How do you save when you eat out? We try to buy more affordable things, like the specials. Sometimes, we use coupons; for example, Ruby Tuesday is our favorite restaurant, and they frequently send out coupons. We also skip appetizers, and I get water to drink instead of soda or tea most of the time. It's also a good idea to skip alcoholic beverages when you're eating out; they're watered down and overpriced, so you're better off having those at home usually. We don't eat out a lot, but we do like to sometimes. Knowing how to cut costs makes it more affordable.
If I was really looking to save money on eating out, I would stick with drive throughs, or street vendors. Then when it came to drinks, I would look for an inexpensive hole in the wall joint that had good drink specials. I don't like to tie up a servers table(s) with my friends and I if we are all on budgets and looking to save money. I only go to sit down places when I have the money to leave a proper tip. The servers live off their wages, and it's not their fault if others are trying to eat out on a budget. All those things to keep the cost of the checks down also means a lower tip for the servers. We used to get high school kids who would come in as parties of like 12 or 14 people, then they would sit in our section for hours and all order waters (with extra lemon of course so they can make lemonade at the table, instead of buying a drink) and $1 baskets of bread sticks. The total check would be like $5 and we were lucky if they left a tip on that.
