If the price of gasoline seems scary, it’s probably time to start saving any way you can. The expense of going out to dinner might make you think twice about getting out and about, so getting a deal might make getting out more fun.

Of course, you can start by purchasing discounted gift cards to restaurants right here on Plastic Jungle. Chili’s is part of a restaurant group, called Brinker Restaurant Group, and you can use gift cards interchangeably between locations. Just click any of the restaurants in the list below to see if any discount gift cards are currently available for that restaurant.

Chili’s Grill & Bar

Romano’s Macaroni Grill

On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina

Maggiano’s Little Italy

One gift card equals a lot of choice! Enjoy dining at over 1,500 Brinker Restaurants around the country. Check Brinker Restaurants Terms and Conditions page or Brinker Restaurants’ FAQ page for the latest details or offers on their gift cards.

Save at Chili’s, or any of the restaurants when you sign up for their email alerts. They often send coupons and specials, and right now, Chili’s is offering a free chips & queso appetizer coupon just for singing up.

Check the Balance on Your Brinker Restaurants Gift Card

Not sure how much is left on your Brinker Restaurants Gift Card?

Online: Go to Chili’s balance check tool to check any Brinker Restaurant card balance.

Phone: 1-888-532-6092. When you call, be sure to have your Brinker Restaurants Gift Card number and PIN in front of you.

In Restaurant: You can ask at the restaurants. See Brinker Restaurants’ Restaurant Locator

Once you know your balance, you can safely sell or trade your Chili’s or Brinker Restaurants Gift Card on Plastic Jungle. At Plastic Jungle, you can also trade your Chili’s or Brinker Restaurants Gift Card for an Amazon.com Gift Card and even fund your PayPal account.

To know how much your restaurant gift card is worth in exchange on Plastic Jungle, on the main page, click “Sell Gift Cards” at the top of the page. Look up Chili’s, enter the gift card balance you’ve just acquired, and you’ll see instantly what your gift card balance is worth in cash or trade.

Check other Plastic Jungle blog posts for the same “Check Your Gift Card Balance” information for other stores, including Sears, Land’s End, Macy’s, Best Buy, Lowe’s, and more.

The Valentine’s Day date is a bit of a test. What will the night say about your romantic relationship? What kind of Valentine’s date would be the most fun and romantic for you? What kind of Valentine’s gift is appropriate – a sweet little candy necklace or a getaway trip for two to Bermuda?

Even without the pressure of a romantic holiday, today’s economy puts pressure on almost any night out. Will the restaurant be worth the money?

Valentine Dining Tip: You’ve got to know where you’re going. Finding a good restaurant doesn’t necessarily mean finding the best restaurant in town. The right restaurant should reflect your tastes, tickle your stomach, and in the end, make you and your date happy.

Do a little research. There are tons of sites that compile write-ups on local restaurants. Start with Yelp.com.  Even in the smallest cities you’ll find mostly honest reviews on Yelp from real people on popular places.

Zagat, online as Zagat.com, has little maroon-colored print guides, and is known for quick, easy reviews. The quality of Zagat’s reviews is solid – basically crowd-sourcing restaurant reviews, condensing them, and publishing a perfect outline of what to expect from the restaurant in about three sentences. Zagat is only available in select cities. (No Eagle River Zagat Guide, I’m afraid.) Zagat’s Valentine’s Day planner might be useful.

Restaurant Row offers quick overviews of restaurants, and the great thing is that you can search a chain, say Tony Roma’s, or Morton’s Steakhouse, and up pops all the locations around the country, with location and contact information. Restaurant Row also offers a “Restaurant Row Top 10” from five cities in every state – and these aren’t restaurants chosen by some snob, these are the restaurants with the most requests on their site.

Open Table hosts reviews of restaurants, and also takes reservations for some 15,000 restaurants nationally and internationally, boasting that their reservations are “free, instant, confirmed”.  Open Table’s Valentine’s Day reservations page, and invites you to make restaurant reservations at your destination if you are traveling.

