September 10, 2009

Dinner Deals

I stumbled upon restaurant.com...and found some great deals for meals out with your sweetie!
You can purchase gift certificates for local restaurants for half (or less than half of the price). For example, I searched using my zip code and found three pages of restaurants I enjoy or would like to try. One of my favorite date hot spots, La Pizzeria, offers a $25.00 gift certificate for a mere $10! (*make sure to check the fine print for exclusions.) A local burger joint offers a $10 gc for $4! I believe you can purchase more than one gift certificate, but I'm not clear if you can use more than one at one visit.

To celebrate 9/9/09 day, they have a special going on for an extra 90% of savings for 99 hours. Just enter "NINETY" at the checkout.

This means: I just purchased $45 worth of gift certificates for $1.80! I saved $43.20. I purchased a $25 gc to La Pizzeria, a $10 gc to the local burger joint, and a $10 gc to a new restaurant in Midtown. Hmm, this could be interesting!

http://www.restaurant.com/

*I noticed some of the restaurants will add a 18%-20% pre-coupon gratuity to your bill when you use these gift certificates, so check the fine print before you are surprised!

September 4, 2009

Piggy Bank Dating Idea #2

My friend, Wendy, recently had a "date day" with her honey (and her roommate), and being students they had to conserve money. Wendy describes her day and how she saved big bucks:

We spent the entire day together Saturday for under $50 (and had my roommate along, too!) The 3 of us split Chili's 2 for $20 (appetizer, 2 entrees, and dessert) and had a lot left over. Then we went to the mall to shop (but not buy), got drinks from Chick-fil-A ($7 for a milkshake, dr. pepper, and bottle of water), walked around the campus, went to Goodwill and spent a total of $5 on sheet music and a puzzle, played pool in the dorm lobby, sat around (but didn't buy anything) at the campus coffee shop, bought 2 hot-n-ready pizzas from Little Caesar's for dinner for $10 (and had almost an entire pizza left over), and had a great day!

Wendy, thanks for your great example of "budget dating!"