Cheap eats and coupons - all your tips for food on a budget

GENIUS!!! I would never have thought of that.

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You beat me to it. I was going to suggest Sweet Tomato, my personal fav and cheap. Greta salads and soups.

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Golden Corral is my favorit buffett. If you want to go out to dinner or do things look for groupons. I just bought a new computer from them for $230 that Walmart sells for $500. It should be here next week. You can get groupons for dinner at 30 - 60% off. Aldi’s is cheap but be careful and really look at what you are getting. I used to buy their chicken till I really look at it, you are paying for water about 20 - 30% added. I buy boneless skinless chicken breast at Walmart for $1.98lb and Aldi’s was $1.79lb but so much injected water.

I was a chaperone when we took our middle schoolers to Golden Coral for dinner one night. They loved it!!! It was fun to watch them. Being from NE none of us had ever experienced anything like it! (For me it’s one and done😀). Fresh produce will be best if it is in season otherwise you might want to stick with frozen. Some grocery stores have better produce than others so if you don’t like what you see at one place try another. Everything goes on sale eventually so checking the Sunday flyers is a great tip. Buy store brands if possible you usually can’t tell the difference and in some cases it’s better. Olive oil esp. is cheaper (and tastes good) at Trader Joe’s. If you are near a Trader Joe’s go it’s a fun experience! We really like their hummus, fruit, and it’s one place where I will buy baking mixes because they are delicious (not cheap but we go in knowing it’s a splurge). Set an amount and challenge the kids to help you stick to it…my kid gets us under every time! we eat 2 meals from our room and have one meal out plus a treat when we are in the parks and it’s just right for us! Our first trip the meal out every day was from the food court and eaten by the pool because that is was a thrill for my kid! One day it was PH overlooking IASW! Best memories! And since we don’t eat out a lot the pizza was perfect for us! This time I can’t wait to surprise her with the PP Float!

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We have Panera in Toronto.

You asked about Cici’s…we went to the one on I drive about 4 years ago…and we are thinking about going back this summer. It was very inexpensive, and while the crust was kind of like frozen self-rising, they had a wide variety of pizzas, salad, and some type of dessert included. The staff was friendly enough, we weren’t rushed, and there was some crazy souvenir shop with a walkway through the restaurant. Made for an interesting evening! And if you have coupons…even better!! Maybe someone had a more recent review? Looking forward to following your trip!!

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If Hell has a buffet, it is a Golden Corral…

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It’s been a long time since we’ve been to a Golden Corral. It’s definitely not the cheapest option for eating out, but if your kids like buffets, you will get a lot of variety that way. And anybody that likes to eat a lot of meat would get a decent value for their meal. When we went, they always had steak and shrimp options.

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This is why my teens like to so much!!!

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I’m with @ryan1. I much prefer Little Caesars to Dominos (despite eating way too much Little Caesars in college. Since this past August, however, I have been dairy free so today I’d love to eat any pizza! Very tough to give up your favorite food!

I still like Little Caesars, despite having worked there for 5 years in high school and college. My oldest DS worked there and my third DS currently works there. We get pizza every Sunday there. Their $5 pizza is hit or miss, but if you get their deep dish or Extra Most Bestest versions, they are usually quite good. Or a three meat with extra cheese.

Is it the best? No. But a far cry better than Domino’s.

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IMO it’s like choosing between arsenic and cyanide - both will kill you, so why debate over which one is"better" :wink:

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Aww come on, I thought the American Dream was built on a foundation of saturated fat, bleached flour and cured pork… You’re ruining this for me! :stuck_out_tongue:
Slightly off topic, but what’s the rule on tipping someone who delivers a pizza etc. Is it a percentage like TS or a fixed rate or…?

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Here you go:

Ahh a lmgtfy, thanks for that. I asked here because I actually wanted opinions from real people as sometimes they’re more interesting than just what google spouts out.

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Asking for opinions about tipping usually starts a massive fight in a thread… :wink:

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Okay, let me switch to something else in the OP then, as buffets have been well covered, which I’m most grateful for.

Coupons. This isn’t really a thing in the UK, but seems to be a massive part of dining culture there.
Earlier people were saying how supermarkets have tended to switch to general discounts with loyalty cards (that’s how we do it) - but it seems to be much more varied how it’ll work with restaurants.

How do you guys do it?
Are there good sites that list recent coupons (loads of very average, spammy ones came up when I searched - for instance we have two outstanding ones in the UK, (HotUKDeals and MoneySavingExperts if anyone’s visiting)
Is there anything to try besides registering on their websites and seeing what you get emailed?
Any particularly good deals you’d flag up (e.g. I saw in the Florida Keys ‘Happy hour’ seems to refer to food deals as well as drinks - is that something to look for elsewhere?)
And are there any etiquette with them? Can I really just rock up somewhere and use coupons over and over? Do I present them at the beginning or the end? Does everywhere accept them on my phone and not printed now

I think coupons are far less used in the day of apps and loyalty programs. But do get the Sunday paper in case there is an Olive Garden, red lobster, or Longhorn coupon in there.

This summer when we were in Southern California we decided to pull into a little Pizza Hut instead of brave the traffic. The man at the counter asked if we had the app. I did not but quickly downloaded it. In ordering my pizza via the mobile ordering I was able to get a deal that would not have been available to me just ordering person to person. At the time I believe it was $5.99 for a medium pizza with endless toppings.

I’m guessing there are similar stories for places like Panera, chipotle, five guys, and that kind of dining.

As far as the grocery store goes, that can be tricky. We have tried to get loyalty cards at grocery stores when traveling and sometimes they’ve told us no. Though that was a number of years ago.

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I have no energy for coupons. DH likes particular restaurants and sometimes the coupons are for specific types of meals or you have to buy two drinks or whatever. That said, most of the restaurant coupons we have used either come from the Sunday newspaper or Groupon. But Groupon is going to be random little hole-in-the-wall type places and might not be located that close to you.

I was just reading a thread on TheDibb where it said to sign up but also make your birthday the month you’re there so you get extra coupons. Does everyone do that, don’t you get asked to prove it?