Friday, September 14, 2007

Eating Out

Eating out is a treat, it can also be expensive! But we all need to let someone else do the cooking every once in awhile so here are some things my family does to make eating out more affordable.

- Coupons...of course this is a great way to save dollars. Don't forget to check out the coupons in the back of the phone book!

-Find out which restaurants have Kids Eat Free. Lots of restaurants offer this on certain days of the week. I went to a sit down Mexican food place with my two girls and the three of us ate for 8.00 including tip! Plus, we had left-overs:)

-Think of sharing an entree with your hubby. We love to go to the Olive Garden- all-you-can- eat salad, bread sticks and then we share an entree.

-A good way to watch your weight is to eat only half your entree and take the rest home for another meal--two meals out of one!

-Drink water. It's amazing to me that they can charge up to 2.00 in places for iced tea!

-If you like Chinese food try the Lo Mien noodles. It is cheap and those noodles seem to multiply. One entree has feed my family.

-Try carry out. This way no tip and no drinks to pay for plus you can make a salad or something to help stretch the meal.

-Ask friends where they like to eat that is cheap. We found a little Italian restaurant this way. The woman who owns the place is Italian and the food is amazing. For the four of us we get two salads to split, hubby and I share a gourmet pizza, and each kiddo gets a meal with drinks for under 20.00. You can spend that much at the Whataburger drive-through!!! We also found a quaint French Bakery. Loaves of bread are 1.40, pastries under 2.00 and you can get croissant sandwiches for 2.40 and that includes tax:)


For more frugal tips head over to BiblicalWomanhood.com

5 comments:

Kathy in WA said...

Great list of tips! I love ideas that help save money. Eating out is a BIG TREAT in our house. I often wait until my folks come for a visit and let them do the splurging. Ha!

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Debbie J said...

Thanks for visiting my Blog! These are good eating out ideas. My husband and I got into the habit of eating out every Friday night and got to thinking about how much we were spending and it came to a halt!!! Now we cook something on the grill on Friday nights and maybe eat lunch together once during the week at Wendy's. Maybe if we use your ideas we can go for a dining out treat!

Mommy said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. :) Good tips. :) Another thing that I have found that cut costs when eating out is with Olive Garden. Instead of ordering the "kids meal" which is about $4.00 or more, I order my children "side dishes" of pasta which is about $2.49

If the children are little, you can order a kids meal and split it. I often find that they give the children way too much food.

One resutrant that we went to, charged one cent for every pound the child weighed. That was really a good bargin, because my children are really small framed, but they got the regular kids meal.

Wish I could find a resturant that does that around where I live.

Small Town Mamma said...

We have a bistro near us that does kids eat free on Thursdays - and they get icecream and a drink included. Also, buffet restaurants are good - Brad gets to eat as much as he wants, for the same price!

Anonymous said...

Back in high school when I waited tables at a restaurant, the managers wanted us to push appetizers, bar drinks, and desserts. These items drove the bill up, and also increased the tips! I'm amazed that restaurants can charge $2.00 for a soft drink which costs them about $0.05. Of course, they are happy to provide free refills! Today when eating out, I avoid ordering any of the extras, which helps keep costs down.