).

The quality of the pizza is honestly great for what you pay for. It’s not as greasy and thick as a Dominos or Pizza Hut, but not as puffy and doughy as a traditional wood fired pizza. The bases are thin and crispy and perfect for an affordable dinner.

One of the best ways to save money in London is either walk or use public transport, instead of taxis. The transport system is extensive and usually very efficient. In most cases, it would probably be quicker to use public transport around the city centre than to get an uber or a taxi, and is definitly substantially cheaper.

We have a whole post about how to use the London public transport system which you can read here if you’re interested in saving money on transport.

Those are our top money saving hacks for London and we hope that they can make your trip to London a little cheaper so you can spend your money on more important things (like West End shows!).

We have a few vlogs from our time in London on our YouTube channel, if you’re interested in seeing how we spent our time on a budget.

• How to Have the Best Time in London For Free!
• The Ultimate Guide to Public Transport in London: The Best Way to See the City
• How to See The UK and Ireland Without a Car