Eat Cheap- Spend a few bucks at Restaurant.com to save big bucks at your local eatery!

There are two things I love in this world besides my wife and kids: saving money and eating out. If I can do both at the same time, even better. Lately, what with gas prices going sky high and my new job, money has been a little tight lately, so when I was on the lookout for different ways to save money and still do what I love, my friend Allison came to the rescue.

Thank you Allison!
(source: unknown)

She told me about Restaurant.com. Here's an example of how it works: Buy a $50 gift certificate for $10 from the long list of restaurants in your area. They have a contract with Restaurants.com to accept the certificate and in the unlikely event your certificate is denied, you'll get your money back. You can search for a place by name or zip code.

Is it legit? Allison seems to think so and has used the service several times with full satisfaction. Also, the site has more than 18,000 "likes" on Facebook, so that's promising.

There are a few minor catches: all are local restaurants (no chains that I could find), Drinks are not included and the tip is to be computed before the discount is taken- although this is standard for all discounts. Finally, you have to spend a up to certain amount before you can redeem the certificate (easy with a family). This is Ok with me as we have several locally-owned favorite places we frequent and one well-liked Mexican restaurant three blocks from my house is on the list, so you can be pretty sure I'll be buying a certificate soon.

BTW, if this seems like a commercial for the site, it isn't. I have no connection whatsoever with Restaurant.com. I just love saving money and feeding a family of five ain't cheap and if there's a way to keep a few dollars in my pocket and frequent a local business, I'm in.

Go to Restaurant.com here and don't forget to tip your waiters!