Dining Out on a Dime (or slightly more)

Eating out is often the first expense cut when budgets need to be revised or down-sized. Especially once you get a few kids into the family, eating out together can cost upwards of $50. If you eat out just once a week, you've added $200 in extra expenses for the month. Because of this, getting to eat out can often be a luxury that a family just can't afford.

So, how can you make the most of your dining dollar? There are many ways.

• If I order pizza from a local place, I will ask "are there any deals going on right now?" Many times, they will have a buy one get one free offer, or get free drink or breadsticks with purchase. It never hurts to ask.
• Many cities have chain places that deliver pizza. These places often have special deals if you order online or coupons that you can find in the Sunday circulars. Just as an example, I went to Pizza Hut's webpage and entered my address, and the following offers came up: 5 breadsticks and a 2 liter for $3.99, 2 medium pizzas and an order of breadsticks for $14.99, lunch buffet for $5 (obviously this one is printable).
  
• If you'd like to dine out, there are also options for saving money. Get to know your favorite local restaurants. Many offer free kids meals on certain days. Ask at the restaurant you like--Tuesday is a very common day for free children's meals.
• Restaurant.com is awesome for local restaurant discounts. The way this works is this, you will buy what is essentially a coupon for the restaurant. They have $10 coupons for $4, $25 for $10, etc. I most often purchase the $25 coupon, so I will explain using that one. I will wait for restaurant.com to have a sale (they often have 70% and even up to 90% off) and then stock up on the restaurants we like. You have up to a year to use most of them. Using the example of the 90% off coupon, I would buy a $25 GC for $1, take it to the restaurant, and spend at least $35 on food. They will add an 18% gratuity to the check BEFORE the coupon and of course you'll pay sales tax, but that $35 bill would have cost us $35+20% gratuity=$42. With the use of the coupon, it will now be $10.00+6.30 gratuity+$1 for the coupon, or $17.30. Even if you paid full price for the coupon, it still saves your family $15.
• Local to my area only (if you're in central Iowa, you're in luck!) there are Real Deals which lets you get $50 in gift cards to local places for $25. These restaurants change every Wednesday, and the gift cards go fast, so check back often on them. I'm sure other cities have similar options.

If you know of other ways to save money on eating out, let me know through the comments. I'd love to add more information for people to share.