Since my husband and I have been dining out for the past 20 years almost every night, we have come up with some ways to beat the high cost of this activity.

One way of cutting cost is to only eat half of our portion and take home the leftovers. This technique is also very helpful in maintaining our weight. We also seek out places that offer nightly specials.

Monday night is usually very slow, so a lot of places will offer two-for-one specials of other discounts. We are constantly looking for new places to visit; so we are always willing to try new places. Don't discount a place based on the name because sometimes the name can be misleading. For example, we visit a place quite regularly but when we tell people the name they automatically assume it's a joint. Not so, this place is very family friendly and we go there with our children and grandchildren at least once a week. Most people that we bring there are usually very pleasantly surprised and come back again. Their two-for-one special includes an appetizer for two, soup or salad, choice of entree, and dessert plus a bottle of wine for $25. Sounds unbelievable; but it's true.

We will usually give a restaurant or club three tries before we discount it. We are well known to our family and friends as a resource that people will use to find a good place to go. We are usually able to steer them in the right direction depending on what is important to them e.g. food, price, ambience, entertainment.

We get to know the staff pretty well because when it's just the two of us we always sit at the bar. Actually we have at times brought up to eight people to certain establishments to sit at the bar. You will get treated a lot better if you get friendly with the staff and the service is usually quicker when you sit at the bar. However, that being said you can also get treated very well if you cultivate a regular server at the bar or on the floor if you treat the people that wait on you with respect and tip well. I know most people think that 20 percent is decent but we usually leave at least 25 percent, sometimes more if we really like the service. We also tip on the tax which a lot of people do not. We actually have reserved seats at some bars at restaurants and we are always greeted by our names which is very nice. Some of the places we have frequented are The Remington House, Twin Oaks, Antonio’s, and many other places not so well known however just as nice. We very rarely visit chain restaurants; it's usually [just} family owned.

We are both in our early 60s but our children and their friends who are in their 30s and 40s always ask us where we will be in case they want to join us.

I'm sure with this information you would think we don't cook. Not so again, we love to entertain and usually have weekly family dinners of 10 or more. We also have tips on home cooking also but that is for another time.

Elaine and Ed Donahue,

Cranston