Financial Friday: Where To Find Deals On Eating Out

Financial Friday: Where To Find Deals On Eating Out

By: Alice Shaffer The Financial Nanny

As a nanny I enjoy finding ways to save money for myself and my nanny family.  I have used Restaurant.com for my nanny work and personal outings. I let the kids look at the restaurants too and let them make a choice sometimes.  I have also used Groupon to save 50% off at several locations while I was traveling to San Francisco and locally.

The question becomes how do you save money when you are home and go to local places?  With social media being so large as it many places have taken to having fan pages on Facebook and Twitter.  Often times you can “like” or “follow” the place of your choice online and they will have special coupons and discounts available to their “fans” and “followers”

These are just two examples of what I found:

TGI Fridays: Get Perks: you get a free appetizer when you sign up among other items. You can also “like” them on Facebook

Chili’s Bar & Grill: sign up for their e-club and within 48 hours get a coupon for FREE queso and chips.

I went to Facebook and just put in restaurant names in the search box to find places.  I then “liked” them to get on the mailing list etc.

One suggestion is to create a new email address for “updates/deals” from the various places that send emails.  I use a GMAIL address for such things as Groupon, Restaurant.com and the other places that send out specials.  This way it is all together and I don’t lose my emails in my personal account.

A nanny told me that she utilizes the weekly newspaper and mail coupon ads for Pizza delivery. She orders whatever is on sale for the cheapest.  You can also get email offers from the pizza places too by joining their lists.

One mom told me that she finds out when the local places have “all you can” dinners and she takes her 3 kids there for special dinners.  She also takes advantage of “early bird” dinner specials.

Don’t forget that many places have “birthday” clubs where you can get a free meal, dessert or appetizer if you come in during your birthday month, week or day.  I have been able to utilize that for a free meal during my birthday month at Texas De Brazil where the meal is over $35.   They also have a special for your wedding anniversary.

I would love to hear from you all what kind of deals you have seen on various restaurants.  I am sure there are many readers who would love to know your favorite places and “eating out” tips too.