Affordable eating out is possible! Over the years, I've become fairly ept at this too! South Florida really makes this easy!
In the "Fabulous 80's" lots of our restaurants would try to outdo each other with their "Happy Hour" complimentary buffets...if your purchased even an iced tea, you could help yourself to a meal.
Restaurants make lots of profit on alcoholic beverage sales! Filtered water with lemon, and cranberry juice, club soda and lime are good substitutions if hydration with your meal is your goal!
"Dollar Menus" exist in most of the "fast food" restaurants...and with some creative ordering you can even get a "healthy" feeding!
Check your receipts after you pay your dining bills. As part of their quality control monitoring, it's popular for many restaurants to give you discounts and/or "free stuff" by going to their follow-up web pages, entering your receipt code, and answering online questions about your dining experience. One chain gives you a free meal every time you do this, even when your receipt shows a previous free meal!
Check the ads in your local paper or go online to resturant web sites to check menus and prices to get discount coupons before you venture out for a meal! "Two for ones" or "Buy one, get the second for half price" are common! In our present economy, even the most elegant restaurants are offering "price fixe" three to four course meals with beverages included.
Just like the "Sienfelds" would do in "Boca Del Vista", the "Early Birds" can get more than the worms! Eating before 6:30 in many restaurants, you can get substantial discounts on multi-course meals.
Eating at the restaurant bars or at their hi-tops in the bar areas often provide inexpensive tapas-sized appetizers or full meals for big discounts during certain hours. "Five Dollar" offerings are common. One of our local Italian chains offers $2.95 meals from 4 to 7pm and 9pm to closing, Mondays thru Fridays.
Greeks are known for providing economical menus! Chinese buffets are economical too (and many have limited or stopped thier MSG usage).
Happy economical eating!
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