Restaurant.com offers a little-known way to save a lot of money when you eat out at participating restaurants across the country. I’ve personally used Restaurant.com’s dining discount services many times and saved a lot of money. Today I’ll tell you how you can do so also.

Restaurant.com describes themselves as the “community matchmaker, introducing great restaurants to great people.” In short, they match eaters with restaurants. They do this by helping people save money through their discounted dining certificates for thousands of restaurants all over the country.

The Restaurant.com process is easy. You go online to their site at Restaurant.com and use their search tools to locate participating restaurants. You can search by ZIP code or do regional searches starting with your state and narrow it down to more local options (great for when you travel and don’t know the ZIP codes).

Once you’ve found the restaurant for your next dining excursion, you select a gift certificate (by value) and add it to your cart. This is where the fun and savings begins — you’ll find that most $25 gift certificates cost only $10! Likewise a $50 gift certificate usually is about $20 and a $100 gift certificate is only about $40. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? (All restaurants don’t offer the same gift certificate sizes though — some only offer $25 certificates, for example.)

As good at this discount sounds right now, let me tell you it often gets better! At Shopping-Bargains.com we frequently publish Restaurant.com coupon codes where you can get a huge discount off the already-discounted Restaurant.com gift certificates. Usually our coupon codes provide an additional 40-60% savings and occasionally more around various holidays.

Let me tell you how these Restaurant.com coupon codes work (of course, you have to enter it in the discount code box in the shopping cart and click “apply”). For example, we’ll assume you’re using a 50% off coupon code. In that case, your final cost for a $25 gift certificate is the original price of $10 minus 50% off that, or just $5! That’s right, for just $5 you are buying a $25 dining certificate for a particular restaurant. Wow, it still amazes me how much can be saved this way!

Please note there is some fine print regarding the use of Restaurant.com gift certificates so be sure to check that out in full when you place your gift certificate order online. Here are some common restaurant requirements I’ve seen:

• Minimum food purchase — usually about $35 to be eligible to use a $25 gift certificate (other discount values have different minimum food purchase requirements)
• Discount applies to food only (no alcohol is covered)
• Gratuity is often added by the restaurant before discount is applied (tip should be based on full value, not your final cost — I tip the wait staff on full value anyway since they are not the ones providing the discount)
• Dine-in orders only (not carry out or delivery)
• Minimum of two people in your dinner party

One more thing to note. After you finalize the order for your Restaurant.com gift certificate you simply print it out and you’re ready to go eat (don’t forget to make restaurant reservations if needed). Be sure to follow the instructions on the printout to abide by all policies and minimum food orders, etc. If you have any questions or problems, Restaurant.com also has a customer service department for assistance.

I’ve personally used Restaurant.com gift certificates many times and have never had any problems using them. I find the process very convenient and well-worth a few minutes of my time. The savings, especially when I can double dip with a Restaurant.com coupon code, is definitely not something I want to pass up on when I eat out.

Currently at Shopping-Bargains.com we designate our text link offers as either coupons or bargains. While on the surface these designations may sound like synonyms, there are subtle differences that might not be immediately apparent. Understanding them, though, can help you save money and avoid confusion during checkout.

With rare exception, we designate an offer as a coupon if it has a link that must be clicked or a code that must be entered during checkout. In both cases, our coupon link triggers, activates or leads to a promotion or discount of some kind — free shipping, dollar or percentage off discounts, free gift, etc. This discount or promotion is either noted immediately with reduced pricing or some other promotion shown on the store’s website or it is shown in the shopping cart as a discount (or free shipping, etc.) during checkout after entering and activating the coupon code published on Shopping-Bargains.

A bargain, on the other hand, generally does not trigger an additional discount but instead links shoppers to some kind of deal or special offer — often a short-term promotion, a sale, seasonal savings or special bonus of some kind. It also can link to a clearance section, the store’s online outlet, a popular section or something else entirely. It sometimes provides savings information such as specifying the store’s current free shipping threshold to help shoppers optimize order sizes. Whatever the case, a bargain provides information and a link to act on that information. It typically does not provide or activate an additional discount like a coupon (if it did we would likely designate it a coupon) but it can provide some valuable savings.

