Most individuals spend most of their money on housing, transportation, and food. Although eating out means you don’t have to wash the pile of dirty dishes, and you can quickly order food without spending time and effort cooking food at home, you can’t deny that eating out can be pretty expensive than home-cooked meals.
What’s great is that some restaurants and fast food chains offer various discounts, and you just got to ask them. For instance, when going to eat cheesy pizza at the popular American take-and-bake pizza company, you can avail of the Papa Murphy’s Senior Discount and save money.
Of course, eating at home can save you money, but most of us love eating out. Therefore, we’ll share 5 practical and easy tips with you in this article to save money when eating out. Keep reading to know!
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Tip #1: Use Coupons
You need to assess if your favorite restaurants offer special discounts or coupon codes when you sign up for their newsletter. Although no one likes having a cluttered inbox with annoying marketing emails, it will still be totally worth it if you’re their regular customer.
What you can do is, instead of signing up from your regular email account, create a separate email account for this purpose! This way, you will be able to receive awesome discounts while preventing your main inbox from getting cluttered.
Tip #2: Go On a Monday or Tuesday
Since Mondays and Tuesdays are usually the slowest days of the week for restaurants, they offer money-saving discounts and special deals to keep their restaurant running.
Therefore, rather than booking a reservation for Fridays, Saturdays, or even Sundays, it’s better to visit your favorite dine-in place on a Monday or Tuesday, so you can enjoy your meals while leveraging awesome discounts.
Tip #3: Take Home Leftovers
Many people let the food (and money) go to waste by leaving sometimes almost a half of their meal on a plate. Instead, what you should do is ask the waiter to pack your food in a container, so you can take it home with you.
This way, you will not only prevent food from going to waste, but you will also be able to enjoy it the next day at your home. Of course, you wouldn’t also have to worry about cooking at home the next day.
Tip #4: Split a Meal
Most entrées or main courses generally have oversized portions, and to make sure you finish it all, it’s better to go out with a friend or your partner, so both of you can split the meal and save on the total cost.
Even better, one person should order something small like an appetizer or salad, and the other person should order the main course. Ask for an extra plate from the waiter and share meals with each other.
Tip #5: Get It to Go
If you really crave eating from restaurants, but you still want to save money, you should order takeaway. Doing so will allow you to save money on the service charges, such as tips.
Another great way is to order food using food delivery apps, and you can choose the most reasonable pickup option to further save you money. If you need any drink, you can always buy it on your own and enjoy it at your home without paying a restaurant-high price for it.
