(Photo credit: S. Jones)
I have a very unfrugal confession to share. I love eating out. The combination of not having to cook it myself and do dishes, along with meal options that we might not usually have at home create a perfect storm. If it weren’t so potentially bad for my family’s waistline and wallet, we would eat out at least a couple times a week. But for those reasons, we limit our dinners out to once every week or two.
Did you know that Americans spend about 40% of their food budgets on eating out? (Source) While it’s good to know that I’m not alone in my love of dinners out, spending this percentage of your food budget at restaurants can be unnecessary. With a little moderation and a few money-saving tricks shared below, you can reduce the cost of this luxury.
1. Use coupons.
Besides very special occasions like anniversaries, we never eat out without a coupon. (Buy one entree, get one free coupons are our favorites!) Besides saving us money, using coupons has allowed us to try some fantastic restaurants that we never would have tried otherwise.
We’ve found that restaurant coupons are so easy to come by too. Besides finding coupons on blogs, and in your local newspaper and home mailers, you can also check sites like Valpak, Coupons.com, and Redplum for restaurant offers in your area. Always make sure you enter your zip code in this coupon sites to get your local deals.
Once a year we purchase a book for about $25 full of restaurant (and local retail store) coupons. We’ve found that, for our family, the initial cost is worth it compared to our overall savings for the year. We purchase our book through local charities each year from a company called Attractions (available online for purchase too), but I’ve also heard wonderful things about the Entertainment Book, which is available for larger metro areas. Remember to look through the coupons available (a function available on the websites), before you buy to make sure you’ll get your money’s worth.
Finally, while I am personally not crazy about Restaurant.com, I know of lots of other Frugals who love this discounted gift certificate/coupon store, so that may be an option to look into. I do share that with a bit of hesitation though, so make sure you read the fine print before you purchase anything!
2. If you have kids, eat where they can eat free or can share your meal.
My daughter is getting to the age- and appetite- where a kid’s meal is needed sometimes. The first time we were going to purchase a kid’s meal, I nearly fainted when I saw the prices. Some places want $4, $5, or even $6 for these meals. Purchasing kids’ meals, especially for larger families, can quickly increase the cost of a meal out.
Many restaurants offer kid meals at no cost certain days of the week or with the purchase of an adult entree. Some restaurants don’t reguarly advertise this, however, so I suggest calling restaurants ahead of time to ask about any such offers. MyKidsEatFree.com and KidsMealDeals.com are also helpful resources for finding restaurants locally.
The portions at many restaurants are large enough to share with a young child. While sharing may possibly limit your ordering choices, this can cut out the need to buy a kid’s meal- and help your calorie intake!
I’ve also had very good experiences when eating at places with a salad bar or unlimited salad and bread. Many of these places will let younger children just eat these salad/bread options for free as long as an adult is eating the same. Definitely ask the restaurant though before assuming this will be the case.
3. Skip the fountain drinks and other beverages. Drink water.
Restaurants make large profits from the soft drinks they sell. At $1.50 to $2 each, the soda or other beverage cost them very little, but can drive up a tab without a customer even noticing. (I waited tables for years, so I know restaurants try to sell drinks for this very reason.) If a family of four all order Cokes while eating out, this could add an additional $6 to $8 to a meal. So skip the soft drinks and opt for water. It’s a cheaper- and healthier- choice.
What tips do you have for saving money on eating out? Is this a luxury (or necessity even?) your family enjoys? I would love to hear your thoughts!
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This was a great (and very useful) post. Unfortunately, I also love to eat out. It is just so luxurious. So I’m sure I will reference this post often.
Glad you found this helpful, Val!
If you are ever in the Columbus, Ohio area, check out KidsEatOut.com to find all the restaurants who offer kids deals, listed by day of the week. Even Saturday and Sunday!
Our family loves to eat out also — although we recently did a spreadsheet to analyze where we were spending our money and I nearly fainted! So, we’ve already enacted many of your tips — best tip is to DRINK WATER! You’re so right about that! We also have started to enjoy Topeka’s Steakhouse (on Pantops) — Monday – Thursday, they offer kid’s meals for 99cents (and the portions are HUGE…often enough to bring home for another meal for the kids…or definitely enough for two to share!) They offer carrots or applesauce as alternatives to french fries, too! Just thought I’d offer that up as an option for the Cville readers!!!
Not sure if this is a gray area, but our family loves Outback. However, we can’t always afford to eat there and the portions are really so large as to be detrimental to our waistlines. So sometimes, if we’re really feeling like it, we order two kids meals to go. I pick them up curbside on my way home.
It’s enough food for all three of us and not expensive at all.
Other ways we eat on the cheap are to share an appetizer instead of a meal. Or we order an entree to go and split it at home (sometimes in the parking lot if we’re going out to a movie).
Lastly, if we do eat out and we do buy two meals, we always box up half of our meal to go (this is easier to do in the winter than in summer). Reason being that half of the meal is usually more than enough–especially for caloric intake and saving the other half essentially gives us two meals for the same price.
Courtney- Thanks for the local Topeka tip!
Sophy- Yes, I agree that some kid meals are huge portions- enough for an adult. Good thinking on ordering two for your family from Outback!