I had a luxe London weekend using discount codes — including £30 theatre and £26 Hawksmoor

London rightly has a reputation as one of the most expensive cities in the world. That’s fair enough, particularly when it comes to rent and mortgages. And yes, going out can also make a serious dent to your bank balance.

But if you’re a money saver, I think living or visiting the capital offers far more potential to cut other costs than anywhere else in the UK. And that doesn’t require scrimping or thifting, nor does it mean missing out on some of the nicer things.

Don’t believe me? Here are some highlights from a few days I’ve just spent in London.

Eating out

With so many restaurants, there are also many ways to get really good food for less. One I took advantage of was a special menu at steak mini-chain Hawksmoor available at lunch, pre and post-theatre.

The hake and sweet potato main was delicious and sizeable and a happy hour glass of rose hit the spot. Stacking an American Express 10% cashback offer on top of this special menu, I paid just £26 including service.

An hour later and the same meal would have set me back £42. Adding extra courses included in the offer would have increased the saving even more, but there wasn’t any point spending more when I was full enough.

And good news for non-Londoners, it also has locations with the same offer in Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh.

Theatre

It’s no wonder there are frequent op-eds decrying how expensive West End theatre tickets are. The seat I had for matinee performance of the Broadway transfer of the Tony-winning Stereophonic was listed at £150. The row in front was priced at a staggering £250.

However, I paid just £30, saving £120. That was thanks to the “Rush ticket” feature on the app TodayTix. It’s effectively a lottery on the day of the performance to fill empty seats. There’s no guarantee you’ll get a ticket, or that you’ll get one of the top priced seats, so I was lucky. And though I don’t agree with some of the rave reviews, for £30 it was an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.

Comedy

I managed to see a decent comedy show for just a tenner thanks to Central Tickets. The rules of websites like this are I can’t say what I saw, but my seat should have cost £47.90 if I’d gone direct to the box office.

Music

I love a good gig, and managed to see two performances on my trip. The biggest bargain was an in-store from all-girl punk group Panic Shack at Rough Trade East, just off Brick Lane.

For £16.06 I not only got access to an intimate gig, but also a copy of their new CD. Dates for their tour later this year start at £20 before fees, so throw in the album on top and I think it was at least a 50% saving.

Cinema

This way to save isn’t just limited to London, but I used a free ticket to finally see Danny Boyle’s latest movie 28 Years Later at the Vue Leicester Square.

There are a few ways I get these, from opening up a Club Lloyds current account to a perk from Vitality health insurance, but this one was actually a freebie given away by my energy provider Octopus earlier in the year.

Since weekend showings are often more expensive than others, using this on a Saturday saved me £13.99.

Travel

Finally, travel. Yep the tube and trains are pricey, especially compared to other metro systems in other countries. The daily cap on card payments will help people moving around a lot, but I managed to beat this on my first day – and that was by adding a Travelcard to my inbound rail ticket.

This added £5.60 to my fare, versus a £8.90 limit on Zone 1-2 travel with my debit card. And I knocked another 10% off that thanks to an offer for train ticket seller LNER via my American Express card. Total saving:£203.81. Total spent: £77.10.

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