Wednesday, August 16, 2006
DINING OUT
I’m not a cheapskate. I don’t need to use a coupon for everything I buy, or wait for something to go on sale before I buy it. However, I also think there’s a point to thriftiness and I don’t like paying more money than I have to for anything. I enjoy eating out, and I have come up with a number of techniques to save money. Most require forethought and planning, so if I leave work or I’m out shopping and decide on the spur of the moment to go out to eat, I’m as likely as not to just settle on the first place that looks good and ignore the cost. (Within reason, of course, I do pay attention to my budget.)
Every autumn I buy a new Entertainment Book. You usually see those sold by schools or clubs as fundraisers, and they have a lot of coupons for local businesses and services. The book pays for itself very quickly if you actually use it, particularly for hotel rooms, car rentals, and restaurants. The restaurant coupons, or the card it comes with for “higher-end” restaurants (i.e., any restaurant that wants to call itself high-end by dispensing with paper coupons, but still desperate enough for customers that they use such a gimmick) are usually good for a free entrée with your meal. I try to make a note of the restaurants I’m likely to go to, but I usually check it first whenever we’re looking for a place to eat.
A useful reservation tool I employ is Open Table. It’s a web site that allows you to make reservations at any restaurant that subscribes to that service. I like the convenience of making the reservations on line, as well as searching for several restaurants in an area at once. It also gives you the option to give them brief notes about your reservation, such as “Seat us near a window” or “It’s a bachelor party so we’re going to be loud and obnoxious” or “It’s a birthday dinner so please bring a cake for my wife but if you sing I’ll throw cutlery”. Now, this service is only used by restaurants that will connect to the internet for a reservation service, so it pretty much exclusively means “higher-end” again. However, if you use it enough times, you do get a dining certificate you can use at any of the participating restaurants. (I actually haven’t used it enough times to qualify for one yet.)
While planning our Las Vegas trip earlier this year, I came across a fantastic discount site, and by extension, another one. For the purposes of dining out, it’s important to use them in reverse order. First, go to Coupon Cabin. It links to a lot of sites that offer on line discounts, including Restaurant.Com. Be sure to click on the link that reads “See all Restaurant.com Coupons”. Usually they offer 40% off your order, but sometimes they run specials that offer more. Click on whichever offer is best, and that will take you to Restaurant.Com. Type in the zip code of your area, and a list of restaurants offering discounted gift cards will come up. These usually are $25 gift cards which you can buy for $10, but since you went through Coupon Cabin you can get them for $6! Net savings = $19. Be sure to read the fine print before you buy one, though. Some are only good on certain nights, and it is one per trip, $35 food order minimum.
Remember, no matter what type of discount you’re enjoying, always tip the wait staff according to the original price of your meal. Don’t take money out of someone else’s pocket just because you’re keeping more in yours.
I’m not a cheapskate. I don’t need to use a coupon for everything I buy, or wait for something to go on sale before I buy it. However, I also think there’s a point to thriftiness and I don’t like paying more money than I have to for anything. I enjoy eating out, and I have come up with a number of techniques to save money. Most require forethought and planning, so if I leave work or I’m out shopping and decide on the spur of the moment to go out to eat, I’m as likely as not to just settle on the first place that looks good and ignore the cost. (Within reason, of course, I do pay attention to my budget.)
Every autumn I buy a new Entertainment Book. You usually see those sold by schools or clubs as fundraisers, and they have a lot of coupons for local businesses and services. The book pays for itself very quickly if you actually use it, particularly for hotel rooms, car rentals, and restaurants. The restaurant coupons, or the card it comes with for “higher-end” restaurants (i.e., any restaurant that wants to call itself high-end by dispensing with paper coupons, but still desperate enough for customers that they use such a gimmick) are usually good for a free entrée with your meal. I try to make a note of the restaurants I’m likely to go to, but I usually check it first whenever we’re looking for a place to eat.
A useful reservation tool I employ is Open Table. It’s a web site that allows you to make reservations at any restaurant that subscribes to that service. I like the convenience of making the reservations on line, as well as searching for several restaurants in an area at once. It also gives you the option to give them brief notes about your reservation, such as “Seat us near a window” or “It’s a bachelor party so we’re going to be loud and obnoxious” or “It’s a birthday dinner so please bring a cake for my wife but if you sing I’ll throw cutlery”. Now, this service is only used by restaurants that will connect to the internet for a reservation service, so it pretty much exclusively means “higher-end” again. However, if you use it enough times, you do get a dining certificate you can use at any of the participating restaurants. (I actually haven’t used it enough times to qualify for one yet.)
While planning our Las Vegas trip earlier this year, I came across a fantastic discount site, and by extension, another one. For the purposes of dining out, it’s important to use them in reverse order. First, go to Coupon Cabin. It links to a lot of sites that offer on line discounts, including Restaurant.Com. Be sure to click on the link that reads “See all Restaurant.com Coupons”. Usually they offer 40% off your order, but sometimes they run specials that offer more. Click on whichever offer is best, and that will take you to Restaurant.Com. Type in the zip code of your area, and a list of restaurants offering discounted gift cards will come up. These usually are $25 gift cards which you can buy for $10, but since you went through Coupon Cabin you can get them for $6! Net savings = $19. Be sure to read the fine print before you buy one, though. Some are only good on certain nights, and it is one per trip, $35 food order minimum.
Remember, no matter what type of discount you’re enjoying, always tip the wait staff according to the original price of your meal. Don’t take money out of someone else’s pocket just because you’re keeping more in yours.
# posted by Renfield @ 11:43 AM 
