With the increase in gas prices across the country, many people are looking to save money anywhere they can. American families spend a lot of money on dining out. There are ways you can save money when dining out, though. All you have to do is know where to look. Some of the best resources are eBay, the Entertainment Book, newspapers, Restaurant.com and Thesmartcircle.com. All of these are resources that can save you more than $100 off your restaurant expense on a monthly basis.
Instructions
1. Make a list of restaurants you regularly dine out at. Once you have that list, take a look at the categories instead of the restaurants themselves. When looking for restaurant discounts, you should have an open mind about which restaurant you are going to dine at. Don't choose a restaurant you dislike just because you have a discount coupon. Instead, if you normally dine at one restaurant but another serving the same type of food and quality has discount coupons available, you should dine there.
2. Search on eBay for restaurant coupons. Go to the gift certificate category and then choose either your state or the restaurants category. Sort the results by "Ending First." Look and see if any of the coupons are at a reasonable price and include restaurants you like. There are many fast-food restaurant coupons sold on eBay, including Chick-Fil-A, Subway, Quizno's, Burger King and McDonald's, to name a few. There are also many family chain restaurant coupons sold on eBay. Some examples of those are Bennigan's, Applebee's and Chili's. If you have children in your family, you can find many discount children's meals coupons on eBay.
3. Purchase an Entertainment Book if they are produced for your area. The key here is to wait until late May. The coupons are good through October, so you still have six months to use them after you purchase the book. Instead of paying the original price of $35-$40 for the book, though, you can find Entertainment Books on sale for $10 in May. These have coupons for fast food, family restaurants and fine dining restaurants.
4. Visit Thesmartcircle.com. This website offers discount cards for specific restaurants in your area. The selection might be small, but the discounts are large. Typically, the discount card will include a one-time 50 percent-off offer, and then anywhere from five to twenty buy one lunch/dinner get one lunch/dinner free offer. These discount cards tend to cost anywhere from $20 to $30 each. Keep in mind, though, that you can usually save more than that on the 50 percent-off offer alone. These are great money savers for restaurants you go to on a monthly basis.
5. Visit Restaurant.com. Restaurant.com tends to have a lot of the same restaurants on their website that are included in Entertainment Books. They have many others as well, though. The advantage here is you can purchase a discount coupon and use it that day after printing it at home. Typically, these are $25 gift certificates that sell for $10 on Restaurant.com. If you join Restaurant.com for free, you will get two to four discount offers a month. These discounts range from 50 to 70 percent off that $10 price. With the 70 percent discount you get a $25 gift certificate for just $3.
6. Save your junk mail and newspaper inserts. Too many people throw these away without even looking. Many times you will find local family restaurants offering lunch and dinner entrées for 50 percent off. There are also many coupons in these inserts for local fast food restaurants that can save you 50 percent off or even more.
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