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How to Save 50 Percent at Good Restaurants, Third Edition

Over the last year, the half off deals scene has really changed. Sites have shut down and others have merged. At the prodding of a reader who commented that the last post was now woefully out of date, here's the new and improved How to Save 50 Percent at Good Restaurants, Third Edition.

There two main ways that you can save nearly 50 percent on restaurants – through limited time offers like Groupon or limited supply offers like Sac News & Review's Sweet Deals. 

Limited Time Offers

The limited time offers are those where the deal is only offered for a few days, and then the deals are gone. These are the sites that offer these deals in Sacramento:

Not all the deals are food and drink related. I’d say half of the time, they’re personal services (massages, hair cuts, cleaning services, etc.), a third of the time, they’re admission to a venues or events  (Kings games, admission to the zoo, skydiving, etc.), and the rest of them are food and drink related items. You can sign up and join their e-mail list if you’re interested in receiving these deals daily, or you can check Cowtown Eats and I’ll post the food and drink related deals.

I’ve personally purchased and used products from most of the sites.

Limited Supply Offers

Generally, these sites make money by media outlets trade advertising for gift certificates. Then, they sell these gift certificates to the general public to turn gift certificates into cash.  Unfortunately, we've seen the number of these limited supply sites really dwindle in the last year. This is the site that still offers these deals in Sacramento:

Disclaimer: On some of these sites, I use affiliate links which means I'll make a very small percentage of what you spend there. But it's just a small minority of them.

What’s your favorite trick to saving money at restaurants? Leave your ideas in the comments.

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