Join me everyday in February as I share ways to save money on just about anything you need, want, use!
Eating out can be EXPENSIVE! But it’s nice to do occasionally. And there are ways to SAVE when you must / really want to dine out somewhere.
The first thing you need to do is visit the websites of all the restaurants in your area and see if they have a newsletter or special savings you can sign up for. If they do, then sign up!
Here are some examples:
Auntie Ann’s – sign up for coupons
Backyard Burger – sign up for their Burger Club and get a free burger!
Bennigan’s – sign up for special savings
Boston Market – $3 off your next purchase when you sign up!
Buffalo Wild Wings – sign up for special offers
California Pizza Kitchen – get $5 off for signing up for their newsletter.
Dairy Queen – sign up to receive a BOGO Blizzard coupon
Outback Steakhouse – Get a free appetizer just for signing up.
Ruby Tuesday – sign up for So Connected to get coupons all year long! (these are my favorite!)
Sonic – sign up for the Sonic Cruisers Club for special savings!
Starbucks – sign up for My Starbucks Rewards!
Zaxby’s – Free meal just for signing up and other coupons throughout the year!
Back in October, I did an entire month of Birthday Freebies – which was a series of posts on places to sign up to get FREE things on your birthday. The majority of them were food places. So be sure to check out all the posts in the BIRTHDAY FREEBIES series.
More ideas for saving money while eating out:
- Skip the appetizer. You avoid over eating AND save money!
- You don’t always have to get a combo. The way fast food places make their money (I think) is by saying, “Look, we’ve paired everything on our menu with fries and a drink , so just get that!” $4-$6 per combo adds up when you’re feeding 3 or 4 (or more!) people! Here’s an example of what I would do at Wendy’s: Order me a combo. Order Bug chicken nuggets off the $1 menu. Share my fries with him (they’re more than I can eat anyway!) and he always has his own drink in his sippy cup. So I just saved a few bucks by not getting him his own kids meal combo. Or, I could do just the opposite. Order the kids meal. Order me just a sandwich. He has his own drink. I drink his drink from the kids’ meal and we share fries. Also, at “sit-down” restaurants, because food portions are so large, I just let Bug eat off mine and Hubs plate and avoid ordering him anything at all. He’s just 2, doesn’t eat that much at one sitting and is VERY likely to NOT eat what I order him even if I order him his very favorite thing in the whole world.
- Plan! Since I do all my errands on Saturday with the little one in tow, I have to really plan what we need to get done and how. Since can’t seem to avoid being out at lunch time on the days we have lots of errands to run, I’ll throw a couple bottles of water, small bags of chips and a banana or two in the car with us. Then we can run through the drive through somewhere, order a sandwich or chicken nuggets to share and eat our other goodies with it! This is especially nice on pretty days where we can take a minute away from our busy to-do list and stop at the nearby park and eat our lunch!
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