Family Dining - Save Money While Dining Out

With hectic schedules filled with business meetings, soccer and swim team practices and trips to the gym, eating out can seem like a time saving alternative to the hassles of grocery shopping, meal planning and cooking at home. However, the trend in these times of economic uncertainty has been to cut back on eating out due to the expense. The reality is that eating out does not need to be the expensive occasion that it often is.

Be aware of discounts, specials and coupons: Those weekly fliers that are delivered to your home mailbox can contain a wealth of dining out coupons for both fast food and casual style restaurants. And with restaurants facing economic uncertainty, they are doing all they can to attract customers with flashy coupons, half price specials, and kids-eat-free nights or menus. Pay attention to all these things and let your homework, instead of your stomach, guide you to your next restaurant.

Drinks & Desserts: Restaurants push flashy wine and drink menus for good reason. The profit markup on drinks, from soda to wine, is huge! Stick to water with lime or lemon and your bill at the end of the night will be considerably less. If you must drink, look for happy hours where drink prices are reduced and even many of the meal or appetizer items are discounted as well. Desserts are also incredibly marked up and in fact most desserts come frozen courtesy of a large food distribution company. A restaurant will add a dollop of cream or a fancy sauce and charge you five or six times more than what it cost them, or more! Save dessert for when you get home and save a bundle.

Buffets: Buffets can offer a great value, if you’ve got a large stomach. Don’t go if all you’re hungry for is a salad, or if you had a big lunch. Always survey the buffet before beginning to eat and hit the high end items first like fish and shellfish, or meats and vegetables. Stay away from fillers like pasta and fried items. Restaurants make huge profits on anything involving pasta and much less on fresh vegetables and meat items so get your money’s worth when at the all-you-can-eat!

Sharing: It’s no secret that restaurant portions are oversized and we’ve really no business cleaning off our plates while dining out. These super-huge portions can easily serve two and many restaurants will let you share. Beware though, of the restaurants that charge an additional fee for sharing or cleverly disguise this fee as an ‘extra plate fee’. Ask ahead of time and if sharing isn’t conducive, then only eat half your meal and take the rest home for lunch or dinner the next day.

Special occasion dining: Save the fancy restaurants for special occasions! We all like to be pampered with a five star dining experience, but these establishments are supremely costly. Save these outings for truly special occasions, and leave the kids at home!

Specials are not so special: Restaurants are all about up-selling. If you go in and just order a glass of water and a meal you’re getting, hands down, the best value for your dollar. Wait staff are primed to make the daily special sound fantastic and appetizing but the reality is that specials are the restaurant’s way of refurbishing and reselling something that needs to be sold quickly. The ugly truth is that if the kitchen has a surplus of something from the day before, they’re going to rework it into a fantastic sounding special in hopes of selling it the next day. And don’t be fooled, the price won’t be all that special.

Eating out has become a permanent part of the North American culture, and while many people are choosing to eat out less due to less disposable income, it is true that dining out can be a time saver as well as a pleasant social occasion. However, by following the tried and true tips listed here, your night out does not need to break the bank.