Catch me tomorrow morning on WTHR Weekend Sunrise at 7:45 AM! Here’s a sneak peek of some of the money saving tips I’ll share.
Ordering water & splitting a main course – these are rookie options when it comes to dining out. Everyone loves a night out on the town, but it’s not worth a lack of peace the next morning when you look at credit card statement or see your bank account balance. The following are some tips to help make dining out a truly pleasurable experience.
1) Join Your Favorite Restaurants’ eClubs. Almost every restaurant out there wants you to join their e-newsletter. It might be a source of temptation but more than likely you can get great coupons, learn about specials before they’re advertised and more than likely get something for FREE on your birthday. Be sure you use an e-mail account specifically for freebies, coupons, and eClubs (create a FREE gmail or yahoo “junk” account if you haven’t already). That way you won’t get important e-mails and coupons mixed together.
2) Dine Only at Restaurants with Rewards Programs. If you are going to eat out, you should be banking points to earn free food or drinks. From places like Qdoba, McAlister’s (yay for FREE tea!), Panera all the way up to Stone Creek Dining Company, many restaurants want you to keep coming back so you can score something for free. Don’t skip that extra step of registering your card online either. You want to be sure you maximize the points you earn.
3) Hit the Deal Sites. Groupon, SweetJack, Living Social, Deal Chicken, and more . . . there are more deal sites these days than you can shake a stick at. If you want to be sure to receive updates for restaurants, be sure to adjust your preferences in your profile so you’re notified when those deals come through your feed. You can usually filter all the deals through a Food & Drink category as well.
4) Keep an Eye on Local Promotions Like Devour Downtown. Been dying to check out that high end restaurant & skip the high end price? Check out local promotions like Devour Downtown where you can dine at some of Indy’s finest local restaurants at a priced fixed menu. You can even salivate, I mean check out the menus online ahead of time to get a good price in mind. Many restaurants are offering 3 course dinners at 2 for $30 or I saw prices for lunch as low as 2 for $10. Devour Downtown is August 19 – September 1.
5) Cash Budget Envelope. Fill an envelope at the beginning of the month with your budget for dining out. Pledge to only use cash for that month and only spend it out of that envelope. If you switch to cash in just this one category, I promise that you’ll save more than you ever thought possible. You can find my FREE printable cash budget envelopes here.
6) Use Your Smart Phone. Google for coupons, find apps for restaurants, check in on Foursquare or Facebook, put that smart phone to work! If you’re going to pay extra per month to have internet on your phone, you really should make it earn its keep.
7) Plan When You’ll Dine Out. Don’t fall into the trap of “Where do you want to eat?” “I don’t care. Where do you want to eat?” Instead, when you meal plan, set apart specific days when you’ll be dining out and decide at the beginning of the month or the week so you can truly look forward to the experience. Choose exactly how many times you’ll be dining out that month and stick to it. Both your wallet and your waistline will thank you!
More people get off budget in the drive thru than any other. Don’t be like everyone else. Develop a dining out plan that will give you budget success!
This post contains affiliate links. So while you get a great deal on Amazon or a deal site, you also help the Royal Family begin the debt slaying journey of paying off their mortgage. And for that, we royally thank you!
