You can get free lunches in central London next week - and there's no catch

It’s 17 January, it’s been almost a month since you last got paid, and you spent most of that last pay packet on Christmas presents. It’s still two more weeks until your bank balance gets the boost it so desperately needs, and like everybody else at this damned time of year, you’re telling everyone who’ll listen how skint you are.

Look, it happens to all of us. It’s unavoidable, but at least that means we’re all in it together.

The Christmas sandwiches we were treating ourselves to in December have been replaced by homemade efforts consisting of two slices of plain white bread and a sliver of cheese. Butter if we’re lucky. We can’t go on like this.

Thankfully, there’s now a way to avoid the Sad Lunch while keeping your dwindling finances in check, thanks to a free lunch on offer in central London next week - and a healthy-looking one at that.

To get your hands on the freebie, you’ll need to be in Covent Garden next Wednesday. That’s 24 January.

Hot Dinners reports that the giveaway is happening at Jar Kitchen, on Drury Lane, via a pop-up called Cupboard Love Café.

Hellmann’s, Knorr and Marmite are involved, with 100 free lunches on offer on a first-come, first-served basis, and you won’t be surprised to learn that products from those three companies feature on the menu.

For the meat-eaters among you, there’s Moroccan-style couscous with bacon, dried fruit and a Knorr-infused chickpea tagine.

Pescatarians can enjoy a tuna and Hellmann’s mayo maki roll with avocado and Sriracha, while for the veggies there’s a cream cheese-stuffed portobello mushroom with Marmite glaze.

According to Cupboard Love Café, each of the dishes would cost you just £1 to make at home. So if you miss out on one of the freebies it won’t leave you too much out of pocket.

Still, a free lunch is a free lunch, right?

(Images: Dan Gold/Cupboard Love Café)