With inflation showing no end in sight, a meal out hits harder than it used to.
Coupons can get you part of the way there, but restaurants will typically only let you use one deal per order. This usually comes up as “Not redeemable with any other offer” text on the coupon.
Restaurant discount stacking is one way to get there!
Stack your discount before you dine
The trick to stacking discounts at restaurants happens before you set foot in the restaurant.
You might only be able to use one coupon when you get there, but what if your payment method had a discount built in? That’s not another coupon that they can deny.
Through Swagbucks and MyPoints, you can get a discount up front by buying gift cards through their sister website, MyGiftCardsPlus.
How to stack restaurant discounts with MyGiftCardsPlus
1. First, you’ll need an account at either Swagbucks or MyPoints.
Signup is free. Both sites have been around forever, and I use them pretty much every day myself.
Both usually give you a signup bonus to give you a head start to cashing out.
You’ll need an account to one of these sites, because the “discount” will be in a form of PTS (on MyPoints) or SB (on Swagbucks) that can be redeemed for other
2. Check MyGiftCardsPlus for restaurants near you.
Go to MyGiftCardsPlus on your computer and set up an account.
Once you’re in, click on the Buy Gift Cards link at the top.
To see all of the restaurants available, click the Food and Dining category on the left sidebar. (When I checked today, there were 70 restaurants to choose from!)
3. Purchase a gift card and link your account.
Once you find a restaurant you like, set up payment information and buy the gift card. These gift cards are electronic, and will be sent to you within a few days.
The first time you buy a gift card, you may need to link your MyPoints or Swagbucks account. Once you sign in to that account, they’ll know where to send your points!
These points are then added to your MyPoints or Swagbucks account, and you can redeem them for more gift cards or PayPal credit.
Restaurant Discount Stacking Case Study: IHOP
There’s an International House of Pancakes restaurant about a mile from where we live.
We go there about once a month or so. They market fairly aggressively by mail, and send coupons. The one we use most often is a Buy One, Get One (BOGO) entree with the purchase of two drinks. After the drinks, this usually saves us around $10 on the entire bill.
We also have a discount card that we bought as a fundraiser which will give us 20% off the entire bill through next October.
We snagged a deal on IHOP gift cards from MyGiftCardsPlus. The reward jumped to a full 20 percent for a bit!
So let’s say that we go there and:
- spend $40 before any discount
- use the 20% discount card we bought for the fundraiser, and
- pay with the gift card we got at the 20% discount
With the discount card, our $40 bill gets knocked down to $32.
Let’s say we pay $35 so that we’re tipping on the undiscounted amount.
If we pay with the gift card, the $35 balance effectively cost us 20% less, or $28.
By stacking these two discounts, they amount to 28/40 = 0.7, which is a 30% discount!
We’re paying 30% less, and not shortchanging the waitstaff.
That’s a big win!
Start your dining reward stacking today!
Sign up with either MyPoints or Swagbucks to get started!
Header photo by Jason Leung