I have found that we eat out 2-3 times a week . We both work, so as much as we try not to eat out it just happens. Now with no fast food type food, wow, the food bills are high. So I decided to tackle how to eat out for less today.

Today I ordered a bunch of gift certs online for gifts only at restaurants who give you back 20% in a bonus gift card. They seem to only offer this special at Christmas time, and last year I did the same thing but didn't get enough and ran out by March and really missed that 20% discount card. I did it in an organized fashion figuring how many times during the next 12 mos we could eat at that restaurant. I did it for Pappas (usually seafood), Outback Steakhouse, and Carrabbas Italian. I couldn't order some restaurants bc they didn't have a special, shame on them (no Red Lobster, TX Land & Cattle, etc).

But then sort of by accident I found a website called restaurant.com that had discounted gift certs for so many restaurants. A lot of them were independent ones that we go to anyway, and others were new. But I bought like $300 of gift certs that will give me like $750 of free food at these restaurants. I don't know if this works in every area, but the norm was to pay $10 for a $25 gift cert and agree to spend $35 on food. Or like at a steak rest get a $50 gift cert for like $20 and agree to spend $100, which we could do at a nice steak restaurant if we had the whole family.

I actually spent $120 at my favorite Chinese Restaurant and got $300 of food credit. It says you can't use more than once a month, so heh, I bought one for each month. Felt like a safe bet considering we've been eating there since my oldest son was born.

I could use suggestions too on how to order at restaurants so that the family food bill is not as much, and wonder if anyone has suggestions.

Between the cost of groceries and restaurants I feel like we spend too much of our take home pay on food, and I want to cut it down. I've never been a coupon shopper in grocery stores, but if anyone knows a good and easy way to do this I'd like that too.

Please share your ideas.

I have found that we eat out 2-3 times a week . We both work, so as much as we try not to eat out it just happens. Now with no fast food type food, wow, the food bills are high. So I decided to tackle how to eat out for less today.

Today I ordered a bunch of gift certs online for gifts only at restaurants who give you back 20% in a bonus gift card. They seem to only offer this special at Christmas time, and last year I did the same thing but didn't get enough and ran out by March and really missed that 20% discount card. I did it in an organized fashion figuring how many times during the next 12 mos we could eat at that restaurant. I did it for Pappas (usually seafood), Outback Steakhouse, and Carrabbas Italian. I couldn't order some restaurants bc they didn't have a special, shame on them (no Red Lobster, TX Land & Cattle, etc).

But then sort of by accident I found a website called restaurant.com that had discounted gift certs for so many restaurants. A lot of them were independent ones that we go to anyway, and others were new. But I bought like $300 of gift certs that will give me like $750 of free food at these restaurants. I don't know if this works in every area, but the norm was to pay $10 for a $25 gift cert and agree to spend $35 on food. Or like at a steak rest get a $50 gift cert for like $20 and agree to spend $100, which we could do at a nice steak restaurant if we had the whole family.

I actually spent $120 at my favorite Chinese Restaurant and got $300 of food credit. It says you can't use more than once a month, so heh, I bought one for each month. Felt like a safe bet considering we've been eating there since my oldest son was born.

I could use suggestions too on how to order at restaurants so that the family food bill is not as much, and wonder if anyone has suggestions.

Between the cost of groceries and restaurants I feel like we spend too much of our take home pay on food, and I want to cut it down. I've never been a coupon shopper in grocery stores, but if anyone knows a good and easy way to do this I'd like that too.

Please share your ideas.

they run specials on monday i think where u get 80% off, you enter a code they give you and you get the 25 dollar ones for 2 bucks...

they run specials on monday i think where u get 80% off, you enter a code they give you and you get the 25 dollar ones for 2 bucks...

Never pay full price on restaurant.com! They always have 80 and 90% off codes. Just check on sites like couponmountain.com. You can also buy restaurant.com gift certificates on discount. You can buy a $100,00 gift certificate around 4-8 dollars that you can use at another time. Also, I always order Water and take those sugar free flavor packs in.

Darn, US only! Anyone know a Canadian site like this? My boyfriend and I eat out daily, so it'd save us a ton of cash.

I either order from the appetizer menu , the kid's menu, or senior menu. A lot of places will let you if you tell them you had WLS and can't eat much. Of course there are many times when I am not comfortable doing this.

I also split meals with friends frequently too.

I went and checked out this site. I am going to give it a go the next time I head out to dinner. Some of my locally owned shops were participating which was pleasantly surprising. I found a coupon code on retailmenot.com and entered it for kicks and it gave me a 30% discount on the random certificate I added to my cart to try out.

I also highly recommend retailmenot.com for promo codes for shopping, dinning and for hotel discounts. I made a reservation for a hotel near Disneyland that we frequent and used a coupon code I found on the site and got a two room suite at La Quinta within walking distance of the park for $60 bucks a night. It would have been $80 without the code. GOOOOO retailmenot!

I get all of our "eat out" meals paid for this way, and have for over a year now.

I love the big 80-90% off sale when you can get a $25 gift certificate for just $1 or $2 because they're normally $10.

I stock up big time on those days. If you sign up for the email notifications, they'll send you an email for those specials.

John and I literally eat out for $1-$2 and it's great food.

Also, if you haven't seen it, www.groupon.com is a great place to get special deals on food, massages, and other services for your local area.

I am loving the restaurant.com site! Thanks for sharing!

socialliving.com has coupons in your area. It changes everyday and sones they have food coupons. Also I carry a hard that says I've had WLS so I get kids meals and that saves money.