Coffee Racket
Get your daily $1.25 coffee for 85 cents. Not long ago I was paying for my habitual 12-oz. cup of coffee at a certain local shop when I saw that my "Buy Ten Drinks, Get One Free" card was finally about to collect its final punch-hole. I looked at the barrista and smiled. "I guess tomorrow I ought to come in here and order one of those Extra Large Irish Creme-a-chinos," I said. "Dude," he replied. "Go ahead and get the Chocolate Hazelnut Frappa-raspberry Big Gulp," pointing to a $4.75 menu item. For perhaps the first time in my working life, I was struck with a marvelous vision of inspired cheapskatery — before taking a single sip of caffeine: Don't redeem the customer-loyalty card — sell it. It might take a little scalping work on the sidewalk outside the entrance, but the math is fail-safe. Pawn off the card for $4, say, and your next three daily coffees are effectively gratis. Save: $100/year.
— Trey Popp

Kind Herbs
Fresh herbs add high-priced taste to simple dishes. Growing your own is cheapest; next best are giant bunches of herbs grown by UC High students. Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the 37th and Powelton streets farmers market, neighborhood kids sell just-picked parsley, oregano, mint, sage, thyme… you name it: all for 50 cents. Save: 50 cents to $1.50 (and get the priceless feeling of knowing you're encouraging young urban agriculturists).
— Mary Armstrong

Very Frugal Gourmet
Head to the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College (4207 Walnut St., 215-222-4200) to dine like a prince on a commoner's budget. There's a chance your meal will be prepared by the next Martin Hamann (executive chef, Four Seasons, Philadelphia, and Restaurant School alumnus). One of three restaurants staffed by Restaurant School students, The Italian Trattoria offers a three-course prix fixe grub fest featuring salad appetizer, homemade pasta and sauce of the day, and dessert for a whopping $13 per person. If American classics (entrees start at around $15) or European fare (Les Plats Principaux range from around $10 to $17) are more to your taste, check out the school's pricier (but way cheaper than comparable commercial venues) menus offered at The American Heartland and The European Courtyard. All three restaurants serve dinner Tuesday through Saturday. Reservations are required. Bargains are not limited to the dining room — open from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, The Pastry Shop offers freshly baked pastries, a rotating breakfast and sandwich menu, salads and specialty cakes. Save: $10-$20/person
— Trish Boppert

Sweet and Low
If you're short on money for artificial sweetener or dijon mustard, try swiping condiments from a restaurant or diner. Everyone has seen at least one relative sneak packets of Sweet'N Low or other diner-borne condiments into her jacket pocket or handbag. Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures, so don't let that lame-o Jiminy Cricket conscience get in your way. Think of it as your contribution to inventory control. Save: $2.19
— James Saul

Case Logic
Buy a case of Lionshead Beer ($10-$12), one of the most overlooked low-end beers in the aisles. Unlike its partners in the $10-per-case range (PBR, Natty or The Beast), Lionshead doesn't taste like water. And it actually has more flavor than the more expensive cheap big three (Coors, Miller, Bud). In fact, it's closer to that other Philly perennial favorite, Yuengling. For a stronger effect pick up one of Wilkes-Barre's Lion Brewery's other cheap products: 22 oz. bottles of malt liquor, for somewhere around $1.25. Savings: $6/case.
— Alex Dubilet

Chinatown Pastry Shakedown
Chinatown Bakeries provide an overwhelming selection of goodies with price tags to make your heart and wallet jump for joy. Cruise to chocolate paradise with a fluffy slice of cake or dive into a flaky, apple-filled tart for 60 cents, less than the cost of the average candy bar. If reckless spending is your game, mousses average $1.50, with many flavors to choose from. The melon variety is quite delectable and features pieces of fresh honeydew on the bottom. Finally, if "substantial meal" is on the mind, Chinatown bakeries offer pigs in the blanket with the same 60-cent price tag. You'll never want to go to the supermarket again. Save: $.90
— James Saul

