9 Restaurant Hacks to Save

When looking at a menu, most people’s eyes drift to the right. Restaurants know this and purposely put their most expensive items on the right side of the menu. Check out the left side of the menu for cheaper options, or appetizers that can make a full meal, before looking right.

The beginning of the week is slow for the restaurant industry. Take advantage of specials and discounts that eateries offer only on Mondays and Tuesdays.

To make major holidays super-profitable, many eateries only offer fixed-price menus on these days. These menus might sound cheap until you consider that the four-course meal going for $55 is a lot more expensive than the $18 entrée you’d have otherwise ordered. If you’d really like to celebrate these special days with a restaurant meal, consider eating out the day before or the day after the holiday.

Pick up food from your favorite eatery and enjoy it at home. You’ll save on beverage costs and extras, too. To make it super-cheap, only purchase the entrée. Then, roast some veggies and potatoes at home for a quick side and crack open a tub of rocky road ice cream for dessert.

Restaurants are notorious for marking up beverage prices. Soft drinks can be marked up by 400% and alcoholic beverages by 600%. Ask for water and you’ll save a pretty penny on your final check.

If you’re dining with your spouse and don’t only want water, consider sharing a beverage. You can both enjoy the same drink and spare the expense of a second beverage.

Never walk into a restaurant without first checking for online deals and coupons. Visit the eatery’s website and also check out restaurant deal sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, and OpenTable.

Instead of ordering individual portions that look like they were created for giants, split an entrée with your dining partner.

It takes our stomachs a while to get the memo that we’ve had enough. Don’t order dessert right after scraping your plate clean. Wait and you might find that you’re so full, you can’t eat another morsel.