Burkenomics: Restaurant deals and Ebates.com

A few months ago, I was reading a lady's blog about couponing. I was inspired after watching Extreme Couponing, but I haven't delved too deeply into that yet.

Maybe if my husband loses his job...

She mentioned Groupon, Living Social, and Morgan's Deals, which we were already doing to stretch our dining out money. Then she enlightened me about Restaurant.com, which is a better deal. Have you heard of that before? It's another coupon that you buy, but these save you even more money. With Groupon, Living Social, and Morgan's Deals, you usually get 50% off. With Restaurant.com, you get about 65% off. Most of their coupons are $25 off $35, and you pay $10 for it. But you should always wait for the sales. The lowest they go is $1- but only (I think) once a year. I think the last time I saw that was around the 4th of July. They have them for $2 every other month or so, which is the sale that I wait for. So we get a $35 dinner for $12, plus tax and tip. This basically stretches our dining out money from $200 to $300. It's usually not big chain restaurants like Olive Garden, Red Robin, etc. It offers coupons for a lot of hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants, which I like better.

With Ebates, you save even more. Have you heard of Ebates? I wish I had discovered this years ago. They send you a check every quarter for a percentage back of the shopping you do online. It's awesome, and it's not a scam. Businesses pay them for advertising, and they pass some of that money back to you. Buying clothes from Target? Go to Target.com through Ebates.com and shop as usual. Ebates then gives you back 3% of what you spent. Buying a Restaurant.com certificate? Go to Restaurant.com through Ebates and they give you back 25%. You also get 3% back for Groupons. It doesn't sound like much, but it sure adds up. I get about $20 back each quarter. You can get money back for everything from Sephora to Apple.

Hey, at least she got 8% back on that makeup.

All you have to do for Ebates is sign up (put "micaelael@yahoo.com" in the referral section!) and remember to go through their site when you buy things online. Just search for the store you want in the search bar, click on it, and it takes you to the store's website. It only takes 5 seconds and you get money back.

And don't forget to sign up for restaurant mailing lists. You usually get free meals or desserts on your birthday and a lot of coupons throughout the year. I ate for free for almost a week last year from signing up for so many restaurants.

Happy savings!