Olive Garden in the big kid’s favorite “grown-up” restaurant (aka they have cloth napkins). He saw a commercial for this deal the other day and told me I had to tell the internet about it.
Olive Gardens Buy One, Take One deal is back for a limited time. The complete list can be found here.
The basics of the deal are that you order a meal to eat in the restaurant from the list above (complete with the soup or salad and breadsticks that you all know and love), and you get to take home another prepped meal (Spaghetti with Meat Sauce*, Fettuccine Alfredo, Five Cheese Ziti al Forno, or Cheese Ravioli) sans soup/salad and breadsticks (although you usually can snag a couple extra breadsticks in a doggy bag if you ask your waitperson nicely).
And don’t forget that Olive Garden has a loyalty club too! You earn points with every purchase, and points can be redeemed for freebies like non-alcoholic drinks, appetizers, entrees, kids meals, and desserts. You can sign up on their website, or in the restaurant at your table on the little Zoosk kiosks.
Every time I teach a couponing class, there is one person who announces that they are too busy or important to print or clip coupons. They need to save money but it can’t be too hard or involve any actual work. Basically they are lazy but won’t cop to it.
For those people, I ask them if they are too busy to spend 5 minutes filling out a form that can save them thousands of dollars over their lifetime. Most people say that they would spend 5 minutes to save thousands. I present…. The store club card.
This is my keychain. Yup. I have tons of club cards. Grocery stores, drugstores, restaurants, office supply stores, department stores, movie theaters. There are even more in my wallet for those stores that don’t have a key fob. I save money where ever I go, and you can too. These cards are free to apply for and use.
Stores utilize the information they gather when consumers scan their cards to look at shopping trends. Grocery companies look at sales trends to help them decide what items should be sold, put on sale or completely discontinued. Cards also offer information about what each consumer purchases, and coupons tailored to the individual cardholder can be mailed or emailed to each card holder.
Two of the coupons I loaded to my Shop Your Way Rewards Card
Most stores allow you to link up your card number to an online account, and you can add coupons to your card (via the store website or app) to save you even more.
Sears and KMart have a great program called Shop Your Way Rewards. You earn points on every purchase and points are converted to dollars off future purchases. They have coupon on their website all the time!
Both Vons and Ralphs have easy to navigate apps where you can load coupons to your card, including quite frequently freebies (Ralphs has a Free Friday Download most Fridays). Ralphs sometimes has games you can play online to win free grocery items. I won Goldfish crackers and BBQ sauce last week, which just two clicks of the mouse!
Regal Cinemas has the Regal Crown Club. Download their app or visit a local theater to pick up a card. Present the card to be scanned at the box office and when you buy concessions and earn points that you can redeem on free snacks or tickets. The points add up really fast!
With these clubs, if you do not present the card or your phone number, you will not receive a discount, which is usually advertised at the sale price. Some stores don’t even require that you present your card, you can just punch your phone number into a Credit Card terminal or give it to the cashier.
Later in the week, I’ll share with you my favorite club card and how I use it to get free gas every month!
Got littles? Trying a fun way to keep them entertained this summer without breaking the banks? Check out these awesome deals from Oggi’s in Liberty Station.
1: Kids eat free all day Wednesday with the purchase of any adult entree.
2: Kids can make their own personal pizza starting at 11:00am. That’s what we did today, and Lil’ Man had a blast. I wish I had gotten photos of the pizza once it was baked, however, he inhaled it.
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The pizza dough is rolled out in the kitchen and brought out with sauce and cheese for the kids to add as much as they want. Then there is a table of toppings for the kids to choose from (By the time I got over there to take photos, most of the little bowls were empty because all of the kids were having a blast topping their pizzas!). Lil’ Man is a strictly cheese only pizza guy, so we just asked for a little extra cheese.
I sampled some really tasty grown up noms today too. Here were my top three favorites:
Marathon Flatbread
Brushed with garlic olive oil, topped with Mozzarella, zucchini, tomato, red onion, artichoke hearts, roasted garlic and drizzled with sweet balsamic glaze.
Mediterranean Delight Salad
Spring mix blend topped with herb marinated all-natural chicken breast, garbanzo beans, sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red onions, kalamata olives, feta cheese and roasted red peppers, tossed in our homemade lemon and herb Greek dressing finished with oregano.
Oggi’s Cinnatwists
Twisted sticks of pizza dough baked to perfection and dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar, topped with icing and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The Icing isn’t overly sweet either- it reminded me of marscapone cheese! Lil’ Man devoured these too.
For more details on the awesome, kid firendly offers going on at Oggi’s in Liberty Station, visit their website.
The balloon animal guy that comes from 5-8pm on Wednesdays is the best! His name is Tyler and he runs Pretend Inc. Check out his site for just a few photos of his amazing work. He made dinosaurs, puppies, silly snakes, and even a dodo bird for Lil’ Man!
A big thanks to Oggi’s at Liberty Station for hosting us for lunch today!
Olive Garden in the big kid’s favorite “grown-up” restaurant (aka they have cloth napkins). He saw a commercial for this deal the other day and told me I had to tell the internet about it.
The basics of the deal are that you order a meal to eat in the restaurant from the list above (complete with the soup or salad and breadsticks that you all know and love), and you get to take home another prepped meal (Spaghetti with Meat Sauce*, Fettuccine Alfredo, Five Cheese Ziti al Forno, or Cheese Ravioli) sans soup/salad and breadsticks (although you usually can snag a couple extra breadsticks in a doggy bag if you ask your waitperson nicely).
Yup. I have tons of club cards. Grocery stores, drugstores, restaurants, office supply stores, department stores, movie theaters. There are even more in my wallet for those stores that don’t have a key fob. I save money where ever I go, and you can too. These cards are free to apply for and use.
