Thrifty Thursday: Eating out on a Budget

Right now, with a very limited income, dining out is a real luxury for my family. We have made a commitment to only eating one dinner out a month. And even then, we try to be very frugal in our choices.

We never go anywhere very fancy (really, fancy restaurants are wasted on small children anyway). We usually choose a casual restaurant. Often these restaurants will offer free kids meals on certain evenings. Go here for a list of restaurants that have kids eat free deals.

Another source of good deals is coupons. There are several places to look for coupons for your favorite restaurant. One of my favorite coupon resources is the entertainment book, it's loaded with B1G1 coupons at all kinds of restaurants. There is also Restaurant.com that offers gift certificates to a variety of places for sometimes as much as 80% off. See Ronica's post with all the details about Restaurant.com. Groupon offers a daily deal to many different places, often restaruants, for as much as 50% off.

Ever look through those coupon envelopes that you get in the mail? ValPak is the one we receive regularly. I throw most of them out, but usually there is at least one good coupon for our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Don't forget the good ole newspaper. I find coupons regularly for Olive Garden and Logans in the Sunday inserts. But also keep an eye out for them in the actual newsprint.

If you still cannot find a coupon for your favorite restaurant, check their website. Sometimes, the coupons on the website is even better than the ones they print. I had this happen a few months ago with a local pizza place. They had a higher value coupon for the exact same deal on their website than the one in the flyer. It pays to look around!

Do you have any savings tips for eating out? Let me know!

For other money saving ideas, visit The Coupon Teacher's Thrifty Thursdays and Madame Deals.