Come on, we will get through January together

Is it just me or are people (myself included) complaining about January more this year? I don't know if it just me feeling grumpier and hard done by- I had to work three days between Christmas and New Year- but Lodoners seem greyer and more miserable than normal. I know I am quite a naturally cynical person but come on people it's 2012! There's the Olympics, the Queen's Jubilee and it's Charles Dickens' 200th Anniversary (all these things will invariably end up in future blogs FYI). No? Well how about some cheap grub then? When the gym just seems too cruel a place and it's dark at 4pm why not head to a cosy restaurant in the knowledge that it won't break your already decrepit bank account.

There are loads of deals for chain restaurants all over the country through websites such as moneysavingexpert.com and myvouchercodes.co.uk but I think I have found something better.

There is this thing called a taste card which gives you 50% off or 241s on food in hundreds of restaurants across the UK. However, if you want to focus on London go to the website and search for restaurants in area of London and you can see that there are loads. This includes chain restaurants such as Zizzi, Pizza Express, Strada, Prezzo etc ass well as independent ones.

Read the specification to each restaurant carefully since there are some restrictions. For example, most of the deals are only valid during the week, some require you to book in advance and others limit the number of people you can use the discounts on.

Normally the card is £69.95 for 12 months but you can get a free month's trial. I tried it back in November and the thing I like most was that you don't have to sign up and then cancel to avoid getting charged. I have signed up for so many free things and then just forgotten to cancel them. I realise these companies are waiting to make money from my stupidity but that doesn't really make it easier to swallow.

All you have to do is enter your details into the website, tell them where to send it and they happily comply. My friend Lou was the one who told me about it and when she had finished her month's trial, and she didn't take up a full membership, the taste people emailed her and offered it to her for half price. This didn't happen to me but it would be worth the £35 for a whole year.

I think I only used it twice- once in a very nice Zizzis near Covent Garden and once in an awful looking Mexican place off Shoreditch High Street called Chico Bandito (and yes that's as every bit as bad as it sounds). The food was actually pretty good and they did amazing jugs of Margaritas. The ultimate downside was that as we walked in they placed over-sized sombreros on our heads. In my mind that is a deal breaker.

Request a card now and you could be as happy as these people in a matter of days.

Let me know who goes where and how it turned out and don't worry only 23 days left.