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DOs:

DON'Ts:

• For safety, pay by credit card if over £100
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• Protect purchases under £100

Full DOs and DON'Ts

Other ways to eat out on the cheap

As well as food vouchers, there’s a raft of permanent ways to save money on meals out. These methods are especially handy if you wine and dine on Friday or Saturday nights, which some vouchers exclude.

Book online

Dedicated dining websites allow you to browse restaurant offers and book online. Here you simply search for a table, book and then print the email or voucher. There are three top ones:

• Toptable.co.uk Online booking service Toptable features everything from local pizza joints to Michelin Star restaurants. For the best deals, click the 50% off button on the left-hand side. Some other offers are less hot, ie, a free glass of wine when you spend £30.

• Lastminute.com. Lastminute.com has offers throughout the UK and commonly offers 50% off food or 2for1 main courses. Again, some offers are better than others.

• 5pm.co.uk. The discounts are smaller, but 5pm.co.uk is worth a look. Deals are mostly set menus and 20% off.

Get bargain meals with Tesco Clubcard

Use your Tesco Clubcard points on meals out at restaurants, and you effectively get them for a third of the normal price. This is because 100 Clubcard points are only worth £1 if you use them in-store. Yet spend the points on goodies from its Deals Brochure and you get three times the vouchers' face value. So £5 worth of Clubcard vouchers are worth £15 in Bella Italia vouchers.

Restaurants include Café Rouge, Planet Hollywood and Chez Gerard; see a full list. For more tricks to maximise Clubcard points, read the Loyalty Schemes guide.

Tastecard

A Tastecard entitles you to 50% off at thousands of restaurants nationwide, including PizzaExpress, Ask, Zizzi and GBK. At £80, 12 months membership ain’t cheap, but can be worth it over the year, especially if you often take out large groups.

Restaurants can get mardy if you suddenly produce the card at the end of the meal, so always book ahead, mentioning the offer, then show the card before ordering. Tastecard often offers free month-long cards; these are always included in the free weekly email.

Bring your own booze

If you like a bottle of plonk with your dinner, BYOB (bring your own bottle) places are a great way to save. Restaurants rake in profits by charging inflated prices for booze, eg, a bottle of Louis Jadot Bourgogne Chardonnay is typically £16 on a wine list. Yet pick up the same bottle at Tesco before you hit the restaurant and it costs just £7.

For a list of BYOB restaurants across the UK, see Wine-pages.com. Some charge corkage of £1-ish, though many don’t.

Michelin stars on the cheap

If there’s a fancy Michelin joint you’ve always wanted to try, your foie gras and lobster ravioli will be vastly cheaper at lunch than at dinner. As an example, a three-course set dinner at Gordon Ramsey at Claridges in London costs £70, but the same thing costs £30 at lunch – a massive £40 saving. Check restaurants’ own websites for offers.

Home-cooked fayre

Eating out can munch away at your money, so do it yourself at home with recipes from the forum’s Old Style (thrift) board. There are hundreds of lip-smackingly gorgeous ideas; take a look at a full list of MoneySaving menu plans.

If you’re a curry fan, here’s how to make a three-course Indian takeaway for £5. Many Old Stylers report they now find restaurant grub disappointing.

Don’t feel embarrassed about tap water!

Finally, there’s absolutely no shame in asking for tap water. It’s better for the environment too.

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