7 Ways to Save Money on Fast Food
“What time do you want me to come back home?” I asked.
“8:00.”
“Really??? Okay!”
I darted out the door with the blessing of my husband and headed to the library to get some much needed work done. Nate had graciously blessed me with several hours of alone time out of the house and I was more than willing to take him up on it.
When supper time rolled around I debated going home for a free meal for about 0.2 seconds. I’m a frugal gal, but I didn’t want to risk getting sucked back into the chaos of little children.
I ventured off to Five Guys Burgers & Fries. I picked Five Guys because it serves hamburgers made out of actual beef. (Isn’t it sad that not all restaurants do that?) It was also located near the coffee shop I wanted to head to for the remainder of my free time.
Five Guys isn’t known for it’s cheap dollar menu. In fact, they can be kind of pricey when it comes to fast food. Still, I wanted to spend as little money as possible.
I ordered:
- the smallest hamburger – I skipped the cheese to save some money.
- nothing to drink – I drank water I had brought with me.
- no fries – I skipped their fries and ate 2 generous helpings of the free peanuts they have sitting out.
My total cost was $4.45 including tax. I also brought home a decent stash of napkins they threw in my bag. We usually use cloth napkins, but it seemed wasteful to throw them away.
Fast forward a couple of days and I found myself at another fast food restaurant. Eating out twice in one week is very unusual for me, but this time I was armed with two coupons for free hamburgers from Sonic.
Noah and I ate for free at Sonic by:
- getting 2 hamburgers for free
- skipping drinks – We brought our own from home.
- skipping fries and other sides – We ate some fruit before we went to Sonic.
Fast food restaurants aren’t exceptionally expensive, but I was still thrilled with how cheaply I was able to eat at two different restaurants this past week. I hope my frugal fast food ventures inspire you cheaply the next time you go out. To help even more, I came up with several tips for how to save money on fast food.
7 Ways to Save Money on Fast Food
1. Drink Water – Bring your own drinks from home or ask for tap water. Sugary drinks aren’t good for you anyway.
2. Use Coupons – Don’t be afraid to order only what you have coupons for like when I ordered my free hamburgers and nothing else.
3. Don’t Stuff Yourself – Avoid super-sized portions, eat until you feel satisfied, and then stop eating! Smaller sized meals cost less and your waistline will thank you.
4. Eat At Home Before Or After – This goes along with not stuffing yourself. Eat a little something before you leave the house or plan ahead to have a snack at home later. You get even more bonus points if you eat something healthy like fruit. Of course saving room for ice cream at home is equally as satisfying.
5. Go Where Kids Eat Free – Money Saving Mom has a great list of restaurants where kids eat free. You can also check out this list of places kids eat for free from The Penny Hoarder.
6. Skip The Kids’ Menu – Sometimes it is cheaper to buy an adult entree and have my children share it. Plus it seems like the kids’ menu is never quality food anyway.
7. Meal Plan – Plan ahead so you can eat at home as much as possible instead of relying on take-out. Of course it is fun to eat out now and then and you shouldn’t feel guilty about that. Still, it is almost always better for your budget to skip the drive through and eat at home.
Not only do you save money this way, you save loads of calories! Empty calories, the ones that bring you very little nutrition.
Another hint:
When dining with my husband we often share a larger entree to save money. These days portions are very big. Too big for us.
The only reason why I don’t like sharing entrees is because I love having yummy leftovers for lunch the next day. 🙂
Some restaurants have “frequent customer” cards which enable you to earn free items after so many purchases. The ones I use are Panera Bread, Papa John’s Pizza, Papa Murphy’s Pizza, and Zaxby’s.
I have also found restaurant gift cards on sale and purchased them to use for our own family. I once bought 2 gift cards for Zaxby’s on sale for about $40, but the value of the cards was $50. That’s like getting a meal and an appetizer for free. If you are going to eat out anyway this is a good way to save money doing it.
