A couple of weeks ago, we talked about affording children and the art of feeding them on a budget. But, I must admit we are a family who likes to eat out. We’ve been asked how we can possibly eat out with so many children. The answer is:
CREATIVITY!
(By the way, I was quite pleased the hear the Duggars like to eat out too, and they have 3x the number of children we have!)
Here are just a few of the ways we have been creative eating out:
*Groupon – I signed up several months back for Groupon in my area. Quite often, these Groupons are for restaurants and you can buy in on the deal for half the price of what the voucher is worth. For instance, one restaurant we like to eat at was offering a $20 voucher for $10, so we had $10 off our meal! The deals come to your inbox for whatever areas you sign up for, and you can easily pick and choose what deals you would like to buy in on. From there, they send you a link to print off your coupon. There is usually an expiration date on the voucher, but it is usually several months.
*Look online for places where kids eat free – The site I use the most is KidsEat4Free.com. It is easy to use. Simply look up the city or zip code you are eating in, and it lists where and what days children can eat for free or discounted. By the way, Tuesday is a VERY good day to eat out. I’ve also learned that many of the places where you can get 1 child’s meal for $.99 with each paying adult, actually means every child can get a $.99 meal because the restaurant computers are not able to separate it all out.
*Sign up for the Kid’s Club – Many restaurants have Kid’s Clubs where children can get free or discounted meals on their birthdays. Some even do Half-Birthday discounts and special deals along the way.
*Sign up for Pizza Hut’s Book It Program – Every year we do Book It under the homeschooling section. You set each child’s goal, when they meet that goal, you sign off on it and within a month of signing off, you head to Pizza Hut. The best part of this is that most Pizza Huts will allow you to trade in the mini-pan pizza listed on the certificate for the buffet instead!
*Share – Nearly everywhere we go it is considerably cheaper to buy an adult meal and let our 3 littles eat from that meal. It is plenty of food and much cheaper than buying 3 separate kid’s meals. Sometimes Ty and I will order a larger portion and split with another child. Sometimes we will order an appetizer and split it amongst children. Portions in restaurants tend to be outrageously large, so this makes them the “right” size and the “right” price!
*Do breakfast – Breakfast is often much cheaper and just as much fun!
*Check newspaper inserts, deal blogs, facebook, flyers, etc – Keep your eyes peeled for deals for restaurants you really like or ones you’d like to try. We were thrilled to see via a deal blog that Chipotle (a favorite of ours–and another place where we share meals!) that they had a buy one-get one for liking a facebook page! Sometimes we will see a special deal on a flyer that is in the store itself. The coupons in newspaper inserts are often for good prices as well.
Reader’s Ideas:
*Order only water – This is one we do as well. It is a substantial savings!
*Feed the kids first – I thought this was a great idea…at least in theory. I plan to try it and see what happens. But, the idea is that you feed the kids first, then as you and your husband are enjoying a meal, you buy the kids dessert! Often, dessert is just as much as a kid’s meal, but I’d suggest you have them share or find a cheaper dessert.
*Use Credit Card Rewards – Jenn says, “The way we eat out for free (all of us) is by using our credit card. I know sounds crazy, but we are a very budget/frugal minded family & treat the CC just like cash. We charge everything we can & pay it off right away (no debt!) In turn, we rack up hundreds of dollars in cash back money. We could cash it out, but we choose to turn them in for gift cards to restaurants as the CC company adds on another $5-$10 ontop of the money we cash out for gift cards (still following me? lol) So this allows us to eat out at places like Red Lobster, Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden, etc. AND to make those gift cards stretch even further, I can use coupons with them.” Now THAT is creative!
*Use Restaurant.com – Coupons, deals and gift cards to local restaurants!
~~~
I know eating out with lots of kiddos isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but for us it has been a great lesson in behavior in public, polite conversation, and other manners. We’ve also found it to be quite a testimony. Yes, we get a lot of stares, but we also get a lot of questions in which we always bring it back to the fact that children are a blessing!
Posts in this Series:
Have Kids, Will Shop…sort of
Have Kids, Will Eat Out – this post
amanda says
Awesome. We love to eat out too. Maybe to much. But you are right splitting an adult meal between our boys works great. 4 boys 9,6,2 and 6months. Yes, yes to behavior training.
Jamerrill Stewart says
I didn’t know (to even ask) that we could trade the mini pizza certs. for the buffet. THAT is what keeps us from using them. Last time we had to sit for a loooooong time. We love eating out too, but it’s usually straight for the buffet 🙂
Stacie says
We have a large family and my hubby LOVES to eat out! It drives me crazy on how much we spend, so I have curbed it to $100 a month. I put money in the envelope and when it is gone, it is gone. Sometimes we use it to go on a date, but most of the time it is eating out as a family.
You have been way more creative than I have. I am too lazy to look for a coupon! LOL!
Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama says
Yesterday I went and got Chipotle for my family. They had kids’ meals there, $3 – $3.50. The $3 one contained a small cheese quesadilla, a small bag of chips, sides of rice and beans, and apple juice. I got an extra side of rice (free) and this was enough to feed BOTH my kids (who are 3 and 20 months). Totally cheap and also not junk food!