Wondering what the “experts” think? Well, travel and food writers (see Guyot.com, TravelandLeisure.com, BonAppetit.com) tend to be a particularly critical bunch, offering their opinions on “the best of the best” all the time. Beware of sites that list the “Top 10 Most Romantic Restaurants in the US”, because as soon as something like that is published, the #1 restaurant closes or is topped by something more exotic. Just go with your gut, and keep it simple. Remember, it’s YOU your date wants to be with, not the expensive ambiance, the food, or the “spectacular service” at the restaurant you pick!

Remember that if you’ve got an unused gift card in your pocket, you can always sell your gift card on Plastic Jungle for cash (or trade it for an Amazon.com Gift Card, or fund a PayPal account, and more) which might defray the cost of a night out.

What about outright dining savings? You get that at Plastic Jungle, too. There are tons of restaurant gift cards available on Plastic Jungle; some, like the Darden Restaurants, are good at all the restaurants in the chain. Discount Darden Restaurant Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle are currently offered at 10% off face value, and are good at Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grill restaurants across the US. Or try Restaurant.com Gift Cards, which are good at thousands of restaurants nationwide.

Other Discounted Restaurant Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle Include*:

Applebee’s

Black Angus Steakhouse

(The) Cheesecake Factory

Chili’s (Gift Cards are also good at Macaroni Grill, On The Border, Maggiano’s)

Morton’s Steakhouse (currently at 17% off!)

P.F. Chang’s China Bistro

Ruth’s Chris Steak House

TGI Friday’s

Tony Roma’s

Hurry, supplies are limited. You can always set an alert to be notified when your favorite gift cards come into stock at a discount on Plastic Jungle.

Let us know where you’re going for Valentine’s Day and let us know if you had fun!

*Gift card prices and availability may vary.

Perhaps you’ve read the articles: more and more people aren’t bothering to re-gift or even tuck their unwanted gift cards into their wallet this year. They are selling or exchanging them for cash or credits as soon as possible. Why? It’s a good cure for a holiday shopping hangover.

With all the focus on consumer spending this last holiday season, everyone from local TV news (KTRK-TV an ABC affiliate in Houston, TX) to savvy Internet news sites (CNNMoney.com) is reporting on the gift card trend. With so many cards flying around, it could mean that even when people are given a gift card to a store they love, it may very well be that they can’t use it. Let me tell you why:

1)      Fund allocation. Times are tight, and while a $50 gift card for iTunes is much appreciated, the exchange value (especially here on Plastic Jungle) is worth so much more in calm nerves and a paid PG&E bill.

2)      Time allocation. Macaroni Grill might be your family’s favorite restaurant, but getting everyone together to enjoy it is like herding cats. By turning in the card and purchasing a discounted card to the local grocery store, everyone gets the dinner they want at 5 pm, 7 pm and 9 pm, or as they run in and out of the kitchen.

3)      Suffering from Holiday Shopping Hangover. They just purchased the items they were dying to get or couldn’t possibly think of heading to the mall for another four months. Um, yes, it’s true: we tend to shop for ourselves during the holidays. Maybe the necklace they wanted at Macy’s was on fire sale and they couldn’t resist; maybe it was very convenient to get the Kenmore appliance at Sears last month; the Sony laptop and all accessories were begging for purchase at Best Buy while they were at the store picking up Best Buy Gift Cards for all their neighbors. Suddenly, the $100 Macy’s Gift Card looks like it might not see the light of day until another dress situation comes up, and it would be better just to cash it in, load their PayPal account, and pay a bill.

So if you’re on the Plastic Jungle site and wondering, “Who would give up that credit at Victoria’s Secret – especially NOW when they’re having a huge SALE?” (and yes, the sale goes through 11:59 pm EST on January 23, 2011).

Here on Plastic Jungle you can rest assured that your gift card purchase is always safe, and there will be no gift card maintenance fees or expirations dates to worry about.  Further, when you sell or exchange gift cards on Plastic Jungle, it’s a guaranteed transaction with no fees or even shipping to pay.

So pick up that Victoria’s Secret gift card: go ahead and calculate the added savings on top of the up-to-50% off you’ll get at Victoria’s Secret. [At time of writing, Plastic Jungle has a fat selection Victoria’s Secret Gift Cards and eCODES (electronic gift cards) on sale at a 10% discount off face value. When you combine a discounted gift card + Victoria’s Secret sale savings, you could save up to 60% on merchandise today.]

What’s your reason for selling or exchanging your gift cards? We’d love to hear your story.