RESTAURANT DINING FOR THE PRICE OF A TIP!
I hope that the title caught your attention.
Conventional frugal practice does wonders with the
food budget. Make your own bread, cook
Geheimnisfleisch (a German dish, roughly translated
as "mystery meat"), buy the big containers of snacks
and send them a bit at a time in reusable containers.
Culinary heaven for the thrifty!
We practice these techniques all the time, and we
do pretty well at not breaking the bank with our
food budget. But, darn it, we're human -- we like
restaurant dining, too!
The Steak House doesn't mean the Poor House!
Dining out can be a budget-buster. It can cost in
the neighborhood of 10-20 times as much as fixing
meals yourself. And that's if your eyes don't get
bigger than your stomach when you eat out in a restaurant
and you order more than you can eat!
You can get out of the restaurant without totally
draining your accounts. And no, you don't have
to cheat the person waiting on you out of a tip!
Some of the tricks below will help you spend a lot
less dining at some restaurants, and others will work
at any restaurant!
And here they are....
- Drink water. Some restaurants will add a lemon
wedge for you! On a dinner for two, this will knock
off $3 worth of sodas or $10 or more worth of alcoholic
drinks! Drinks are a Big Profit Center (BPC), and are usually
High Markup Items (HMIs).
- Beware of the upsell! I even had one waiter want
to "upgrade my entree" with a salad. That one was
obvious, but subtle things like "Would you like feta
cheese on your salad?" may carry an extra charge. Ask
if it's free or not if you smell an upsell.
- Take more free munchies like rolls, tortilla
chips and salsa, bread, whatever, if offered. Why not?
At some restaurants this stuff is really GOOD!
- You can split a meal if you know the person well.
One thing is that most restaurants do not want you to
go away hungry, so they usually give you a lot more
food than is needed anyway. Even a small "sharing
fee" is probably a good deal if you can get just one
entree.
- Buy gift certificates at least 50% off of face value!
Restaurant.com
offers restaurant dining gift certificates for 50%
discount! No joke! There are some restrictions,
which you should read before purchasing. Having
said that, you buy the dining certificate, print it out,
and use it! Very easy! Click here
to search for restaurants in your area!
- DINING FOR THE COST OF YOUR TIP! You probably were wondering when I was
going to get to this. If you have a
little more time, go on eBay
and bid on the same restaurant.com gift certificates! You might just walk away with a
$25 gift certificate for only two bucks!
- Sign up for mypoints.com
 , read e-mails, and
respond to some offers. You'll work your way up to
enough points for a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant!
- Best of all, you can be a mystery shopper and
get paid to eat out in restaurants! This falls under the "nice work
if you can get it" category.
© 2004-2006 MightyBargainHunter.com. All rights reserved.
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