Comments on: 10 Ways to Save Money When Eating Out

By: 50 Helpful Thrifty Mommy Articles

50 Helpful Thrifty Mommy Articles — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:51:00 +0000

[...] 10 Ways to Save Money When Eating Out [...]

By: You All Are So Thrifty!

You All Are So Thrifty! — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:42:23 +0000

[...] writing 10 Ways to Save Money When Eating Out, I addressed the fact that a large portion of your tab could be from beverages. We polled the [...]

By: Last Night on The Cooper Lawrence Show

Last Night on The Cooper Lawrence Show — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:24:39 +0000

[...] In case you missed it . . . last night on The Cooper Lawrence Show they discussed 10 Ways to Save Money When Eating Out. [...]

By: lylah ledner

lylah ledner — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:53:21 +0000

excellent post – great ideas!!! i’ll have to come back another time to peruse what other goodies you have to share.

blessings….lylah

By: Save Money on Glasses by Reusing Your Old Frames

Save Money on Glasses by Reusing Your Old Frames — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:59:54 +0000

[...] Image via Morgue File. [...]

By: kellys

kellys — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:47:17 +0000

I get hot tea for my dessert and they usually don’t charge me if I ask for a refill on my tea but instead of iced tea, I ask for Hot Tea. You have to ask though because sometimes, they do charge you and then I don’t get it.

By: 48 Links All In A Line… (part two)

48 Links All In A Line… (part two) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:07:37 +0000

[...] Mommy: 10 Ways to Save Money When Eating Out – good tips. I don’t eat out too often; but this is the perfect post for people who [...]

By: flybabymom

flybabymom — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 06:35:23 +0000

Don’t get the desserts, unless you are just going out for dessert. That’s one of the big places where restaurants make money–that, and drinks. The profits are much larger on desserts than entrees. Get a cookie at a bakery like Panera, or eat dessert at home. Eat the free mint!

By: Martha Artyomenko

Martha Artyomenko — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:01:07 +0000

We also do not eat out much, but when we do I have a couple of tips. We are a family of 6. My youngest two usually just like french fries and though that is not healthy, I have bought two children meals and a side of fries, plus the two adult meals and we have plenty of food and leftovers.
Check if resteraunts have special nights for kids eat free or Eat free on your birthday or aniversary. We have a couple who do that on special nights.

By: anon amos

anon amos — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:28:20 +0000

The real way to save on food is to -not- eat out. The markup is absurd… for example, pizza out costs say, 15 with tip for a large pizza with 2 toppings.
When I make 3 batches back to back (freezing most of the extra I won’t consume in the next day or 2), it takes about 80 min to make dough + sauce for 12 large pizzas, including time to clean up while dough is rising/pizza sauce is reducing. This means per piece of dough + sauce i’m spending 6 min, 40 sec. To actually stretch the dough, put on sauce, cheese, and any other toppings I want on, ~4 min per pizza. So, per pizza, cleanup time included, I spend about 10 min of time. For these 12 pizzas it takes about 1 bag of bread flour ($3.2), assorted small indgredients yeast, salt, olive oil, garlic for pizza sauce etc ($1.5), 1 can of crushed tomatoes ($.80 ), 1.5 lbs mozzerella ($3), other toppings (~$5) (I like pepperoni & pinapple with oregano). (costs taken from costco, shaws, whole foods(their yeast is suprisingly cheaper than shaws), and trader joe’s based on best deal) Thus, per pizza, I pay $1.12 with 10 min of work.
If you’re making $80 an hour for work, you still save more cooking for 10 min than working 10 min more and eating out. (the breakpoint where eating pizza out makes more sense is $83.25 hourly wage, or roughly 166.5k per year. Progressive (bracketed) taxes push the real number you need to ear a bit higher, but that’s messier math, so i’ll refrain) If you managed to get an ‘amazing’ deal of $7.50 for a large pizza out, tip included, you’d still need to be making 38.25 hourly to make eating out a wiser choice, financially if not taste wise (~76.5k full time salary).
Pricing comparison done on large pizzas which generally have less markup than smaller varieties, you get an even better deal at home when making smaller pizzas.

And we haven’t even really spoken of enjoyment yet… homemade pizza is better tasting. You get to choose exactly what, and how much, goes on. It’s easy to split pizzas up so everyone can make what they want, no argument over toppings. (Further, if children are doing their toppings, the time cost/pizza of the breadearners is reduces) Finally, while it may cost more than water at a resraunt, you can have something tastier to drink with the pizza without restraunt markup on drinks.