Our $5 Lunch and a Free Play

On Saturday my husband and I went out for lunch and spent $5 for 2 very nice lunches. Then, we took in a short, one-act play. The total cost of this was $5 and that is because we tipped the waitress extra. How did we do it?
In December, one of the women on the No More Debt forum that I frequent posted how restaurants.com had an 80% off coupon sale. She posted the code you needed to get the 80% off. I went on, created an account and bought 4 coupons for a total of $8. Each of the coupons was worth $25 with no minimums and few restrictions. They were all for the Brasserie Grille at the Hilton in Newark (down by Borders ). I gave 2 to one of my daughters for Christmas and we used the other 2. The Brasserie is a bit pricey but delicious! We went for lunch on a Saturday and ordered 2 meals and one iced tea. The 18% tip is figured into the total of our check and we could use the $25 towards it. The total came to $26 and change. We paid $2 for the original certificate and tipped the great server an extra $2 over the 18%. Total for lunch was $5.
I do have to add you should be careful of when ordering restaurant.com certificates. Read all the restrictions that apply. Frequently the coupon is $25 towards a $35 purchase and alcohol can’t be included in the $35. This particular restaurant had few restrictions so we saved a good deal of money.
The second part of our lovely afternoon was taking in a free, short play put on by the Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) at the University of Delaware. The program is a three year graduate program and presents multiple plays every year (no musicals!). Prices range from $7 student tickets to $17 general public tickets. They also have a senior discount ticket price. This year we bought a 5 ticket voucher for general admission for $82.50 and a student 5 ticket voucher for $47.50. The vouchers are great because they allow you to choose the date and time of each play in the future and what fits into your calendar. When we purchased the vouchers we were given free tickets to Saturday’s production of The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder (which was excellent!).
Looking for free and cheap entertainment can be time consuming but often worthwhile.