Going to Chuck e Cheese for a child's birthday or just for fun can be quite costly if you are not prepared.
Here are some tips to get you by:
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First,
sign up for the
Chuck e-club for coupons. When you sign up they will email you their best coupon offer. Then, for your child's birthday, they'll email you money-saving coupons plus a coupon for 20 FREE tokens for the birthday child.
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And to get the most bang for my buck, use 2 coupons.(You can use more than 1 coupon, just use them separately if you don't want to use them all at once.) One coupon is good for food (4 drinks and a large 1-2 topping pizza) and around 35 tokens; the second coupon is just for tokens (between 80-100).
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Don't forget to print off a Rewards Calendar for each child at the Chuck e Cheese website too. Each child with a
Rewards Calendar gets 10 FREE tokens with food purchase. Just give them the
calendars when you order your food and use your first coupon. That way you don't have to buy extra food for each calendar.
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Here is the breakdown:
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1. When you order your food, use one food plus tokens coupon and give Rewards Calendars (one for each child) plus 20 FREE Birthday tokens coupon (if you are there for your child's birthday & they emailed you a coupon).
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2. When you need more tokens...use your second coupon for more tokens.
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By doing this you can usually end up spending around $32.00 out of pocket for two hours of fun for four kids and that includes their lunch. And with the coupons and rewards calendars we average around 170 tokens.
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And just a tip, if you go during the week in the morning often times the employees are checking the machines/games to make sure they are working properly and the machines in turn spit out tickets that are there for the taking. Employees also seem more likely to give us a few extra tokens when it isn't busy.
Thanks to Sandra at
A Lot of Savings for this great tutorial on how to save money at Chuck E. Cheese.
