Dining Out and Restaurant - Saving Money Tips

[jeffrey]

1. If you have the choice of when to eat out, choose to eat breakfast since it is usually the least expensive meal at restaurants. Next best is lunch or brunch which tend to be cheaper than dinner.

2. If dining out for dinner, eat in the early evening. Early bird specials between 4:00 and 6:00 can save you 20% or more.

3. If you can decide the day of the week to eat out, choose a weekday over the weekend. Restaurants are much busier on weekends and the prices can reflect this, especially with the restaurant specials. Monday through Thursday are usually the best times to save on the daily specials since restaurants are not as crowded on these days.

4. When dining out, always consider the special of the day since it usually provides a good value for the money.

5. Inquire about children and seniors menus that will provide smaller portions at a smaller price.

6. If you are dining out with a friend, consider splitting a meal. Simply tell the waitress that you can't eat entire restaurant meals by yourself and ask for an extra plate to split the meal. While some restaurants may charge a small fee for splitting meals, most places won't. Even if you leave an extra generous tip to the wait staff, you'll still save money.

7. When ordering, choose set menus instead of picking dishes a la carte. In most cases, set combination meals are less expensive.

8. Pass on the cake and coffee at the restaurant and scoop yourself some ice-cream and brew up your favorite blend once you get home if dessert is a must. Dessert is one of the biggest marked-up items on the menu.





9. Skip the alcoholic drinks. This is another area where restaurants make a lot of money.

10. Order water with a twist of lemon instead of a drink soft drink. Water is still free in most restaurants.

11. Choose a less expensive restaurant. There is a huge price range depending on which type of restaurant you decide to dine at. A chain family restaurant is likely to be more expensive than a fast food establishment, but less expensive than a fancier specialty restaurant.

12. Search for newly opened restaurants. Since the restaurant business is extremely competitive, newly opened restaurants usually offer meals at a discount to try their food in hopes that you will become a repeat customer.

13. Check your mail for restaurant coupon discounts. Some restaurants advertise through bulk mailings and newspaper inserts.

14. Get restaurant discounts on the Internet. Restaurant sites such as restaurant.com offer coupons at various restaurants that you can purchase at a 50% discount or more.

15. Look for restaurant discounts at your local tourist bureau or in free magazines aimed at tourists. These are often overlooked by locals, but usually contain a large number of discounts for local eating establishments.

16 Check is the yellow pages of your local phone book for restaurant discounts. More and more restaurants offer discounts inside the yellow pages to attract new customers.

17. Get a large number of a 2 for 1 meal coupons through your local city Entertainmet Book. These coupon books are also an excellent way to save money when traveling to other cities since you know you will have to dine out. If you will be there more than a couple of days, these books will usually more than pay for themselves.

18. Make and take your own lunch to work instead of eating lunch at a local restaurant. Brown bagging your lunch one more day a week instead of eating out can add up to $300 or more in savings over the course of a year.

[amomof4]

when dining out, consider drinking water!

[rob62521]

Another way to save money is to only eat half of the meal and have the restaurant box the rest for lunch the next day.

[barbd00]

As a former restaurant worker I can honestly agree with the dessert, coffe and drinks. Restaurants make anywhere from 100% to 500% on each and every item that they "upsell". That wine that they charge $3.00 a glass for cost them less than a buck for each glass usually. Those pies and cakes that sell for $5 or so cost less than 2 bucks per.

Drinks are where they make a killing. It costs the average restaurant less than 50 cents to make a pot of coffee and yet they charge around a buck for each cup. 10 cups out of an average pot $9.50 profit for each pot of coffee they sell!

No wonder you get refills for free. Sodas... the bags they use for fountains, around $30 for several hundred sodas.

Alcoholic drinks aren't as high a profit but still really high.

Specials are usually the way to go, because they are working at very close to cost to sell them.

[PRICEPLUS]

I always skip the appetizers. You'd be surprised how much you save and you don't ruin your appetite.

[skipper]

My husband works out of town through the week. My daughter and I eat out several nights a week for under 5.00 each night by hitting the local resteraunts that have .99 kids night if the parent buys a dinner I usually opt for the special 3.99 at two of the resteraunts and one of the resteraunts has a 2.99 special. We never get dessert and I always order water her meal comes with a drink

[loveofpets]

Restaurant.com. This is a great site - I've purchased several 50% discount coupons here, and in actuality, paid less than 10% of the covered price -- because restaurant.com frequently has sales on their 50% discounts....it's well worth checking into and keeping tabs on. There is a good mix of restaurants in your area to choose from. I ran into a situation where I purchased one and the restaurant went out of business before I had a chance to use it (you have a year from the purchase date of the discount to use the certificate). I emailed Restaurant.com and they refunded my money without a problem.

[dagobah_19]

Of course, I always pay attention to the prices when I order food out at a restaurant. If it's too expensive for a dish, I simply order something cheaper!

[mom-from-missouri]

My aunt always orders either ice water or hot water. She carries her own tea bag or powered tea and makes her own at the table. She isn't doing it so much to be frugal, but because she has to drink a herbal tea. But over the years I am sure she has saved a lot of money by doing this.

[cicy33]

I looked at restaurant.com but they don't have anything for my area. Hope that they do soon! Before I gave up soda we would buy one soda and the rest water and share it.

