It's embarrassing to go out with a group, or a date, and find out that the evening's plans are out of your budget (or just not worth your cash).
Especially after school, entertainment is an important part of life. It's how you unwind, decompress, and maintain relationships. A little fun can go a long way for recent grads burdened with the reality of life after college. But unwinding with dinner, a couple concerts a month, and a movie or two? It gets expensive, fast.
I can actually remember being in junior high school and looking up movie times in the local paper. That makes me sound old, but that was only a little more than a decade ago (and we did have computers; my parents were just late to adopt the internet).
Now I can't imagine looking at the paper for movies (though I do like the feel of newsprint on my fingertips when I read reviews). Instead, I check listings online, on my phone, by pressing one or two buttons. It's not lazy, it's efficient!
Since we're all online, nearly all day long, between computers at home, computers at work, computers at school and mini-computers in our smartphones, we may be more in the know than before (a subject for another day), but we're also, hopefully, a little more well-versed in how to suss out a good deal or two.
Looking for cheap ways to wine and dine without breaking the bank? Here are some beginner's tips. Share your tricks in the comments!
- Don't waste your money on the bad cheap eats. Use community review sites like Yelp.com and Citysearch.com to figure out which restaurants and bars are hot in your town; cheap is good, but reasonable and delicious is always better. (On the other hand, be wary – some reviewers tend to overstate their case, positive or negative.)
- Get a gift certificate. Restaurant.com is the premiere site to buy gift certificates or promotions online for less than their dollar value. Example: Restaurant.com has a gift certificate to Berta's Latin American Restaurant with a $25 on sale for $10. To use it, I need to spend a minimum of $35, and it doesn't cover alcohol. So if I go to Berta's and spend $40 (without alcohol), I only pay a total of $25. That's almost 40% off my dinner!
- Social media deals: Location-specific social sites are booming. Foursquare is one of the newest – and most fun. You “check in” virtually when you visit a place and compete with others who've been there to, for example, be elected mayor. Some businesses are using this as a way to reward frequent customers with gift certificates and freebies; businesses already use other location and review sites, and even Twitter, to reward savvy customers. If you like social media applications (or treasure hunts), Foursquare.com might be up your alley. If you have a regular haunt, check out what they're doing for their customers online.
- Pick up the local paper. Most community papers or weeklies are free, and they're chock-full of local advertising – and reviews, from restaurant reviews to movie summaries to lists of happy hour deals at pubs, clubs and bars. Plus, the paper is the way to find out about free community events or seminars at the local universities – if you're still a student yourself, chances are, you'll get discounts or free entry, and alumni often qualify for more of the same.
Most discount or deal search sites and even newspapers these days have mobile applications for smartphone users that are more sophisticated than the website they're based on. For me, the smartphone Yelp application offers the best of many worlds.
Needless to say, you'll find your own favorite sites and deals; how good a site like Yelp is depends on your community.
Don't keep all the good deals to yourself. Tell us your city and how you find the best deals there!
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