A Dinner Date with the Hubby

My latest saving victory occured last night on a date night with the hubby. For Xmas last year my brother-in-law and sister-in-law gave us a $25 giftcard to Siba (an upscale restaurant in Seven Fields) with the stipulation that they had to watch the kids. Fine by us - free babysitting is always accepted (and free food is great too!). Now if you've ever ventured to Siba you would know that the prices are high so $25 wasn't going to get us far. SO....I took to the internet in search of coupons or something to help differ the cost of our evening out. I came across the website restaurant.com which features local restaurants and for a HUGE discount you can buy gift certificates for the restaurant. I was lucky to find Siba being featured at that time (although it appears to no longer be featured). Often restaurant.com offers 80% discounts which means I bought a $25 gift certificate to Siba for just $2. Now there are some restrictions on the gift certificates so read carefully. For Siba I had to spend $35, which obviously wasn't a problem, use it only during dinner and they would automatically add 18% gratuity. All of these things were a-okay with me. Our date night ran up the total of $63.74 was reduced to just $13.74 (plus $2 for the certificate). I'm pretty sure we would spend that much at McDonalds and we definately wouldn't have enjoyed chicken marsala, caesar salad, some kind of spicy pasta with sausage and chicken, and lobster bisque! This is a great way to enjoy some local restaurants and save yourself a significant amount! Let me know if you try somewhere new out. I have two more gift certificates to places we've never been and I'm looking forward to trying them out.