Easing the rising costs of dining out—with these restaurant discount gift cards

Eating out is expensive, and it seems as though costs are rising astronomically.

What may be one of the best ways to save money when thinking about dining out at restaurants is shopping for restaurant gift cards that offer a discount.

Inflation and California's higher wages are driving up the cost of dining out, but CBS13 and the Call Kurtis consumer investigative team have found some relief for your wallet in the form of discount gift cards for restaurants.

We recently spoke with a handful of consumers about the rising cost of eating at restaurants. Tanya Lopez of Sacramento spent about $65 on pizza, salad and a serving of macaroni and cheese for her and her two children one afternoon at California Pizza Kitchen at the Arden Fair Mall.

"It does cost a lot more," Lopez said.

We discovered she could have saved 20%, and even more.

Costco, for instance, sells racks of gift cards at a discount. A pair of California Pizza Kitchen gift cards valued at $100, are priced at $79.99.

If you're not a Costco member, don't worry. Sites like Card Cash also let you purchase gift cards at a discount. It's easy to do: on the site, simply type in the name of the restaurant.

We did, and we found California Pizza Kitchen gift cards going for 24%.

Even locally-owned restaurants are getting in on the discount gift cards, like Queen Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant on Broadway in Sacramento, where we visited one afternoon and bumped into Ivy Lewis of Sacramento.

We told Lewis about the gift card we found for Queen Sheba. Had she known about it before she paid her bill, she could have saved 20%.

"If I'd gotten this deal, I could've taken myself and my daughter out to lunch more than once a week," Lewis said.

The trick to saving money when going out to a restaurant is to think ahead about where you're going to eat. You could buy gift cards for these places and many others. That means you can receive an emailed gift card fairly quickly.