Frugal Family: Eat Out, But Never Pay Full Price

It can be expensive to eat out, especially if you have a family. But on special occasions or even after a busy day, it can be fun to take a break and let someone else do the cooking. With just a bit of planning, anyone can save money by never paying full price again. There are coupons everywhere, you just need to know where to look. Patch has done the search and found five great sources for families to save money in the places they love the most. 

This national company sends envelopes filled with coupons from local small businesses, many of them restaurants, straight to our mailboxes. Perhaps a few years ago, this envelope went straight to the recycle bin, but today, it's a great source for local restaurant coupons. ValPak also has a website where you can search by zip code and have easy access to printable coupons. If you search from your smart phone, many companies will also allow you to just show the server a code directly from your phone. When I searched for my Orting zip code, I found that ,  and  all had coupons featured this week. This site seems to get new search results every time, so if you don't find what you are looking for, try, try again!

This magazine also comes in the mail but has a great searchable website with printable coupons. There is a portion of the site dedicated to the cities of Bonney Lake, Enumclaw, Sumner and Buckley, so the coupons you'll find here are filled with local favorites.  , ,  and  all have coupons featured right now. 

The best part about this site is that it's also locally owned! All City Bucks has coupons from Sumner, Bonney Lake, Enumclaw, Puyallup, Auburn and Tacoma.  The restaurant coupons are sorted by city but there is also a section just for happy hour coupons.  and  nearly always have coupons on this site.  You can find extra savings on the All City Bucks Facebook page or by signing up for the weekly e-mail newsletter that comes out every Friday. 

RESTAURANT.COM

This coupon site has a different way of making money while you save money.  Shoppers purchase $25 vouchers for specific restaurants that usually cost beteen $7 and $15. There are often codes distributed throughout the Restaurant.com Facebook page that will get the voucher price down to $2 or $3. This site is best when going into the city for dinner, because there are only a few local places listed.  Many major cities across the country have restaurants on the site, including Seattle and Tacoma. It's important to read the fine print on these vouchers depending on what your plans are. There are usually disclaimers like "not good on drinks purchased at the bar" and "not good during happy hour" on each voucher. Still a great deal, but you have to make sure your meal fits the voucher's parameters. 

Coupon Map is another national zip code search site, but rather than local favorites, it's filled with national chain restaurants.  So even if you want fast food or ice cream there are coupons for you. I did a search for Enumclaw that got 22 hits! ,, Little Caesars, , and  were at the top of the list. Coupon Map would be handy while on vacation because the search also returned a Google map with each restaurant displayed so you can get driving directions if needed.