Eating Out

It seems like eating out is more of America's pastime than baseball (which only makes sense since the baseball season never seems to end and each game is a study in tediousness, but I digress).  And if you eat out a lot, you should never pay full price.

One option is restaurant.com.  At their site, select a restaurant and pay for a gift certificate.  Here's where it gets good - if you wait long enough, certificates will go on sale for up 80% off.  The best deals are for certificates for $25 that cost $10.  With 80% off, that means you are paying $2 for $25.  Now for the fine print - you typically have to spend a certain amount of money.  At some restaurants you have to spend $35, some $50, so be wary.  Another caveat is an 18% tip will automatically be added to the bill (which is what you should be tipping anyway).  But there is some good news with this fine print - alcohol is not excluded (so drink up).  Depending on the restaurant, there are other gift certificate denominations (for example, for $20, you can get a $50 certificate, but you have to spend $100) if you will have larger parties.

Long story short - if some of your favorite haunts are available at restaurant.com, stock up on their certificates when they hit that 80% off mark.