Cup-onomics
Bring your own cup for beverage refills. From Wawa and 7-11 to tony joints like Starbucks and Au Bon Pain, each gives a discount for refills (though it can't hurt to holler out refill so the counter person gets the point). Savings can range from a dime (Starbucks) to half a buck (7-11). Save: 50 cents to $2.50 a week.
— Mary Armstrong

Produce, Spice and Everything Nice
Learn from the foodies: Take advantage of the Italian Market for your produce and spice needs. Consider the iconic Red Delicious apple: $2 will currently get you three pounds' worth at a produce stand in the Italian Market, while you'd have to spend $4.50 to get that much at Superfresh or Whole Foods. Take your parsimony one step further by bringing the produce home and chopping and freezing it yourself rather than buying prepackaged frozen vegetables. A bundle of broccoli costs $1.50 at the market and yields you 1 1/2 pounds of frozen veggies, while one pound of Hanover frozen broccoli from Superfresh costs almost twice that. Likewise, because they come in bags instead of bottles, the market's Spice Corner offerings trump the prepackaged spices of chain stores. Why pay $2.40 for a meager 1.5 ounces of red pepper flakes when you can get more than twice that for $1.50? Plus, the Spice Corner has a wider selection of hard-to-find seasonings (asafetida, anyone?), and the staff to tell you what the heck to do with them. Save: $4.40 and up.
— Gabrielle Mosquera

Glass Healing
Everyone knows that buying alcohol at a bar or restaurant is one of the worst food values going. There are a few basic survival tips worth keeping in the back of your booze-crazed mind, however. If you are even thinking about having more than one glass of wine, or sharing with others, don't order wine by the glass. Restaurants make about a zillion percent profit on single-glass orders. Don't hesitate to get the cheapest appropriate bottle on a wine list, or the house wine. If the wine isn't any good, send it back; the place has no business selling it. A few restaurants with liquor licenses will let you bring in your own wine (on the q.t.; it is technically illegal), but they will charge you a corkage fee of $10 or more. Finally, consider beer with your meal (order it by the pitcher). Nothing goes better with Asian and other highly seasoned foods. Save: at least $10 to $15 per person, but the sky is the limit with pricey wine lists.
— Peter Burwasser

Day-Old Gold
Slightly stiff baked goods don't get any better than the back room at Gold Medal Baking Company. Bypass the fancy front counter for the serve-yourself heaps in the back room at the Third and Poplar streets HQ. Save: half the price of today's loaf.
— Mary Armstrong

Tiny Bubbles

The fizzy water is so very fun. It tickles your nose and makes those little sizzles that bring a smile to your face. Know what makes the smile even wider? Leaving the Perrier to the brasserie and stocking your fridge with generic. It's fizzy water for cryin' out loud. Save: $1.61/bottle.
— Char Vandermeer

Price Fix
Every summer, neighborhood business groups organize special fixed-price meal specials at local restaurants. The ploy seems to work: It can be hard to find a table midweek at some of the more popular places. But are these really bargains? If you must have a three-course meal, and don't mind the limited choices (if you stray beyond the special menu expect to get hit with a surcharge), you can save a few bucks. But more often, going a la carte is still more economical, and you get the whole menu to choose from. Anyway, how many of us really need that desert? Save: $5 to $10 per meal.
— Peter Burwasser

Date Outside the Box
Courting potential paramours doesn't have to break you (moneywise, anyway). Date during the week — a lot of restaurants offer entree deals on slower nights. Bump Lounge offers a "buy one, get one free" entree special on Tuesdays. Aden in Northern Liberties offers half off a second entree during weeknights from 5 to 7 p.m., and Sisters hosts an $8 buffet on Thursday night that includes free drink tickets. Or better yet, try a lunch date instead of dinner. Rose Tattoo Cafe's lunch menu lists dinner entrees like New Orleans jambalaya for half the regular price. Bar menus are another option. Caribou Cafe's bar appetizers boast substantial portions for reasonable prices, and Le Bec Fin's Le Bar Lyonnais menu provides discount decadence in an opulent setting that's sure to impress. Save: $10 and up.
— Gabrielle Mosquera