How To Save on Eating Out 🍽

Is eating out part of your daily work lunch routine? Or ideal date activity? Maybe you only go to a restaurant when you celebrate birthdays or anniversaries? Either way, we’re sure you will find some useful tips on how to cut your restaurant expenses to reach your budgets!

We get you, it’s amazing to afford some well-deserved rest while being served freshly made food. Is it even worth it to save on such pleasurable activity? Yes! You can still enjoy the ambience of restaurants, takeaways or time outside with your closest ones if you follow our simple saving tips.

1. Order from Zero Waste Restaurants

In some areas, there are websites and apps specifically built to reduce restaurant food waste. How does it work? You can easily browse through offers of delicious and edible meals that are still good for takeaway. It’s a pity to throw them away at the end of the day just like that! Research your area for businesses supporting this idea and see how much you save!

2. Bring Your own Lunch Box

It has so many advantages at once! If you’re looking for a takeaway meal you’re saving both nature & your wallet. Secondly, if you ordered a bigger portion at the table and couldn’t finish the meal it is all right to take the food home. Maybe you can use it as a lunch for the next day and save money!

3. Late Lunch as a Dinner

If you eat your lunch outside a bit later as usual, you’ll only be craving lighter dinner. That might also be helpful if you’re following a diet in the evenings! Not to mention you can use the leftovers from your own takeaway box.

4. Drink Tap Water

Save money on drinks and drink tap water! Restaurants profit the most out of additional purchases such as drinks. Every good restaurant should offer tap water free of charge, so choose wisely!

5. Go off the City Centre

Location can make such a huge difference in pricing! Restaurants in the city centre tend to increase their prices due to tourism and higher rent. Maybe the greatest deal is just two bus stops away, so keep exploring!

6. Eat Local Cuisine

If you live next to the shore, it’s less expensive to order seafood than in a landlocked country. Think about the local produce! You don’t always need to have all kinds of exotic fruit on the table.

7. Choose Casual Restaurants

If it’s just your regular day out, don’t spend too much money on overpriced and fancy restaurants where it’s common to tip. Sometimes, to enjoy the vibe, you don’t need more than a nice atmosphere and friendly staff. Save fancy for later!

8. Track How Often You Eat Out

Try tracking the amount of times per month you order takeaway or eat outside. You can use Spendee categories and analyse your monthly spendings! When you see them in a colourful graph, it really makes a difference. Try reducing the amount of your restaurant’s spendings by simply limiting the number of orders. If it’s hard to reduce the expenses at first, you can try inviting your friends over for a home cooked meal and have fun together doing it.

9. Create a Budget

Now that you know how often you actually eat out per week or month, you can calculate your average price per meal. How much do you want to save? Create a budget for yourself and stick to the limit!

10. Don’t Get The Cheapest Thing on the Menu

If you really want to make the most out of your money, don’t order one of the cheapest meals. Even though some things might look cheap on the menu, they aren’t a steal! Think about what’s the meal that gets you the most value. A home-made pasta dish may cost you a few dollars to make yourself, while you’d be paying at least three times more for the same “easy recipe” in a restaurant.

11. Check out Reviews Before You Go In

The last thing you want to do is spend a lot of money (and time!) on an unpleasant experience. If you love discovering new places in your area, always make sure that your money is worth giving it a try.

12. Follow Restaurants & Discount Websites

Lots of restaurants offer happy hour deals or support various discount websites and coupons. Getting e-mails or post with the best deals is a great way to save money in a restaurant you visit often. Some even offer birthday or anniversary cards, so make the most out of it!

13. All You Can Eat

If you’re feeling hungry, “all you can eat” places are the best options for a satisfying sized meal. We wouldn’t recommend it as a daily source of food, but once in a time it won’t hurt!

14. Bring Your Own

Many restaurants are BYO Licensed, which means that you can bring your own alcohol inside and open it (usually for a corkage free). Why not save money on alcohol? If there’s no such restaurant in your area, you can enjoy a glass of wine at home before you go out.

15. Appetizers: Skip or Split

Remember what we said about additional purchases? I’m sure you do, but it’s easy to forget it while looking at the menu full of delicious-sounding appetizers. You can either skip them and strengthen your will, or you can split them with your friend.

16. Split Adult Portions with Kids

Eating out as a family, kids never knew what to get and didn’t seem hungry at all. Sometimes, they would even hardly finish their kids sized meal! Next time you go out try ordering a bigger portion for yourself and split it with kids.

17. Go for Brunch or Kids Size

Are you enjoying a quick lunch break from work but don’t crave a bigger portion? Brunches and Kids Sized meals are a perfect option to keep you full before you go home and enjoy your home cooked meal again.

18. Pay Per Weight

Food buffets with fixed prices per gram are getting more and more popular! It is a bit tricky, because you always need to think about what you’re putting on your plate. Meat and potatoes tend to be quite heavy, compared to rice or salad. You’ll need to try it out several times until you figure out what’s a bargain!

19. Check Out The Menu in Advance

Whenever you go out, try checking out the menu in advance, ideally on the website. If you find yourself looking for a restaurant outside and you don’t see prices in the menu, it’s a big red flag and you should find another place that’s going to be better for you!

20. Don’t make it a habit, make it a reward!

I think it’s self explanatory — change your feeling towards eating out! It shouldn’t only be seen as a quick way to get food, rather as a culinary experience and a chance for some quality socialising. Bon appetit!

Are you using any of these tips already? Let us know by tagging #myspendeestory on social media!