Tips for Eating Out on a Tight Budget

Times are tough. If you haven't lost your job already, you're probably worrying about it and if you're lucky enough to land a job, chances are you'll want to go out and celebrate. Even something as simple as dinner out one night with a close friend or significant other may seem like a risky stretch, but packing your lunch everyday and clipping the Sunday coupons should entitle you to a little pampering.

So with that, I decided to throw out a few pointers for eating out on a tight pocket without having to hit up the not-so-nutritious all you can eat china and pizza buffets and 99-cent value menus.

1. Restaurant.com is a great site that my friends and I have used on several occasions. Here you can purchase gift certificates at full value but for half the price. For example, you can buy a $25 gift certificate for only $10 but still redeem it for the full $25 value. The certificates are generated instantly so that all you have to do is click print and you're all set. Even more, enter the promo code TREAT for an additional 60% off. You can search the site by location to see which restaurants participate in this program in your area. I've used this site for two different dining establishments near my house (Johnny Buccelli's and Pomegranate Mediterranean Cuisine) and did not run into any problems. However, like most other dining coupons, they are not good for takeout or delivery. A small price to pay for feeding a group of four at a fraction of the price.

DineOriginalsColumbus.com also offers up some discounted gift certificates to locally owned restaurants, but only a limited quantity are available and they tend to sell out rather quickly.

2. The Columbus Dispatch has paired up with TheBag.com to bring subscribers local deals and specials right through your email. You don't have to have a weekly paid subscription to get in on the savings either. Just simply log onto The Columbus Dispatch and sign up for the TheEBag Newsletter. The email is sent out once a week and features coupons for just about everything imaginable in the Columbus area including dining, recreation, groceries, and fitness.

3. Those bulky Entertainment books your coworkers kids sell as a school fundraiser may sound awfully steep at $20 a pop, but if you really use it you'll certainly make your money back and then some. On top of all the coupons you get with the book, you also get a login and password to Entertainment.com where you can pull up even more deals or the original ones when the actual book is nowhere to be found.

4. Watch the local adds for meal deals. Mondays and Tuesdays are notoriously slow in the restaurant business so managers are using deals to get people through the doors. Asian Gourmet and Sushi Bar is offering up buy-one-get-the-second-half-off sushi rolls on those days and Logan's Roadhouse follows suit with their two meals for only $12.99 deal. While Columbus does not yet have it's own organized Restaurant Week, a simple google search will show that there is certainly talk around establishing one.

Recent statistics show that 68% of all Americans clip coupons. I, myself, have taken it up as a sport spending ample time in the grocery store on a Saturday morning weighing sales vs. coupons vs. doubling coupons. And I'm not the only one. Years ago I hardly saw anyone using them but now I see people trading each other in the aisles. A buck is a buck and if you have any of your own creative ways to save them, please leave a comment for the rest of the readers.