With all of that talk about Thanksgiving dinner, wouldn't it be nice to eat out inexpensively or even for free and let someone else do the cooking an cleaning? Besides, your family can only eat turkey leftovers for so long. Below are some website directories that point you to free meals in your city! Many of them are specifically for kids aged twelve and under, but some of them also feature free meals for adults! Enjoy!
kidsmealdeals
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Kids under 12 eat free listing by city
- Everyone eats for free on their birthday!
- Pay less than the face value on gift certificates to many restaurants.
Many restaurants offer a "Kids Eat Free" program on certain days of the week, so just ask. In addition to free birthday perks, many restaurants also offer frequent diner cards where you rack up freebies every time you eat there. Signing up is free and the free food adds up. Oftentimes during the holidays, restaurants will offer freebies when you purchase their gift cards. So stock up if you know you'll be eating there during the year.
Many restaurants will give you free appetizers or dessert cards if you ask them to donate to some for your children's sports teams, Scouts, PTA, church, band, or other worthy organization.
A fun way to get a free meal is to do an assignment for a mystery shopping company. Not only is the meal free, but they'll often pay you for the report you write up, as well. There are tons of mystery shopping companies online. However, never pay for a list or an assignment — they pay you! You can find a free alphabetical listing where you can sign up. You can’t pay off your mortgage doing mystery shop assignments because they generally just reimburse your expenses and offer a small payment upon completion, but you can definitely get a free date night with your Honey.
If you really want to dine out, remember that you can get the same meal at lunch time as you would for dinner but at a much lower price. Brown bagging it is even less expensive. Buying your average lunch at $5 a day x 5 work days a week adds up to $1300 a year!
If, however, you really want fine dining, check out Open Table where you can earn points towards free dinners when you make reservations on their websites and then dine at the selected restaurant. Their website mostly features more upscale, expensive restaurants, but those points add up.
Another fun way to stretch your dining dollars is to create a dinner swap group with some other families. Each family prepares the same meal as many times as there are families in the group. When it's dinner time, you simply pop their meals in the oven, and you're ready to eat. When it's your turn to cook, simply cook up several batches for the other friends and get all of your cooking done at once.
Whether you eat out at a fancy restaurant or on a picnic blanket on the grass, just remember that being together is what's most important. Studies show that students who eat dinner with their parents get better grades, are less likely to have substance-abuse problems, and have better relationships throughout their entire lives. Even if you have to pay for dinner, that's quite a bargain.