Amy says
We do Chipotle a lot and have several children share the bowls (which are easier to split than the burritos). LOVE Chipotle!
Grateful for Grace says
Oh, we love to eat out too! Well, actually my hubby doesn’t. I do. The kids do too. I’ll be using your tips and see if they work enough to tip the scale in the eating out favor. 😉
Amy says
Me and my kids like to eat out too, my husband, not so much. So, that keeps us within budget. Though I didn’t know that they couldn’t separate it out so all 4 of our kids would get a cheap/free meal. I will have to try it.
Amy says
Make sure you ask first. I know this is the way it is at Applebees.
Amy says
We order water, which saves about $6-8 dollars!
Amy says
YES! Waters here too–huge savings!
Susan says
My sister-in-law used to serve her children dinner before going out to a restaurant. While she and her husband were eating their dinner, the children feasted on dessert. She said it worked wonders and saved money! I have yet to try it, but thought I would pass in on 🙂
Amy says
THAT is an awesome idea! Thanks for sharing–I’ll be adding that to the list above!
Lindy says
We also like to eat out, but it can get pretty pricey w/ our famiy of 9. Instead, my hubby and I take a datenight out once a wk by ourselves. Then we take our kiddos out once a wk as a family. Sometimes I’ll make a lunch date with one of our children while we’re out running errands. I alternate which children I take and sometimes take a couple at a time. I’ve found that as our family has expanded that going out to eat altogether happens less (meaning only 1 time a wk;). I keep my eye out for good deals and make sure we leave a good tip as a good testimony for big families.
Char G. says
A couple of comments; Like was mentioned before we order water and save 10-15 dollers.
Also about having kids with manners in public. A few years back our family of 6(our oldest was 6 at the time) was at a restaurant. A man a couple of tables over finished his meal, came over and commented on our kids behavior and said thank you for their mannors and gave us a $50 bill and walked away. God is faithfull when we are faithfull to teach our kids.
Tracy says
We, too, enjoy a good meal out with our six children. It is a testimony and we always get positive comments. We know all the kids eat free deals in town and we almost always order water to drink. We fed all eight of us recently for $14 and we were full of yummy food. The Entertainment Book has great BOGO coupons and sometimes we find great coupons in the back of the phone book.
Jenn says
We also do the splitting of meals amoungst the kids, works out great & they still even have leftovers to take home. But the way we eat out for free (all of us) is by using our credit card. I know sounds crazy, but we are a very budget/frugal minded family & treat the CC just like cash. We charge everything we can & pay it off right away (no debt!) In turn, we rack up hundreds of dollars in cash back money. We could cash it out, but we choose to turn them in for gift cards to restaurants as the CC company adds on another $5-$10 ontop of the money we cash out for gift cards (still following me? lol) So this allows us to eat out at places like Red Lobster, Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden, etc. AND to make those gift cards stretch even further, I can use coupons with them. I realize using a credit card isn’t for everyone but it works great for us to “earn” money to eat out when otherwise we wouldn’t be able to!
Amy says
That is fascinating, Jenn! If you don’t mind, I’ll just paste word for word what you said in my Reader’s Suggestion section.
Suanna says
We like to go out to eat too. It doesn’t happen very often. Sometimes we order some stuff from take out and bring it home to eat. One of the things I do is take the kids out with me when we are shopping and sometimes we get McDonald’s at Walmart. I usually buy 2 double cheeseburger meals and order 2 extra waters. Then we share the fries and the kids take turns who get the special drink from the extra meal. I used to just get burgers from the dollar menu and 1 fry, but as the kids get bigger they need a little more, so the 2 meals work out better cost wise right now.
Allison says
I will be reading over all the comments to try some of these out. We have all but stopped eating out as its so crazy expensive and we are only 6ppl!
Jenn says
http://www.restaurant.com/
Great deals on (mostly) local places! We do most of our eating out using these steeply discounted gift certificates. It’s fun to explore local places too!!!
Valerie says
Some days, something has got to give, and if it’s a homemade dinner, so be it! What a blessing to enjoy convenience food sometimes. We moms do a lot and we need to give ourselves permission to enjoy a relaxed family meal. Just typing this is making me want some Chick-Fil-A…
Lisa~ says
We love to eat out too (who doesn’t like someone else doing the cooking every once in a while?), but for us it just isn’t doable. We gave it up completely a couple of years ago and haven’t eaten out as a family in that long. Your tips are great for the younger kids. But now I have 5 children that eat adult meals PLUS four more little ones, my husband and I. Even with Groupon and splitting, it’s well over $100 for us to eat out. So we appreciate staying home and saving the money! Lisa~
Laney Homan says
You look so lovely in this picture!
Reggie says
We too do the ‘splitting’ of an adult meal versus kids meals and my man and I use our credit card rewards to ‘purchase’ restaurant and hotel gift cards. On occasion, I will pack healthy sides and then order burgers from a fast food place so the kids can use their play equipment. I haven’t had anyone complain about my bringing along my own carrot sticks and apple slices yet, but I do try to be discreet anyway. This is a wonderful solution in the dead of winter or the heat of summer when playing at the park isn’t an option.