You can often enhance your overall savings by combining bargains and coupons. While sometimes a store’s terms and conditions exclude coupon discounts for items already on sale, often you can “double-dip” and enjoy a coupon discount on top of other bargains. You might want to read my article about “Stacking Coupons and Bargains to Save More” for some tips on combining coupons and bargains.

Do you have any questions or comments? If so, please add them below so I can respond and make this article more informative and complete.

I’m not sure what it is about this time of year that makes us all go a little crazy when it comes to holiday shopping. Maybe it’s the list of people to buy for, the hundreds of email offers and store sales that we sort through trying to find the best deal, or if its plain old holiday spirit that encourages a lot of us to blow the budget on our holiday spending.

For me, the holiday season is really two holidays, my husband’s family is Jewish and my family is Christian, so with 8 wonderful nights of Hanukkah and one lovely Christmas day, we are talking a lot of gifts to buy!

I don’t know about you, but the thought of hitting the mall with all those thousands of people — especially with my two kids in tow — doesn’t exactly sound like a dream. So like many others, I’ve started doing my holiday shopping online.

Of course online shopping can take some finesse, emails from stores fill you inbox, with “click here for this discount” and “click there for free this or that”, not to mention all the bargains we miss out on because we simple didn’t know that a coupon code exists. That fact alone is enough to drive a bargain hunting girl like me crazy!

Then you make your decision on what to buy and who to buy from, but wait, “what was that coupon code?” and “oh no, did that store have a better deal?” and my favorite “Now where did that email go, I know it was in my inbox some where!” So while avoiding long checkout lines, crowded parking lots, annoying traffic and bad weather, online shopping does add a few of its own twists.

Yes, welcome to my online shopping experience — well, I should say past experience. All that changed this year as I have come to appreciate the wonders of a coupon site! But first let me tell you about how I came across this coupon site.

After my husband returned from a conference earlier this year he told me about meeting Mike Allen, the founder of Shopping-Bargains.com which is a coupon site with more than 1,000 online stores in their directory. I was amazed since they had, in one place, all the coupon codes that I had been looking for from all the stores that I shopped online. I was hooked!

Wait there’s more to this story. My husband also told me that Shopping-Bargains.com was planning to hire soon. OK so I would get to talk about shopping, write about shopping, and tell other people about saving money while shopping… Was this my dream job or what!

To make a long story short, in October I began doing some marketing and consulting work for Shopping-Bargains.com. I have to admit, I do love a good bargain and sharing those bargains is even more fun.

With that in mind, there are many benefits to using a coupon site like Shopping-Bargains.com. For example, have you ever wondered if a store that you want to shop even offers a discount? Go to www.shopping-bargains.com and type in the store name in their search box and wha-la, all the coupons and deals for that store are displayed.

Using Shopping-Bargains.com I am able to bounce around from store to store, checking out bargains and making purchases quickly and easily from the stores’ own web sites but being able to grab a coupon code before I go to them. Although it’s a “virtual shopping experience,” it’s really a lot like shopping at a real shopping mall but this time armed with a whole stack of coupons!

I also like being able to see all the stores and their offers in one place. It makes the whole shopping experience go so much quicker and more efficient. I don’t even have to type in a single store web address. I just go to www.shopping-bargains.com and start shopping. The home page has more than 30 of the latest deals from their most popular stores. Or if you prefer, the handy search box allows you to go to the stores that you are most interested in to find their latest offers.

You can even sign up for a daily or weekly newsletter that is tailored to you and your shopping habits. The really nice thing is you can then opt out of all the store-sent emails that junk up your inbox and get all the discount and sale information you want in one nice and neat newsletter from Shopping-Bargains.com.

Does using Shopping-Bargains.com guarantee that you won’t blow your holiday budget? Not at all. But the deals that you get on your favorite products from your favorite stores will make this years’ holiday shopping season a little easier to bear. And the time savings alone just might make your holiday season even more memorable.

For some time now we have had what I felt was at best an awkward system for delivering printable grocery store coupons. I’m pleased to announce some major changes were implemented today to make printing grocery store coupons much easier for our shoppers.

