Chain Restaurant Wins (IHOP Edition)
Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!
We don’t eat out much, but it can be nice to have a family meal at a restaurant that’s kid friendly and inexpensive. My kids like eating at IHOP, where the food is decent, the portions are generous, the service is quick, and the deals are plentiful.[1]
After my first few trips to IHOP, I learned some important things:
At most IHOP locations after 4pm, one child eats free for each adult entree ordered (the cheapest entree is about $10).
For each $25 gift card purchased, you (currently) get a free $5 bonus card.
IHOP’s app-based rewards program, the “PanCoins Stack Exchange” offers one point per $5 spent. Each point is worth as much as $1 when used optimally, an effective 20% discount.
Typically, I use points to pay for kids meals (8 points each, the best current redemption value) when I have more than one of my kids with me, or when we go for lunch when kids don’t eat free. Since I’m continually earning points and IHOP is very generous with them (twice in the past two months they’ve just randomly given me additional points), I haven’t paid for an IHOP kids meal in months and still have a large balance of points sitting in my account.
By using these strategies, my kids and I are able to have decent, filling, and tasty meals out (in a relatively high cost-of-living area) once a week for as little as $6-7 each before tax/tip, or about 40% less than the nearby diner.[2]
Readers, have you found any interesting strategies like this for other chain restaurants?
And now…Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:
Why MrBeast Is Rebuffing Elon Musk
Don’t Be the Worst Person on Your Flight This Year
Meet the Neighbors Who Want Your Leaves: ‘I’m Stealing, but It’s Good for the Earth: Like the people in this article, we’ve started leaving fallen leaves in our garden beds to create a natural mulch to fertilize the soil during the winter. Will it work? Ask us in the spring.
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.
[1] I promise, this is not an ad!
[2] Please be considerate and tip on the total check, before any discounts.