We have had a few featured posts where we highlight specifics of savings at certain restaurants and so today we thought we would highlight Chuck E Cheese. To some parents, this phrase/name might raise blood pressure, make hairs stand on end or cause panic attacks because of the cost and the “guaranteed to make you sick” germs floating around. But nevertheless, it is a favorite for kids…somehow! So with regret (or not) you agree to take the family there for a birthday, celebration or otherwise. Here’s a list of tips and tricks on how you can keep your budget in check when it comes to hitting the party at Chuck E Cheese.
First we wanted to share that we did this just last week. We went for a family birthday celebration for one of our kids. We thought “let’s get it out of their system and at least exhaust them so they will get a great nights sleep!” But, the tables were turned that night. After two hours at Chuck E Cheese, Cassie and I flopped down on the couch completely exhausted as the kids were still running around singing praises about the games and penny toys they “earned”! We stared at them running around, then stared at each other exhausted and didn’t move for about 15 minutes.
So, we were glad the kids had fun. But the real question is, how to save on a venture like this – we will break it down for you:
Start with a gift card or gift certificate that you can get at at discount
Do some research and see if you can find a discount gift card on places like Ebay or any of the local daily deal sites. We ended up grabbing two $20 gift certificates from a local daily deal site for 60% off at only $8 each. So we ended up with $40 that cost us $16.
Combine your discount gift cards with coupons to maximize those savings
You can find coupons for Chuck E Cheese everywhere!
- Your Smart Source Insert will carry the coupons on a regular basis. Right now you can find coupons in the 1/2 and 1/23 Smart Source Insert.
- Printable coupons are available on the Chuck E Cheese website.
- Sign-up for the Chuck E Club to receive special email offers too!
Skip the Food and Just Go for Drinks and Games/Rides
You do not have to get food to be there! The food is the most pricey part of the trip (from our observation) so either combine with your coupons for a meal deal or just skip the meal altogether and arrive full! You could always just grab drinks and tokens with your gift cards and coupon promotions and let your kids enjoy while you sit back and enjoy the ways you saved and played the “savings game”.
Finally, grab some FREE tickets from home to redeem at Chuck E Cheese before you get there
We posted about the Ticket Blaster that you and your kids can do before you go to turn in for extra tickets for prizes. Each child can play a quick game on the computer at home and redeem up to 30 tickets. We ended up with around 115 tickets from home before we got to the restaurant. We posted about this over the summer, and it is still going as we just did it last week!
All-in-all, the recent trip we took there, we did get a meal deal with pizza for kids and salads for mom and dad with our coupons. Even with grabbing food, just from the tips we shared above, we saved over 65% at Chuck E Cheese that day (we think next time we’ll skip the food and hopefully save even more next time). Hey you gotta relish the savings victories!
Hope this post helps you all out there will be venturing into the wild, dangerous world of Chuck E Cheese!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Chuck E Cheese’s website also has Reward Charts. They vary for ages, from brushing your teeth every day, to reading every day (each chart is for a 2 week period). Each child can turn in one chart, and it will give them 10 free tokens. Its nice if you know you are going a couple weeks in advance; or if part of the kids homework is to read for 30 mins everyday anyways (in our case), they can just fill the chart out and turn it in.
I love pizza – but i hate chuck e cheese pizza – its way worse than frozen… so we do not eat there – but we do have a reusable chuck e cheese cup – that you can buy up front when you come in for $2 and if you bring it back with you refills are free.
Sarah, you are not the first person I’ve heard talk of their terrible pizza! I have another idea: Stay far, far away from Chuck E. Cheese until some other kid invites your kid there for a birthday party, lol.
We never eat there due to food allergies in the family. But it is cheap fun for an afternoon. They ran a promo in their store during the holidays that if you bought a gift card you received free tokens. We then used the card to buy our supply of tokens. Since our kiddo is so young the tokens last us a long time. We go when there is bad weather and outdoors is not an option, or as a reward for doign something good