Dining Out on a Dime

Well here's another apology for such a lag in posts.  I don't know what happened and I apologize for not posting another recipe this week!  I will make up for it next week with a fantastic one!  Today I wanted to touch on that topic that is quite the opposite of a new recipe...eating out!

My hubby and I love to eat out, especially on the weekends, just to change things up a bit from our normal routine.  One of our favorite areas to go out to dinner is downtown, where there are tons of little shops and dessert places to walk around to after we eat.  It's an inexpensive place to spend some time instead of rushing home as soon as we are done with dinner.  But being on a budget, it can be hard to get to some restaurants that tend to be a bit more than we would normally spend, until now!

For Christmas, I bought Chris a Member's Dining Card.  The card only costs $40 and gives us BOGO up to $15 at 24 local restaurants, many of which are those "more than we would normally spend" restaurants.  All we have to do is order 2 entrees and 2 drinks and we get up to $15 knocked off our bill.  We have already used the card 4 or 5 times so we definitely have made our money back on it.  Plus, the money for the card goes to Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks, so it's really a no lose situation. 

For those of you who don't live in the Springfield area, there's also plenty of options in your town.  Most big cities have Entertainment Books and lots of schools will sell discount cards as fundraisers.  Keeping an eye out for those things in your area can save you lots of money throughout the year on dining out.

Another great option are the new Groupon and LivingSocial emails.  Many local communities have their own sites as well that provide discount dining opportunities. Here in Springfield we have 417 Deal of the Day and Half Price Ozarks.  The hubby and I used a Groupon just a couple of weeks ago along with our Members Dining Card.  We used our Dining Card for dinner then headed over to our favorite piano bar and used a Groupon for our drinks.  All in all, a nice Italian dinner and some entertainment with a couple of drinks each (including cover charge) cost us $50.  Can't beat date night with the hubby for that much!

There's no need to spend a lot to enjoy a night out.  Find what's available in your community in terms of discounts and sign up for them!  We delete more than we buy, but when we have bought we've been able to enjoy something we may not have thought we could afford before.  So, what local deals are in your area?  Share your secrets with us so we can all start saving more!