One more trick I’ve tried is buying fundraiser coupon books from local charities/schools and using the coupons for eating out. The most recent one I bought filled with coupons for Zaxby’s. The coupon book cost about $10, but with all the coupons I used I think I saved 2-3 times that amount. Plus I’ve been able to share coupons with others who needed them.
Buy gift cards/certificates when they offer something free. One nearby restaurant cooperative gives a coupon book good for free food when you buy $50 in gift cards at Christmas. Free food value is $ 60 and there is no purchase necessary. By visiting these restaurants with our free meals we discovered what cheapie meals they offer without spending a lot of money. I always check the menu for bargain days and times. The Fuzzy peach has discounts on Monday and Tuesday from 3-6, Bagger Daves on Tuesday from 4-6, Twisted Rooster $4 bugers, add fries for $1, Wednesday all day and $4 appetizers every day from 4-6. Red Robin has a free birthday meal and a frequency card. Go for birthdays and scan card, they also email specials like discounted burger offers which also count. When you buy 9 or 10 meals next is free. Went with daughter for her birthday and both meals were free,, ordered water, so no charge. Waitress said don’t worry about the tip. Steak and shake is inexpensive, has coupons, half price shakes from 2-4 am and pm and gives bonus with gift card purchases. Restaurant.com is helpful. One restaurant was running a special that a meal+drink is $1 cheaper than meal alone and apps were $3. Order 3 apps for two people and water-only $9 and filling. On the Border has $2 tacos on Tuesday, but they also have $3 and $4 tacos and all the free chips you can eat, just know that the salsa is spicy. (We went and for 4 of us, they brought 5 bowls of chips) panera bread is a little more pricey, but they have specials for card holders, currently have a $2 coupon on my card. I usually don’t eat out without a coupon, special, gift card, or combo. Always check out policy. Read somewhere that Ruby Tuesdays will not take coupon if paying with gift card 🙁
my husband has gotten gift cards as a gift from vendors at work. We will order 1 meal to go, usually a burger/fries and split it. We have a state park in our town, overlooking Lake Michigan. We go there and have the perfect view. We bring our own drinks. We can get 2 meals (dates) out of a $25 gift card.
That is a fabulous and frugal date night idea! I’m not sure if my husband would like it. He gets tired of me asking him to share food. haha!
These are great tips. We are needing to cut back on fast food now that the holidays are over. During the past couple of months, we opted for the convenience a lot more than is good for us. Another tip for you list, though, is letting kids share an adult meal. I’m not usually impressed with options on the kids’ menu anyway, and so letting them share gives us more options (and ones that actually include vegetables!). It is also often cheaper to buy one simple adult meal than 2 or 3 kids meals.
Oh, and now I am craving Five Guys. Their burgers are the best, but yeah, they are pretty pricey for a family of 5 to eat.
Lisa, you are totally right about skipping the kids meals! I hate the idea of paying $5 for Kraft Mac N Cheese at a restaurant!!!
Get the Burger King app for your phone. It shows you coupons that you can see anytime. Then, when you go to the restaurant, you click redeem and you have 15 minutes to show youe phone with the coupon code to the cashier to get that deal. I just got 2 Whopper Jrs with 2 small fries for $3.99 plus tax.
That is a good price!
Hi, another good way to save money on all kinds of eating out (and movie theaters, retail stores, hotels, etc.) is mystery shopping. You eat at a restaurant, submit a report about the experience and they reimburse you for the meal and sometimes more $ on top of that. If you go to mspanorthamerica.com, they have a list of reputable mystery shopping companies, including one that shops Five Guys Burgers. My favorite is http://www.a-closer-look.com (go to their website and click “Become a shopper”). They have tons of restaurants shops all over the US and Canada! They’ve been in business for over 25 yrs and members of the BBB, etc. so they are totally legitimate. I’ve been shopping for them for over 7 yrs and always gotten reimbursed for my shops as promised.
Great tip, Misa! One of my friends does this, but I’ve never tried it myself. I should!