Taking the family out to eat can break the budget if you are not careful.  We have a family of nine and taking this crew out inexpensively is sometimes difficult.  Here are a few tricks I have learned over the years.

Most restaurants have comment cards for you to fill out about their service.  Casa Ole', for example offers comment cards on their customer service.  If you fill out a positive comment card, they will send you coupons for meals at their restaurant.  Alternatively, if you like a restaurant and enjoy frequenting them, call and ask for coupons.  Most places do send them if you call.

Order water.  It is free and is a more health concious choice saving you calories and contains no sugar. You save an average of $2 or more per person by doing this.

 If you have small children don't order a kid's meal for each one, its more expensive that way.  Instead, order one kid's meal and split it or order a large side order and split it. You will save anywhere from $4-$10 off the total cost.

A girlfriend of mine shared her valuable tips:

If going to a very nice restaurant we always go to lunch.  An $80 dinner will be under $50 with the same foods for 5 people.

We like going to buffets with the whole family but it's not worth it if you're not going to go through more than one time, it's cheaper to go to a place where you can sit down and spend less.

Also Denny's (and some other restaurants) has a time when children eat free with a paying adult (Denny's is Tuesdays and it's 2 free children with each paid adult), so know where the specials are but more importantly make sure the special will actually save you money, if it's a pricier restaurant and you're only saving $5, it's probably not worth it.

When you have mid sized children it is good if they can order a smaller adult meal than to pay extra for a "child meal" that comes with a toy, it doesn't fill them up and usually you pay another $1- $2 to have the toy or treat.

Splitting desserts usually cuts another $3-$5 off the bill and most don't really need that large of a dessert.  The children will usually split a meal when they are quite small or even eat off of mom and dad's plate.

My husband eats out about 12 meals a week while traveling, so I get a lot of ideas from him when we tag along and have to keep the price down.

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