5 Guidelines That Make Date Night Budget Friendly

written by: The Budget Bee

As much as I love Steve Carell and Tina Fey, this is not a review on their latest movie together. I’m talking about a night out with my husband. Going out to dinner is something that we, like many other people, love to do. We absolutely enjoy all that it entails, whether it’s trying new restaurants, sharing exotic entrees or ordering our favorite thin crust pizza. When we first started dating, we used to go out to dinner several times a week and continued to do so in our first year of marriage. When the economy started to sour, we had to make some adjustments so we started to make dinner in order to save money. Now, we cook dinner at least 5 times a week and occasionally order take out on the nights we don’t have time to prepare meals.

But every two weeks, we make it a point to go out to dinner and have Date Night. This is important to us for many reasons: it puts something on our “social calendar” to look forward to, it allows us to be a couple and continue the “courtship” (which shouldn't end even if you are married) and it keeps our pallets inspired. Plus since we eat out less frequently, we appreciate it that much more. Date Night doesn’t have to be dinner at a 5 star restaurant in Beverly Hills, but it's more than going to Applebee’s. With that being said, we try and follow 5 guidelines that make date night budget friendly.

1. Blackboard Eats. If you haven't subscribed to Blackboard Eats, go to www.blackboardeats.com and register to get weekly emails for discounts of up to 40% at some of the best spots in town to eat. You'll receive email with an offer to get a passcode, which you redeem when you dine at the restaurant. Blackboard Eats is available in Los Angeles, New York and a host of other cities. For last week’s Date Night, we dined at one of our favorite tapas restaurants, Orris (www.orrisrestaurant.com) and got 30% off the bill with our Blackboard Eats discount.
2. Happy Hour. An increasing number of restaurants are now offering Happy Hour. Case in point: The Cheesecake Factory now has Happy Hour specials from 4-6pm and offers a multitude of appetizers and drinks for just $5. Pink Taco has an incredible half off Happy Hour until 7pm. Sure, that means going out to eat a little bit earlier, but it's well worth it when the bill comes. My husband and I often go to restaurants with Happy Hour specials on our Date Nights.
3. OpenTable. When making dinner reservations, we like to visit OpenTable.com, an online real-time restaurant reservation service. The membership is free and it allows you to make online reservations with a click of a button. OpenTable is great for 3 reasons: (i) You get points for every reservation you fulfill. Most reservations are 100 points, with the exception of some that are 1,000 points during non-peak hours. Points equal restaurant dollars in the form of a Dining Cheque that is redeemable at any restaurant on OpenTable.com. (ii) You can make reservations based on price and how expensive the restaurant is. A link to the menu is usually provided which is helpful when budgeting for dinner. (iii) It’s a fast, efficient way to find available reservations at restaurants that meet your criteria for cuisine, price and location at a specific time. Last year, we redeemed a 10,000 point Dining Cheque (which took about a year and a half to achieve) and enjoyed an amazing meal at an expensive steakhouse with $100 taken off the bill.
4. Corkage fee. Restaurants with small corkage fees are hard to find, and ones with no corkage fee are rare, but they do exist. Sometimes, I will call a restaurant to inquire. One of my favorite restaurants with no corkage fee is Houstons, a national chain that belongs to the Hillstone restaurant group. Visit www.hillstone.com for locations. If you are vino lovers like us, wine is essential with dinner. Enjoy a bottle that you've been saving for a special occasion, or go to Bev Mo or Trader Joe's and choose from a terrific selection of wine for cheap. This can make a huge difference on the bill.
5. Share an entree, get 2 appetizers. This is a mantra we live by. We’ve learned that our eyes really are bigger than our stomachs and often find that sharing an entree is enough. My husband and I each pick an appetizer, which is much more economical than each of us getting an entrée and sharing an appetizer. For instance, when we dine at CPK, I get a small Caesar salad, he gets a cup of the tortilla soup and we share a pizza.

Whether you apply these tips to your own dates or dinners out with friends, these guidelines will help you save money. We’ve saved many dollars this way. Happy budget and happy bellies… it doesn’t get much better.

About this Author:

The Budget Bee writes about how she lives a more frugal, yet fun and fulfilling life in Los Angeles in her blog Budget Bliss LA. Follow the Budget Bee on Twitter @BudgetBlissLA

Posted by Sok on October 20, 2010     Tags: Deal


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