We were on the train at Disneyland when my wife asked me, what should we have for dinner? I looked through my apps and suggested what about Little Ceasers Pizza? Sounds great she said. Ok we have a family of 6 so 2 pizzas and a breadstick will probably feed us. Total price 18.90. Huh, I thought, I wonder if one of my credit cards had a deal? Sure enough my Chase card has a little Ceaser deal. 10%. I added that deal paid for the pizza got off the train then headed to our hotel to grab our van and grabbed our pizza. Total price to feed my family in overpriced California, $17.01
But you don’t want pizza, you want Chinese?
Ok
The next day we did too. For lunch. I got a family deal from Panda for 36 bucks. Raise was having a 13% gift card sale so I got a 50 dollar gift card for $43.17. Plus that purchase also gave me 2% cash back. So out the door price to feed a family of 6 was around $32.39 not bad considering my wife and I once ate a pizza that was over 36 bucks for a medium. Our most expensive meal ever was dining with characters at Disney which cost us over 200!
My main point is this. There are still ways to save money when feeding your family and it’s having those skills that separate the financially prepared vs the unprepared and makes their dollars go a lot further. Just recently there were news stories of a McDonald’s charging 18 bucks for a Big Mac meal so I’ve decided to share a few tips I have at decreasing your cost when it comes to eating out. I have noticed restaurants have 3 different price tiers for their customers from most expensive to least expensive. It’s those who do their homework get the least expensive. Those who blindly pay are always paying more.
Use discount gift card resale sights such as raise.com. This is my go to when eating out. I have been so efficient at this I once ordered a gift card while in line at a cold stone. I bought a 10 dollar gift for 7 bucks reducing our price 3 dollars instantly.
Search your mail for coupons. Not as good as they once were but I still notice a coupon worth using. Take a Red Robin 5 dollar off coupon when you spend 20 for example
Check your E-mail or sign up for e-mails from restaurants. Speaking of Red Robin,while we were eating there with our extended family, I found an e-mail with a free entree’ that seriously saved us close to 10 bucks!
Download food apps. McDonald’s, Jack in the box, Subway. All have coupons and deals when ordering through their apps. They even give points to redeem for free food.
When ordering for multiple people, use multiple apps with multiple phones. We do this often with McDonald’s. That way we can use two deals. My Big Mac barely cost above 2.50 when we do this. I love how I can get a breakfast sandwich for only 2 bucks!
Order water at sit down restaurants! Get your sodas after dinner cheaper! A soda for 2 can add 6-7 bucks to your meal!
Share a meal if you can! My wife and I can usually share a chicken critters dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I sometimes add a salad but most of the time the price is less then 20 bucks.
Eat outside the restaurant to save on a tip.
Grab desert at a grocery store
Pack a cooler full of drinks instead of buying drinks at the drive thru.
Buy chips at a grocery store to replace fries at a restaurant. Yeah my kids are not huge fans of this but I have done that. Hamburgers and chips are sometimes on the menu
Compound several of these ideas. For example I once found dominoes doing carry outs for 6.99 for a large pizza. I ordered gift cards from raise to pay for the meal. I used credit card that gave cash back. My out the door price was just over 10 bucks! For two pizzas! And I even got a free appetizer!!
Check your receipts to fill out a survey! Burger King gives out a free whopper! Panda gives out a free entree! Wendy’s will reduce your meal by 2 dollars!
I’ll also leave you with this if you do want to eat out as a family and you realize there’s not a whole lot of savings possible, come up with a plan. Most restaurants have apps for to go orders so figure out what everyone wants ahead of time. We did this over Christmas when i willingly overpaid for our Texas Roadhouse meal. I had all of my family pick their meals ahead of time including those who wanted drinks. I had it figured out to the cent of what the meal was going to cost. Now we did have one hiccup because my daughter accidentally ordered a loaded potato when she wasn’t supposed to (she barely touched it) and we didn’t mention it because we didn’t want to embarrass her, but still I was only 2 dollars off my estimate. 67 bucks later, we paid our bill, and left a tip satisfied knowing ahead of time that’s what it was going to cost.for a family of 6
Now take friends of ours who only have to pay for a family of 4. They didn’t plan ahead, ordered drinks, ordered appetizers, and full meals for kids who wouldn’t be able to finish those meals ordered deserts and were completely shocked when their bill was over 135 dollars!!
Don’t let restaurants have the upper hand.
Plan ahead. Use coupons and do your homework! Pay the lowest price for your food.not the highest.
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