How to save money when going out to eat.

I love what Jerry Seinfeld has to say about going out to eat ....


Went out to dinner the other night. Check came at the end of the meal, as it always does. Never liked the check at the end of the meal system, because money's a very different thing before and after you eat. Before you eat money has no value. And you don't care about money when you're hungry, you sit down at a restaurant. You're like the ruler of an empire. "More drinks, appetizers, quickly, quickly! It will be the greatest meal of our lives." Then after the meal, you know, you've got the pants open, you've got the napkins destroyed, cigarette butt in the mashed potatoes - then the check comes at that moment. People are always upset, you know. They're mystified by the check. "What is this? How could this be?" They start passing it around the table, "Does this look right to you? We're not hungry now. Why are we buying all this food?!"


I love going out to eat but I have felt the pain after the check comes.  We didn't calculate how much the drinks, appetizers and desserts would cost...UGGGGGHHH!


So here are some tips to avoiding the painful bill after a meal.


1.  Order water to drink
2.  Set a limit each person can spend...my mother used to make us order something under $5, you can pick whatever you want under that amount
(that was awhile ago....LOL)
3.  Choose restaurants that aren't too expensive.
4.  Go out to lunch instead of dinner.  Lunch menu's are generally less than dinner.
5.  Share a meal
6.  Get take-out
7.  Have an appetizer before you go out
8.  Bring your younger kids something from home (Most kid meals aren't really that healthy so bring a little sandwich with some goldfish)
9.  Figure out how much the total will be before you order- when I do this usually I end up deleting items from our order