The Dining Out Stimulas Plan

Even in these tough times, eating out at a restaurant is one of those simple luxuries you just can't seem to give up. And you shouldn't have to. Eat well and spend less by using these tips to managing to a better food budget without going for broke in the process.

1. Use a coupon. Browse your Sunday coupon flyers for discounts at your favorite nationwide chains like Olive Garden, TGIF, and Bugaboo Creek. Use the coupons in your Entertainment book. Flip through the coupon directory of your yellow pages book. Check out Restaurant.com or Open Table for the latest deals and promotions. Call your local chamber of commerce or tourism board for coupons to your local restaurants. (It's ok. You can be a tourist in your own city!)

2. Search for Kids Eat Free. Google "Kids Eat Free" and "Your town" and find out which family friendly restaurants are offering deals or visit a site like Mommysavers.com . You can also use this same tactic for "early bird specials" and "senior citizen" discounts.

3 Enjoy the Freebies. Skip the appetizers at the restaurant and enjoy the basket of bread and that little plate of olive oil.

4. Do Lunch. It's less expansive than dinner and equally delicious. Better yet, do breakfast and save even more.

5. Order Sides/Salads. A nice salad and a tasty appetizer is a great meal for one. And it tends to be $3-5 than a main entree.

6. Split a Dinner. Restaurant dinner portions are equivalent to 2- 3 meals. Tres unhealthy for one person to consume. Rather than order two dinners, spilt one dinner and order an appetizer. When dining with Dreamboat, we typically save $7-9 when we split.

7. Drink the tap. Skip the mineral waters, club sodas, oxygenated water, and holy water. Drink the water from your city tap. Its probably as pure and tasty. And you'll be so "green" -- no bottle means you'll be doing your share of saving the environment.

8. Skip the Special. Always tempting when the waiter reads the special, but rarely do they mention the price. On a recent dinner out, I ordered the special. It wasn't until the bill came that I realized it was $15 more than almost anything else on the menu.

9. Order a Doggie Bag. Leave No Crumbs behind. Today's dinner is tomorrow's lunch. Restaurant portions are typically 2-3 meals worth of food. Stretch your food budget, by leaving 1/3 of what's served on the plate for the doogie bag. You'll be the talk of the lunchroom.

10. Go to new restaurants. A new restaurant that has just opened for business often attract new customers with discounts and specials. These are often advertised in the newspaper, menu mailings, or those Value-Pak direct mailers. Keep an eye out and take advantage.

11. Understand how to menus are designed. Menus are designed to drive profitable choices by the customer by focusing the consumer not on the price but the product.

- Restaurants tend to list the prices into the food descriptions rather than off to the right side margin, and remove the dollar sign to help avoid price shopping by customers.

- Resist buying either one of the first two items or the last item in each menu category. Restaurants tend to place the menu items with the highest gross profits in these spots.

- On three-panel (page) menus, people most often look at the center panel first, and then move counter clockwise. On two-panel (page) menus people most often look at the top right-hand side first. So, restaurants put their high profit items such as specials or specialty drinks in these spots.

-Beware of stars, symbols, icons for house specialities. They're designed and placed near items that are priced higher. Attention grabbing and wallet draining all at once.


See you around town!