Eating Out for Less with Restaurant.com

Just a quick note to say that if you are looking for a way to eat out for less I've got a great suggestion for you! Mike and I do not go out to eat often, but when we do we try and utilize at least one money saving strategy. Sometimes its a coupon or a special offer, but a few times it has been with a certificate from http://www.restaurant.com/.

Restaurant.com is a site that offers certificates to restaurants at pretty good prices. You can buy a $25 gift certificate for $10 and a $50 for $20. We've gotten $10 ones for $3 in the past as well. When you log on you enter your zip code and it pulls up all the restaurants in the area and you can browse what is available that fits what you'd like to eat.

You enter your info and print out the certificate so there is no waiting and you can use it right away. Some certificates do have fine print, so make sure it works for you. Often you cannot apply it to liquor or you must have a certain amount on your bill to use it. For example you may need to spend $35 on food in order to a $25 certificate. They do have an expiration date, so make sure you do not procrastinate too much!

Mike and I have used these to try restaurants that we wouldn't have spent the money on otherwise or we weren't sure we'd like, but wanted to give a chance. Overall we've had good experiences with our restaurant.com certificates. We always follow the fine print and we often used the minimum to take home a lot of extra food!

A few notes of caution. I gave a certificate to my sister for Christmas one year and when they went to use it in their hometown the restaurant told them they were no longer participating. They did adjust the bill to basically honor the certificate, but I would make sure to call and verify that the restaurant is honoring them if you are going to spend much money on certificates for a certain restaurant. I also got an e-mail from restaurant.com letting me know that a certificate I had not used was no longer valid as the restaurant was no longer accepting them. (I never got an e-mail from them for my sister's situation.) They offered to let me pick out a different one via e-mail, but I was never able to get it to work. In all fairness I tried to e-mail them once, but didn't follow up. I was disappointed, but am hopeful that if I was more persistent they would have come through on their promise to replace my gift certificate.

Now why am I writing all of this? I just found out there is a special running that makes this deal even better! From now until July 31st you can get 50% off of all their gift certificates. So if it is a $25 certificate that would normally sell for $10 it is only $5. If it was a $50 that sells for $20 it is now $10. I'm thinking that this is a great way to get a nice date night out without spending a whole lot! Even with the fine print stuff and a nice tip you could easily eat out at a nice place for $20-25. That is a deal that works for me!

To get this deal enter promo code WDMAG at checkout.


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