As a big-time foodie myself, I tend to dine out once in a while. And I don't think anybody doesn't like to have tasty food at different locations. It is also a great way to spend some time with your friends and family. I know people will say that dining out is just a waste of money or it's not healthy bla bla. But I think once in a while if you eat out, you tend to enjoy it more. You feel like you have done something with your money and invested in yourself. Sometimes you have to take care of your body by giving it a treat and the best way is to treat yourself when you go out and try different cuisines.
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As a vegetarian myself, I visit a limited number of restaurants. In Bangalore, we have 100s of vegetarian restaurants and I have not even visited 40% of them. I mostly check their review before going but I try to eat out once a month and try to go to a restaurant which I have never visited before. My parents eat Sattvic food, which means they don't have onion and garlic so we try to find restaurants which don't serve these two items in the food and then we visit those places once in a while. I usually don't go to fancy restaurants which charge a lot, I prefer medium restaurants where I spend around $20 to $25 or less for 4 people.
Though there are people who usually go out every day and try some new cafes and restaurants which are costly too, again I prefer to keep myself stuck to the budget. While budget planning I allocate some $20 for my dining out category and that is separate from my groceries bill. This category comes under wants and usually, I prefer going out so that I satisfy my taste buds. And this I feel is important too because you don't want your budget to be significantly impacted with regular eating outside. Along with dining out, there are again some small snacks here and there which we have outside, which usually doesn't cost much.
So what are the different ways I try to save money while eating out
Look for Discounts
For me, I usually dine out once a month and thus I don't have a preference for going out only at weekends or something like that. If it's a Buffet, generally they are costly at Weekends, so we try to go out on weekdays so that some money will be saved. Similar sometimes apps like Nearby, some discount coupons or some credit card offers come in which makes it quite affordable to dine out.
Using Credit Cards
Some of the credit cards give good discounts on selected restaurants whereas some credit card gives 10x reward points when you use them for dining. I have HDFC Diners Club which gives more reward points in dining on weekends. And also the reward points that I get can also be claimed against dining out. So in a year, 2-3 times I just use the reward points which fund my dining out bill. So out of 12 months, I usually pay for 9 and 10 and the last 2 or 3 automatically be used with the reward points.
Happy Hours / Eary Bird
Some of the restaurants offer some discounts for Early birds if you go at 12 PM or 7 PM when the restaurants just open and thus you get some additional discount. And then there are Happy hours where you usually get a Buy 1 Get 1 Offer on selected meals or drinks.
More People More Discount
I know dining out with family makes you spend time with them, but sometimes you want to just hang out with your friends and colleagues. So when you go in a large team, the restaurants offer some discount which is again a great way to save while eating out.