In the last month, you’ve seen oXYGen Financial help give you tips on buying wine, brunch deals, getting social, and much more on Atlanta Eats. As you read the blog each week, we will continue to help you with money saving strategies and other unique dining out articles. If you apply these savings each month toward retirement, your kid’s college education, or reducing your mortgage, you’ll really put yourself in a unique position to achieve your financial goals. Here are four different programs that can be really effective to help cut down your “eating out” splurges.
- The Dining Out Card– (www.thediningoutcard.com) The dining out card is unique in nature because it allows you to get 25% off your alcohol and food bills for participating restaurants. Many card programs only allow you to get a discount on food bills. This card is accepted in over a half-dozen cities and now has Atlanta on the list with over 150 participating restaurants and growing. (Drawback: the annual fee is $125, but this can pay for itself in just a month’s worth of uses).
- Open Table-(www.opentable.com) Open Table is a free program that allows you to build up a point reward system when you book your dining experience through their system. Once you complete your reservation, points will be awarded to your account within seven days including any extra bonus points. Once you have built up enough points (usually around 2,000), you can begin earning a dining cheque for cash to be used at the restaurant of your choice. (Drawback: A lot of new or “trendy” restaurants tend to be “not available for open table points”, so read the fine print before booking your next reservation so you don’t miss out on those points! On the plus side, many restaurants have hopped on the Open Table train, even the ones that don’t traditionally require reservations.)
- idine-(www.idine.com) idine is another free online dining reward program website. The first key to the website is that you register one single credit card or debit card. There are over 10,000 participating restaurants around the country. Every time you use your card at a participating restaurant, somewhere between a 5% and 15% benefit will placed into your account. Rewards will keep adding up and soon you will be eligible to receive an American Express gift card.
- MOGL–www.mogl.com) For all the do-gooders out there, if you aren’t particularly interested or worried about saving a buck or two every time you go out to eat, you might want to consider signing up for MOGL to help fight hunger around the United States. Once you link your favorite debit card or credit card, 10% of each bill will be placed into an account (from participating restaurants) where you can determine a food bank of your choice to donate the funds.
While these are the top programs that stood out to me, there are literally hundreds of different dining programs that you can sign up for both locally (Scoutmob is a great site for you local Atlanta foodies) and nationally (who doesn’t love a Groupon or LivingSocial deal to their favorite restaurant?). Also, next time you’re at your go-to spot, take a moment to check out any signage on the doors or near the register, chances are they’ll have some sort of online or texting rewards/discount program you may not have known about!
Now that you know how to save money while eating out, how about saving money by getting our year-end tax tips brochure? Go to www.oxygenfinancial.net and breathe easier® about life!
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