20 Ways To Dine Out Inexpensively
| June 24, 2008 | Posted by Roshawn Watson under Uncategorized |
By: Roshawn Watson
Most people eat out at least some times. Here are 20 tips to dine out without breaking your budget.
- Be aware of Openings of New Restaurants in Town. Often, they offer grand opening specials.
- Check your local newspapers for advertisements of lunch and dinner specials, early bird specials; look for coupons, too.
- Look for Online Coupons. You can buy discounted gift certificates at
- Read The Coupon Fine Print. Be careful with too good to be true deals! Avoid ones where the minimum purchase required is high. For example, if you must order at least $35 worth of food/drink, in order to get your $25 coupon (that you paid $10 for), that’s not such a great deal once you add up all of the costs.
- Go to the chambers of commerce and visitors centers — even in your own town. Restaurants typically stock these locations with great discount coupons.
- Limit eating lunch out. Bringing your lunch can save you a phenomenal amount of money over time.
- Do lunch instead of dinner. Lunch menus usually offer the same entrees as dinner, just smaller portions and a smaller check. You won’t miss the calories either.
- Dine out during the week rather than on the weekends. Sometimes the menu prices climb over the weekend. Additionally, you likely will have a shorter wait time.
- Consider going vegetarian. Meat entrees are typically more expensive than vegetarian entrees.
- Go ethnic. Some ethnic foods are better bargains than others. For example, you can get some decent relative discounts at some Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Indian and Thai restaurants. (Click here to learn how to get my Brand New Ebook for Free!)
- Dine early. Many restaurants offer specials before 6 p.m. Additionally, you can use the extra money you save to catch a movie or play afterwards. Sometimes, you can still use the lunch menu.
- Share an entrée and/or dessert or stick with the appetizer menu. Many restaurants serve portions that are too large for one person to finish.
- Have a candlelight dinner at home, and then go out for coffee and dessert.
- Order out, instead of eating in a restaurant. Although it is still advisable to tip the delivery person a few dollars, the tip is typically not as much as at a restaurant (generally 15 percent to 20 percent).
- Lemon Water. Instead of ordering soft drinks, request to have water with lemon for refreshment.
- Make Lemonade. Consider adding sugar to your lemon water for lemonade.
- Plan On Leftovers. Consider just eating half of what is on the plate and take the rest home as leftovers for another meal. You can do split the meal before you eat off the plate!
- Buy an Entertainment Book!
- Know Your Restaurant. By knowing the sale days at your favorite restaurants, you can save a bundle.
- Ask if they have any discounts. Several resturants have discounts for school employees, state employees, students, healthcare workers, etc. Don’t be afraid to ask for those discounts.
http://www.restaurant.com/. All you do is enter you zip code to find participating restaurants in your area. The discounts are significant. For example, you can buy a $25 gift certificate for $10, and print the certificate from your computer immediately. Online coupon codes will give you an even greater discount. You can pay only $5 for a $25 gift certificate. monthly. Additionally, look for free restaurant coupons on national coupon Web sites, such as http://www.valpak.com/ and http://www.hotcoupons.com/ . Check the Web site of your city’s local newspapers for local coupon sections. Check your newspaper circulars on Sundays for restaurant flyers and coupons.
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Copyright 2012, Roshawn Watson, Pharm.D., Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.
Food mmmmmm. Love it too much, and we do indulge just a tad. Looking at our baseline, we are spending $700-$800 a month on average, just on dining out (For 2 people). So, right now, we're looking at setting a hard dollar amount, and trying to stick with it. Current goal: $300.
DF, I agree that the key is to set a reasonable budget that you can stick to.