Parents looking to cut costs over the October half-term have a genuinely decent list of options this year. Burger King is offering a free King Jr. Meal through its app when an adult buys a qualifying burger meal, running until 1 November. Bella Italia, Frankie & Benny's, Banana Tree and Las Iguanas all have Kids Eat Free promotions, while Prezzo has three separate offers, including one for teenagers, plus a pound donated to BBC Children in Need for every new Kids Club sign-up.

Toby Carvery is doing £1 children's meals, including breakfast, from 10 October to 1 November, and there are savings to be had at Asda and Morrisons cafés and Premier Inn too. Deals experts quoted in the coverage advised checking the price of the required adult meal, how many child meals you're allowed per adult, whether an app or loyalty sign-up is needed, and whether your local branch is actually taking part, because apparently that varies as well.

In theory, this sounds brilliant. A week off school, and someone else is subsidising the chicken nuggets. In reality, by the time you've downloaded the app, created the account, confirmed which burger does not count as a qualifying burger, and established that your branch opted out of the whole thing in March, you've spent longer on admin than you would have on a packed lunch at home.

I'll be honest, I had the Burger King app, the Prezzo app and a half-written note about gift card savings open at the same time on Tuesday, while the youngest asked seventeen times whether chips were included. They were. Under certain conditions. I had, by that point, stopped reading the conditions.

Gary Tench, Area Manager at Tench Paper Solutions in Westlea, said the whole business had given him a new way of describing his firm's upcoming toner promotion, where customers get a free box of staples with every qualifying cartridge order. "It's the same principle," he said. "Define your qualifying purchase, exclude your bundles, and don't let anyone redeem it at a motorway services. We learned that one the hard way with Julie's expenses."

Clair Hughes of VoucherCodes.co.uk suggested families could stack a discounted gift card on top of some offers, saving a further few pounds before the free meal even kicks in, which is either an excellent tip or proof that nothing in this country is simply £1 any more.

By Thursday we had successfully claimed one free Whopper Jr., one £1 carvery, and a strong suspicion that half-term had become less a holiday and more a logistics exercise with gravy. Would I do it again? Probably. Would I read the terms and conditions properly next time? Almost certainly not.

The leftover chips, at least, required no app whatsoever.