Hey there, foodies and frugal folks! If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that free food tastes extra delicious. So, we’re spilling the beans on the clever, hilarious, and sometimes sneaky ways people score free meals. From clever hacks to jaw-dropping exploits, get ready to feast your eyes on some incredible tales of free food frenzies. Bon appétit!
Table of contents
1. “It Was A Genius Plan”
“About 20 years ago when I was a young single man, I was broke and had a lot of time on my hands. I would hang out with mainly older dudes and soak up their wisdom and sometimes questionable ideas.
One day, a buddy of mine who worked for one of those rent-to-own places asked if I wanted to come to ride along with him as he went on a collection run. Folks would do the rent-to-own furniture thing and then fall behind on their monthly installments. The furniture store would send him out on Saturday mornings to go knock on doors and collect cash and checks and late fees.
So, we ended up hitting about two or three stops in and he proclaimed, ‘Dang, I’m starving.’
‘Me too,’ I sighed.
My buddy proceeded to pull into the nearest Holiday Inn.
After we parked the huge van in the parking lot, he said, ‘Just be cool and walk toward the elevators.’
I was very confused at this point, but I did what he said. We then headed inside the hotel lobby and walked toward the elevators.
The staff at the desk waved and said, ‘Good morning!’
‘Good morning, how are you doing today?’ my buddy casually replied as we pushed the elevator button.
Finally, the elevator door opened and we walked inside.
I asked, ‘What are we doing?’
He pushed the button for the top floor and explained, ‘Most hotels have a free breakfast bar for guests. They see hundreds of people each day. The desk staff rotates three or four times a day. They have no idea who is a guest and who isn’t.’
Sure enough, we stuffed our faces with a hot breakfast and nobody thought we didn’t belong there. Afterward, we headed back down and waved to the front desk staff. They waved back, and we hopped in the van and drove away.
I pulled the same move maybe once on my own about a year later and it worked! It was a genius plan.
I thought my buddy was a god for years!”
2. “I Couldn’t Believe My Luck”
“There used to be a restaurant where you could get cheap food to go near my college. It was a haven for hungry students like me.
Each day, I’d venture in to find a different employee behind the counter, looking bored and uninterested. Regardless, I kept coming back because the food they served was undeniably delicious.
Something caught my eye early on, a small perk I couldn’t resist. For every takeaway purchase, they’d stamp a customer card. Thirty stamps equaled a free meal – an incentive that tempted my perpetually empty student wallet.
But here’s the thing: I discovered a sneaky little loophole. The stamps they used were just X’s made with a marker. No fancy stickers, no embossed logos, just simple X’s. So, I hatched a plan and headed to the store supply aisle to buy my marker.
Armed with my makeshift stamp, I proudly ‘stamped’ my entire card in one go. One free meal was now mine for the taking. I couldn’t believe my luck. It seemed like I’d outsmarted the system.
The next day, I returned to the takeaway joint with my ‘stamped’ card, my heart pounding in my chest. What if they noticed my trick? What if they called me out? However, as fate would have it, a different employee was behind the counter, and nobody seemed to care about my sudden stamp abundance. They handed me a free meal with a smile and even gave me a new punch card.
From this moment on, I became the master of my free meals. I continued my little scheme, coming back day after day, confidently presenting my ‘stamped’ cards.
Three months passed, and my stomach was full, thanks to my clever strategy. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself whenever I thought about how simple it was to dupe the system. The employees remained blissfully unaware, and I kept indulging in my free meals, all the while keeping my marker trick a well-guarded secret.
College taught me a lesson or two in being resourceful.”
3. “I Didn’t Have A Morsel Of Regret”
“A few months ago, I was sitting in my local movie theater with two other friends, and all of us were hungry as hell.
The worst part?
The movie theater food was SO overpriced!
So me being me, I started to try and think of ways to finesse the movie theater. Then it hit me. You were allowed to order food to your seats, and they would bring way too expensive food to you. So by this logic, couldn’t I walk up to a server walking into the theater, act extremely surprised, and say they’re currently holding my order?
Sure, it required a bit of lying and thinking on the fly, but I loved doing both of those. So I said, ‘What bad could happen?’
I got up, waited by the door leading into our movie theater room, and scoped out a server.
Sure enough, one came.
I immediately analyzed the order and then opened the door and allowed a surprised look to pass my face.
‘Is this my crispy chicken sandwich meal?’ I asked.
The server looked extremely surprised. I was a tall guy as well, and I knew most young servers wouldn’t want to question such an intimidating figure. Sure enough, my plan worked. The server handed me the food without a hint of suspicion.
I came back to my friends, feeling extremely victorious, and not as extremely hungry.
But here’s where the genius came in. After the meal was finished, I realized I was still quite hungry. Then, the thought crossed my mind, ‘If I took someone else’s food, doesn’t it mean someone else didn’t get their order? And if someone else didn’t get their order, couldn’t I walk up to the food counter and claim my order was never delivered?’
Long story short, it worked.
We ate well this night. I didn’t have a morsel of regret. Movie theaters scam people all of the time with their expensive prices. Luckily, I was great at the scamming game, too.”
4. “We Feasted On Free Food For Months”
“I previously worked as a closing delivery driver for a large pizza chain. I had the option of taking home all of the pizzas not picked up by customers throughout the day. Most of these pizzas had the usual toppings, like cheese and pepperoni.
However, my roommates and I had a diabolical plan to exploit this policy. While I was at work right before closing, my roommates would call in the MOST DELICIOUS pizzas and ‘never show up to pick them up.’
We feasted on free pizzas for months. On my last day at work, I got a call for a ‘pizza with the most pepperoni on it possible.’ My boss rang it up as a quadruple pepperoni and looked at me funny. After saying my goodbyes, I told my manager about the ongoing scandal.
She whispered, ‘Genuis,’ as I walked out of the restaurant with my free pizza.
I almost missed working there just for the free food.”
5. “I Always Left With A Full Stomach”
“Back in college, my friends and I were all broke. So, food was practically a luxury. We all survived on instant mashed potatoes and ramen noodles.
However, there happened to be a Fazoli restaurant in my college town. At this location, if you purchased a ‘meal’ item and sat down in the restaurant, they would bring you free breadsticks as long as you were there. You couldn’t just go in, sit down, and expect free breadsticks You had to buy a meal item from their menu.
Well, it just so happened that the restaurant offered a small bowl of soup for $1.00. It was only $1.00 for a bowl of soup and infinite free breadsticks. Of course, they’d catch on if you spent all day there doing homework between mealtimes. But I always left with a full stomach having only spent $1 on a bowl of soup and having eaten my weight in free bread sticks.
I don’t know if the employees ever realized how grateful we broke students were for the practically free food.”
