denny's Archives - Lazy Man and Money

I really wanted to get two things out today – hence the unusually forced title. Unless you’ve been asleep over the last 3 days, you know that Denny’s is giving out free breakfast today. Like in most cases, you get what you pay for. Last year Denny’s ran a similar promotion. I went by to see if I could grab some free breakfast. The line was around the block. I realized it would have been a better value to go spend my own money rather than just waste two hours of my time in line. From the news this morning, it seems that’s true this year as well. [Note: Sorry, but by the time I’m publishing this, the deal is over on the east coast, and winding up on the west coast.]

The other news that I’m touching on is that my wife and I spent around $1000 on Red Sox tickets for this upcoming year. At least that ticked to 9 games (6 in Oakland against the A’s, and 3 in San Francisco against the Giants). On one hand, it kind of hurts to spent nearly $1000 like that. On the other hand, when we moved from Boston to San Francisco, we knew there would be some pluses and some negatives. I’d put the price of seeing a Red Sox game as one of the positives. In Boston, a single ticket comparable to what we got for each the Oakland games would probably be $250 per game. Viewing it through that looking-glass makes it seem like a much, much better value.

I know much of you are probably saying that spending $1000 on baseball games probably isn’t too bad if it’s budgeted for. However, we don’t have a formal budget. It’s more of a “live your life frugally, so that when things like this come up, they aren’t an issue” type of thing. It’s made me think, that perhaps it’s because I’ve thought about personal finance years ago that I didn’t have to think too much about it now.

I couldn’t help but notice restaurants have a new plan to try to drum up business in these tough times. It’s a good thing they have some ideas, because one of the first things people cut when money is tight is going out to eat. Let’s look at what just a few national chains are advertising.

Denny’s $4 Weekday Express Slam Breakfast

“It’s one thing to bail out Wall Street, but who’s going to bail you out? Denny’s!” Their Weekday Express Slam is just $4. I’m not the only one laughing at this Denny’s commercial. Of course, earlier today, I saw a commercial from Kellogg’s and Walmart touting that cereal costs 50 cents… including milk. So even the bargain at Denny’s looks pretty poor in comparison to cereal that you can make at home.

Sizzler’s Ultimate Value Menu

For years I thought Sizzler had gone out of business. Instead they just pulled out of New England. It’s not typically the first restaurant I think of going to considering I’m too tempted by the unhealthy foods there. That said, it seems like very good value to have an 8oz steak and their endless salad bar for $9.99.

KFC $10 Challenge

In this commercial, KFC challenges a family to get all the ingredients to make a 7-piece of chicken meal for less the $10. The meal that the family has to make has to include a side dish and biscuits, just like you can get at KFC for $9.99. The camera follows them into the store as they give it a shot. Unfortunately the 30-second shot only seems to show a girl surprised by the cost of 7 pieces of chicken, them packing in a whole bag of flour, and of course asking where to find the “secret herbs and spices.” The thing that isn’t mentioned is that a bag of flour not only makes 7-pieces of chicken, but it makes around 100 pieces. Most of the ingredients are like that, you can get a lot more for a small price. So maybe it ends up costing you $13, but then you have enough for a lot more meals.

This is just a small sampling of the deals at restaurants that I noticed recently. If you are going to go out, I still think the best plan is to practice these tips to save money at restaurants. Of course, a cheaper plan is almost always to make food at home.