How much does the average restaurant meal cost a family of four? Somewhere around 50 or 60 dollars? Maybe a little more if you get appetizers and a few margaritas for mom? Sure, a break from cooking and doing dishes is totally worth it, but if you dine out often (at least once a week), those breaks can add up.
The good news is, it’s pretty easy to save money while dining out. What’s that mean? It means you can dine out more often … or save that money to hire a maid to do your cooking and dishes for you!
- Don’t Forget the Coupon! – Oh sure, when you go grocery shopping, you’ve got binders full of coupons, but where are those money-saving scraps of paper when you’re dining out? Find them and use them to score free appetizers, half price desserts, and good deals on drinks.
- Just Say No to Drinks – This one takes a lot of willpower, but you can shave 10 to 20 percent off your dinner tab simply by order water (free!) instead of regular drinks. If you usually order alcoholic beverages, try cutting those first (they’re the costliest) and opt instead for soda or iced tea, which usually include free refills.
- Just Say No to Appetizers – While we’re in the habit of saying no to things, skip the appetizer, too. Yeah, you’re hungry and those jalapeño poppers look amazing, but they’re not $8 amazing and they’re not worth ruining your appetite over.
- Skip the Kids Meal – Yeah, kids meals usually only cost about $5, but that’s five bucks you don’t need to spend. Instead, give your tot a taste of what mom and dad is having by sharing a little bit of your entrees. Those meals are gigantic enough, so you won’t really miss a few bites, will you?
- Score a Free Kids Meal – Some restaurants offer “kids eat free” discounts, which means you can ignore tip #4 and have your dinner all to yourself. To find one of these deals near you, check out My Kids Eat Free – a website that lists more than 6,500 family-friendly restaurants nationwide.
Related: How to Cut Back on Eating Out (and Save Money, Too!)
this is good ways, really 🙂
Thats my motto lol .I never buy a meal for my 2 year old i share my plate with her & i never forget coupons lol .
Yay! thanks for this very helpful tips! Now I have to learn to say no to beverages and appetizers when we dine out. 🙂
You’ll want to tip your server what the cost would be if you had no coupon. Servers only get about $2.50 per hour and make their living on tips. You probably know this anyway… Warmest wishes, Jane
Or you can dine out at lunch which is usually much cheaper. Or just have two appetizers instead of a meal.
Whenever we go out to eat, we always skip drinks and just get water. It’s better for you, cheaper and if we would like to have an alcoholic beverage, we wait until we get home to pour a glass of wine or make a cocktail so it’s also safer!
I sometimes order an appetizer as a meal, for example the chicken flat bread at Olive Garden, it’s significantly cheaper than some of the other meals, has fewer carbohydrates than the pasta dishes and it’s delicious!
If you are going out with friends and don’t want to skip the drinks- many restaurants will let you take your own bottle of wine (if they don’t carry it usually) and charge you a corking fee, which is less than the cost of a drink or two. I have never even paid the corking fee, as servers usually don’t add it.
I’m one to usually order appetizers, since I usually go out to eat starving-BAD idea-, and will fill up on them, which are usually pretty high in calorie and fat content. It does add an unneeded cost to the bill as well, so i have decided to eat a snack bar before I go out since I’m not ravenous when I get there and can bypass the appetizers 🙂 The kids meal idea is a great one! We usually order things my daughter likes, ad she never seems to finish the kids meal anyways! I’ll be utilizing this the next time we go out. Thanks for the tips 🙂
These are all great tips. We always skip the drinks. Soda is so expensive in restaurants. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for the helpful tips, I guess the “no-drink” ordering would save the most, but sometimes water doesn’t cut it. Good ideas and thank you.
GREAT TIPS!! I NEVER ORDER ANYTHING BUT WATER! AND YOUR RIGHT ABOUT THE KIDS MEALS! MY GRANDDAUGHTER NEVER EVEN EATS HALF OF THE MEAL AND IT GETS THROWN OUT EVERY TIME!!
Very good article. Thanks for the tips.
Always looking for ways to save! These are good tips. It totally makes sense to let the kids share with the adults. They never finish anyway!
Thanks for the awesome tips I appreciate it!!
We actually practice number 2 and 3 most of the time, except when we’re REALLY, REALLY hungry or thirsty. 🙂
Awesome tips, although the best of all is to eat at home. I don’t use coupons at stores all that much because they offer smaller savings, but I keep a thick stack of restaurant coupons at the ready all the time. Often the coupons I have determine where we’re going to go, and I’m fine with that. It can be fun cutting them out because it feels like finding money!
Sometimes we just order appetizers instead of an entree. Occasionally we skip dessert at the restaurant and have it at home instead.
Good tips!
Yeah, I’m sure the restaurant will love it when my husband and I tell them that our 9 year old and 8 year old are “just going to eat a little off of our plates”. Meanwhile, they use the free crayons, free dough, free whatever, make a mess, are loud, and complain “I’m hungry” every 2 minutes. If you’re going to bring your child out to eat, it’s rude not to buy them a meal. Not an infant, but as soon as they’re old enough to be making a mess and taking advantage of the freebies, you owe the restaurant that 3.99 or whatever it is. If you don’t want to pay, find a kids eat free night. No, I have nothing to do with any restaurant, I just have manners and think about people who work in crap jobs and have to deal with clueless idiots all day.