www.restaurant.com seels gift certificates for restaurants for about half price ($10 for a $25 gift cert for example). To make it even more tempting, the site sometimes runs half off sales i.e. you can get $100 worth of food for $20ish.
Heh, I wasn’t trying to be flirty, honest. That’s why I put it in small font!
Boys, we’ll meet at a location to be disclosed later. Wear aprons. 
Many times restaurants have lunch specials that can be quite a deal. They are usually just written on their specials boards and often not widely advertised. A pizza place I know of has a great lunch special that is written on the specials board and only available from 12-4: a small pizza with two toppings, a couple of pieces of garlic cheezy bread, and a medium drink for $4.95! Get familiar with the small restaurants around your university, there are probably some that will have a reputation for huge amounts of food for very cheap and that cater specifically to cash strapped students.
Um, go to cheap restaurants?
Or, move to Oakland, where four unbelievably delicious and rich tacos de carnitas and an horchata from Tacos Sinaloa will set you back all of five bucks. Yowza!
Cheap restaurants can be a big help. There was a small mom-n-pop Mexican restaurant back home that had a fabulous lunch special. 2 enchiladas (beef, chicken, or cheese), rice, refried beans, flour tortillas, chips and tea for $3.95. Even with a tip, you got out of there for $5.00. Also, if you skipped the tea and drank water, you could come out for $4.50, with the tip. Not bad…and their dinner specials weren’t pricey, either. More food, but basically the same plate, and with tip, you got out for about $7.50.
Way back when ('87-'91) I was a student in Bloomington. At that time, Kilroy’s had a happy hour special of $1.75 pitchers and free wings and nachos. That was dinner 3-4 nights a week. I wouldn’t know if they still do anything like that, though. I also had a roommate who worked at Godfather’s Pizza, so leftover breadsticks was a common meal as well as the occassional prank-ordered pizza (not prank-ordered by me). Had my first and only jalapeno and pinapple pizza that way.
I always found the best deals by talking to other students who were as dirt-poor as me. I found out about the Pizza Express breadsticks that way. $4.50 delivered with a soda in a reusable plastic cup and enough of them for two meals. I was using only Pizza Express cups at home for a good few years after college.
Glue floor tiles to self. Lay on kitchen floor. Open mouth.
Just because you’re check is discounted, doesn’t necessarily give you the right to skimp on the tip
I hope nobody saw my commentary on the cheap Mexican food place as indicating I was skimping on the tip - I always tip 20% or better, even on “cheap plates.”
I dont need rights to give or leave tips but I usually only leave a dollar.
I hope you have a buy one, get one free coupon on flame retardant suits, Wes.
I don’t like it when people imply I don’t have a right to do what I want with my life. Thats like if I said you don’t have a right to use SBC instead of Verizon for your phone company. I tip people, but I will admit i’m pretty cheap and only leave $1 or so.
Aww, c’mon. Leaving a tiny tip for a waiter or waitress who has offered good service is scarcely the same sort of thing as choosing one phone company over another.
You do have a right to do what you want. And those of us who have worked in food service have a right to holler about your callous skinflintiness.
You can get 5 packs of doublemint gum for a dollar, and added to your $2.15 an hour that is $3.15 an hour.
What do you feel is a good tip for a meal for one person?
sigh Here we go again. I just don’t get how people can be so proud of being bad tippers.
If you are too cheap to leave a proper tip (absolute barest minimum 10%, and even that’s low; 15-20% is better for good service), then you are too cheap to eat in a restaurant. You want to be cheap, stay home and eat ramen noodles. (Yes, $1 is 20% for a $5 meal, but I doubt you’re being waited on at that price.)
The tipping system in the United States is not a personal insult to [generic] you; it’s just how the system works at present. Until it’s changed, you’ll just have to count the tip as part of the price of being waited on. Don’t like it? Then don’t eat out.
Listen to the man, Wesley. Do the right thing.
… And this is a good argument for factoring the tip into the price of the meal, as they do in Europe. That way, you can still leave extra if your waiter does a good job, but waiters have the protection of not getting stiffed.
Jesus you’re smart, must come from giving advice on message boards or something.
I don’t get where you people assume I don’t tip. Tips are built into waiter/waitresses wages in the US, without tips they only make $2.35 an hour. I was merely asking what an appropriate tip for a $5 meal was. Right now I leave $1 but I am assuming that comes across as insulting or something. I was originally taking offense to the idea that I do not have a right to do X,Y,Z with my own money and my own life.
Moving this back on topic:
Eat Fancy at lunch. The Downtown Denver Broker is doing a birthday deal where they’re doing their menu at 1970’s prices. Prime Rib for $8! W00t!
If the ticket’s five bucks, a dollar is a fine tip.