How to Save Even More Money During Happy Hour, Part 1

During the holidays, restaurants try to make their gift cards the perfect stocking stuffer for a loved one. In these tough economic times, they’re even laying on the incentives to get you to buy their gift cards. Often, that means selling the cards at a discount.

This is where saving money during happy hour comes in. You know where you go all the time. You probably have a good idea how much you spend there. If you have the cash, you should buy gift cards now and save money throughout the year.

Costco is a great source of these gift cards, but in the past, they’ve only been available during the holiday season. Generally, the ones sold at Costco cost $80 for $100 worth of gift certificates. Some of the ones I’ve seen during a recent visit are:

• Capitol Garage
• SRO Restaurants (Bistro 33, Riverside Clubhouse, 33rd St Bistro, Suzie Burger)
• Paragary’s Restaurant Empire (Cosmo Café, Esquire Grill, Spataro, Café Bernardo, Centro, Blue Cue, Monkey Bar, Paragary’s, R15)
• Fuzio

Here’s an example of how I use them. My friends and I frequent R15 because we like watching sports in their caves off the pool room and their $2 PBR. I know I spend a lot of money there. Why not save 20 percent?

Other restaurants offer them too.

• Il Fornaio offers a free $20 gift card with a $100 gift card purchase.
• McCormick & Schmick's is offering free $10 gift card with a purchase of a $50 gift card, or free $25 gift card with a purchase of a $100 gift card.
• Chevy's offers a free $10 gift card with the purchase of a $50 gift card.
• Applebee's offers a free $10 gift card with the purchase of a $50 gift card.

There are a couple situations where I would not recommend this strategy.

1. The restaurant isn’t doing well and you think it’ll go out of business. Don’t give them your money and lose it when they go under.
2. You don’t have a steady routine. If you’re not sure you can use it, you probably shouldn’t buy the gift certificates, even if you’re saving 20 percent.
3. You lose things. If you tend to misplace credit cards or leave your cell phone behind, don’t buy a gift certificate with money on it. It’s not worth the savings if you’re probably going to lose it.

Are there other gift cards out there that I'm missing? Send me an e-mail at cowtowneats@gmail.com or put them in the comments.

Comments

[Jeff]

The downside of the Paragary's gift card is you cannot leave your server/bartender a tip with them. What I've done in the past when I've forgotten to bring cash is have them charge a nickel to my credit card and leave a tip that way.

It really is a great deal regardless--I mean 20% off of R15's $2 HH vodka tonics?