[sunnysamantha]

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

My aunt always orders either ice water or hot water. She carries her own tea bag or powered tea and makes her own at the table. She isn't doing it so much to be frugal, but because she has to drink a herbal tea. But over the years I am sure she has saved a lot of money by doing this.

That's what I do as well. I've found my eating-out bills to be much less when I order water. I like the teabag idea!!

[katwoman]

Some municipalities/counties offer restaurant vouchers for their senior citizens. These vouchers enable seniors to pay only a few dollars for a hot nutricious meal. Call around to see if there is such a program in your area.

[dealsaver]

Skip the whole restaurant scene by taking home your meal and avoid having to tip the wait staff. Many restaurants and restaurant chains now widely market this idea by having a seperate take out area or curbside service.

[marglo]

This is an interesting article and thread. I found that we do many of the things mentioned. We are both seniors, don't eat as much as we used too (or at least we shouldn't!) so we can save if we try. We usually eat lunch out rather than dinner. If available and sounds good, we order off the senior menu, if not, we often share an entree and I may order a small salad to go with it, we just drink water most of the time or share a soda. We use restaurant.com but find most of the restaurants in our area insist on us buying about $10 more than we want in order to use the coupon. I recently bought one certificate for $4 and we are going out with another couple, so they will be the ones ordering the extra $10 and they will still be paying less than if we didn't use the certificate so I think that's a better way to do it. If we are local (not traveling) and we can afford it, we may each order our own entree but then take home 1/2 of them for another meal. At times we have the Entertainment Book and use the coupons in it or the card to get 1/2 off but really we don't eat out enough to justify it every year. I think we eat out more when we have the book just because we want to get our money back, but we really can't afford to eat out that much even if it is 50% off! Occasionally I take on a mystery shopping assignment and get a free (reimbursed) meal that way. Once or twice a year, our daughters treat us to a meal...now that's a good deal! :-)

[CHigh95]

This is for anyone with kids:

Check for restaurants that offer KIDS EAT FREE on certain days. I know at Denny's kids eat free on Tuesdays (1 free with each paying adult). I have 3 kids so it saves a lot. Plus, eating out on a weekday night without the crowds is an extra treat because I don't have to cook that night.

[lrjohnson]

Combine charity giving and dining-I give to my local public radio station, and as a member I got a card that gives me discounts at many good local restaurants. Public TV (PBS) members get the same card. Cards are available in many areas. Things I really like about the card (mostly along the lines of get one entree, get one free, etc.) include that I can use it as often as I want, and it's for a lot of small, local, non-franchise restaurants, which are my favorite. I would give to NPR anyway, but I know for some people the card can create enough savings in dining to cover the radio/tv membership plus lots to spare. Win win.

[andimorony]

I spent almost 15 years working in restaurants. Here is what I know:

-if restaurant is dark on Sunday and Mondays, go Tuesday...they'll be slowest then slow= better specials

- Kids eat free or 1/2 price is usually Monday or Tuesday or OCCASIONALLY wednesdays.


-Thursdays are the BUSIEST weeknight.

-Do what we used to do in college...go to happy hour and eat there. We would buy one or two drinks and scarf up the free app's.

-This brings me to cost centers....the GREATEST amount of revenue is from draft beer...then...alcoholic drinks, then bottled beer and wine.

-Here in MD they MUST sell a set % of food to alcohol, so the deals abound.

-Restaurants make very little on food..hence the HH buffet.

-The earlier you go, generally the more generous the portions. The closer to closing time, the worse the quality of the food (speaking here of restarurants that ARE NOT the linen/high class est'bments) because the workers are trying to get out asap.

-Oh and one last tip but not about money...my dh a( a former cook/sous chef type in the restaurant bz) and I start our forays to new restaurants (to us) by going to the restroom. If it is a mess and dirty, you can usually expect the kitchen to be too. Don't bother staying....have an ice tea and then get OUT. Its a good way to get sick. And then you lose money.

HTH y'all

a

Originally Posted by CHigh95

This is for anyone with kids:

Check for restaurants that offer KIDS EAT FREE on certain days. I know at Denny's kids eat free on Tuesdays (1 free with each paying adult). I have 3 kids so it saves a lot. Plus, eating out on a weekday night without the crowds is an extra treat because I don't have to cook that night.

[Ima saver]

We eat out almost every night. I have not had anything other than water in a restaurant for years. It helps my diet. we live in a dry country and can brown bag our own drinks, so that it what we do. Our restaurant does not charge us for glasses or ice or anything. we go so much , they call us their stockholders. They are always giving us free loaves of bread and /or jelly to take home., sometimes they just pay for our meal. The waitresses even bought us christmas presents, cause we are good tippers!

[Ima saver]

I always bring home part of my meal. Then I eat it for lunch the next day or worst case, give to my dogs to finish for me.

[acezz4e_tish]

i like grecian steak house here. they have a buffet, food, soup, and a full desert bar. they have daily specials witch includes the bars. for like 11 dollars, you can order a full steak dinner, eat the bar, fill up on the bar and take your whole dinner home in a box! ok and this may sound gross, but i tried it and it s good, to change your water up a bit, my kids do it all the time!, put a creamer in it, the liquid ones they have on the table.