First, we created a Printable Grocery Store Coupons section to introduce the concept of printing legitimate local coupons on the Internet. Second, we activated links (here and here) to two grocery coupon partners who work with us in providing these printable coupons. Third, we provided some “how to” advice and savings tips for maximizing this offline resource.

To give a little more detail, we partnered with two printable coupon providers, Coupons, Inc. and SmartSource, to provide our shoppers access to the printable grocery store coupons we now feature. These companies work with top national brands and have developed a robust system for delivering grocery store coupons on a national scale via the Internet. They also employ technology to protect consumers and retailers alike from fraudulent printed coupons.

To print your coupons, click our link to visit the coupon partner of your choice and select the coupons you want using an easy check box system. After you have selected all the coupons you want, you simply click the “print” button and wait for your coupons to be printed. First-time printers will likely be prompted to install a small, free software application used to print the coupons with the appropriate bar codes and legal language.

One advantage to using two partners for this project is to give you more choice and more printable coupon options. Coupons for some brands are available one week from one partner but not the other. By working with both coupon providers, we are able to maximize your opportunity to save locally since you now have access to more national brand coupons.

[Disclosure statement: Shopping-Bargains.com receives compensation based on the number of coupon prints through these partners.]

Here’s a coupon shopping tip that might help you enjoy bigger savings online. For this example, let’s say you are looking for a comforter set and your budget is $120.

You might start by browsing our Bed & Bath subdepartment located under our Home & Garden department. There you will find online stores with coupon codes and free shipping specials. When you think you found one that migh fit your bill, you dig deaper by looking at all that store’s coupons and bargains.

After seeing all that store’s coupons and bargains you can start your plan of attack. You might notice that they are having a seasonal sale or they have an online outlet or clearance section. That’s good news for bargains. You might be able to “double dip” by combining this sale or some clearance items with one of our coupon codes (some stores only apply coupon code discounts to regularly-priced items, but many do not). That’s the first step.

So let’s say in this example we have a 20% off coupon code for $100+ orders. Let’s say this store also automatically gives you free shipping on orders over $100 (no coupon code needed but you pay $5.95 shipping for orders under $100). Let’s start shopping and see how you can maximize your savings.

In our example, let’s assume that you found the perfect comforter set that’s regularly $149.99 but has been marked down by 20% for the spring sale. For the next week it is only $119.99. That’s a pretty good deal right there — but we can do better. Now let’s maximize your savings.

Assuming this store allows coupon codes to be applied to sale items, let’s use our 20% off coupon code since this order exceeds the $100 minimum price requirement for that coupon code. Your coupon code discount will be $25 which brings your order total to $95.99. If you pay $5.95 for shipping your total becomes $101.94. Not too shabby. But you’re still paying for shipping. Since you’re right under the free shipping threshhold, we can do even better.

Here’s how. Let’s do something creative to get your order size over $100 without raising your overall cost over $101.94. Let’s add something that costs at least $4.01 so your order size becomes at least $100. Why pay for shipping if you don’t have to, right? And if we can add to your order an item that costs less than shipping but it will bump you into the free shipping level then that’s even better — it’s like getting that product for free! I like free.

So we search around for items under $5 and in this example, let’s assume you find a $4.99 item that you’ll save to use as a stocking stuffer next Christmas. That brings your order total to $100.98 and you now get free shipping!

You got a great deal, stayed $19.02 under budget, and even got a bonus item essentially free. Nice!

$149.99 regular price
- 20% Sale Discount
$119.99 sale price
- 20% coupon code
$95.99 new price + $5.95 shipping = $101.94
+ $4.99 item to achieve $100 minimum for free shipping
$100.98 order total (you get free shipping)

Overall you saved $55 off the original product price and the bonus item purchased actually cost you $.96 less than shipping would have cost you!

This is sometimes called “stacking” since you combine a sale + a coupon + free shipping. Please remember that many stores do not allow stacking, but often you can stack a shipping special and a coupon or a clearance sale and a coupon (rarely can you stack actual coupon codes).

The bottom line: Stackable offers can bring you a lot more items at a lot less cost. And that doesn’t even begin to count the time, gas and sales tax savings you may receive as well.