Entertainment Savings

Learn How to Go Out To Dinner on a Dime

Entertainment Savings

Does it seem like there is not enough money left over for doing fun stuff?



A simple trip to the zoo with the kids can add up: gas money, admission, lunch, souvenirs. Before you know it you’ve dropped $50-$75, maybe even as high as $100.

And don’t get me started on a date night out with the hubby. After childcare fees, you hardly have enough leftover to spend on entertainment!

But there are cost effective solutions for entertainment savings.

First, let me introduce you to the two most valuable methods of saving money on your evenings out, with or without the kids.

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Entertainment Book

The Entertainment Book is an annual book, about the size of an oversized paperback novel, filled with valuable money saving coupons on entertainment in your specific city. Most of the offers are BOGOs, meaning, Buy One Get One Free, though there are a few offers that are percentage discounts, or simply FREE coupons.

The Entertainment Book has discounts on such attractions as:
Fine Dining
Casual Dining
Fast Food
Ice Cream
Travel and Hotels
Movies
Museums
Attractions
Entertainment
Sports
The Arts
Children’s Activities
Retail
Services like Dry Cleaning and Car Washes
Online Shopping
And So Much More!

These coupons are good for one year. Honestly, every household in America needs to have at least one Entertainment Book on hand.

Enter your zip code below to find your local Entertainment Book:

ex: 90230 or Los Angeles, CA

And, if you are traveling to another popular city, such as Las Vegas or Orlando, for vacation, make sure you invest in an Entertainment Book for entertainment savings in that city as well. The attraction coupons alone are worth it and provide tons of entertainment savings!

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Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com is another absolutely wonderful money saving resource for entertainment savings.

This company compiles a list of local restaurants in your area, who will give you a discount on their food.

You simply purchase a gift certificate from Restaurant.com online, and bring the certificate into the restaurant to use.

The certificates are $10 for a $25 certificate, but Restaurant.com often releases insane deals!

Click Here for any current coupon codes for Restaurant.com

It is not uncommon to get the $25 gift certificates for only $5. But, even if you are paying the full price of $10, its still a heck of a deal!

Most of the restaurants included in Restaurant.com are small, hole-in-the-wall, not chain, restaurants. This will give you an excellent opportunity to discover your local cuisine.

Also, many of the restaurants have stipulations on their gift certificates: most do not allow you to use the certificate for alcohol, tax and gratuity are not included, and some require 4 or more dinners or a minimum $35 purchase (which means, using a $25 gift certificate, you would pay $10 out of pocket plus tax and tip). Just make sure to read the instructions on each specific restaurant before you make your purchase.

We love Restaurant.com. Whenever we visit Orlando, Florida, we go to Le Peep and use a $25 gift certificate from Restaurant.com. They serve excellent, inexpensive, and refreshing breakfast and lunch. There is a minimum of 4 people on the certificate, which isn’t a big deal, as there are 4 of us with the kids.


Now that you know the two best resources for saving on entertainment, here are some more tips that may make your entertainment dollar stretch the furthest.

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Entertainment with Kids

There are many activities you can do with the kids that are free, or relatively inexpensive to help you with entertainment savings.

Science Centers and Children’s Museums
Check out your local Science Centers and Children’s Museums for entertainment savings. Many of these centers offer families annual memberships, which generally cost about the price of admission twice. The best part about these passes, is most of them offer free admission to other Science Centers or Children’s Museums across the country.

Some of them stipulate that the center must be over an hour’s drive away from the membership location, but we have found the best way to do this is to buy a membership in a neighboring city, instead of your own (if cheaper). That way you have the free admission to ALL of your local museums.

Places likes zoos also have annual passes designed for entertainment savings. Check out the local attractions in your area.

Parks and Playgrounds
Check out all the local parks and playgrounds in your area. This can be a great entertainment savings approach! Do a Google search, or, you can even find listings at places such as Go City Kids.

You may be surprised at what you will find. For instance, here in my town, we have public parks with pools, water slides, horseback riding, water skiing, paddle boat rentals, and rock climbing. I never would have dreamed all this was available from our public park system!

Some of the parks do charge a nominal admission, while others simply charge for the activities, again, a relatively small fee, but it can make for a cheap and entertaining day with the kids!

Free Local Events
Make sure you keep up to date on all the free local events in your area. These are great for entertainment savings. Carnivals, street fairs, arts and craft shows, kids days, concerts in the park, and food festivals abound across the country, and many of them are totally free.

Often these events will have things like face painting or crafts for the kids.

Upcoming events notifications can usually be found in your local library or newspaper.

Library Events
Have you checked out your local library recently?

It used to be that the extent of a library’s activities was toddler story time, but things have changed!

Now you can find not only wonderful resources in the library, such as computers with games for kids to play and totally free new and current DVDs for you to borrow, but also great activities to bring the kids to.

We have had activities such as movie night, presentations on Stranger Danger, and even a wildlife show with live panthers and alligators.

All totally free entertainment savings.



Free Summer Movies
During the summer every year, when the kids are out of school, Regal Cinemas and AMC offer a summer movie series, for free.

These movies take place once or twice a week, and are movies that have long been out of the theater. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.

They usually offer kids snack packs with popcorn, candy, and a soda for sale. Movies are during the day, typically starting around 10am or so.

It can be nice to get inside in the air conditioning on a hot summer day, and what kid doesn’t love watching a movie in the theater?

Play lists can be found at the summer movie pages for Regal and AMC:

Regal Free Summer Movies for Families

AMC Free Summer Movies Series

Other Tips
--Be Prepared
Bring activities, crayons, coloring books with you to your outings to make sure the kids are occupied

--Bring Lunch
Pack a lunch or snacks to save money on overpriced food inside parks

--Be Flexible
Have a back up plan on what to do in case of rain or other unforeseen circumstances

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The Date Night

I know it can be hard, with time and money constraints, to take the time to have a nice evening out with your spouse, but it is something we all need to do.

Without going overboard on marriage advice here, we all need to make sure we are putting the effort into growing our relationships with our husbands.

It might not seem like it, but they feel the stresses of raising kids too, even if they are the one who gets to go to work and don’t have to be the one to deal with the thousand myriad tasks of parenting on a moment-by-moment basis. Even if it’s just once a month, we need to keep the spark going.

Think about the last time you left the kids with a sitter and went out on a date with your husband.

Did you get that silly, giddy feeling the second you closed the car door? The “we’re free!” giggles? Now, I’m sure, by the end of the evening you were ready to go back to reality, but taking a break is important.

So how do you find the money to do it?

First off, don’t worry about the babysitting. That is covered in the next section.

You have two excellent resources mentioned above: Restaurant.com and the The Entertainment Book Plus, get a free Restaurant Certificate with any order! which can both go a very long way towards entertainment savings.

I should also mention that the Entertainment Book usually has a place where you can pre-order movie theater passes at a discount, so if you like to go to the movies, check out the discounted movie tickets, giving you even more entertainment savings.

But there are other ways to save money on a Date Night with your spouse.

--Take a Nature Walk and Bring a Picnic
--Go for an Evening Walk on the Beach
--Buy Season Tickets for a Sporting or Cultural Event (cheaper when purchasing season tickets, plus forces you to go out!)
--Look in the Coupon Clipper or Newspaper for Dinner Discounts
--Find the “Cheap Eats” in Your Community
--Just Drive Around
--Drop the Kids Off and Go Home for Dinner In

Babysitting

We all know that this is usually the most expensive part of a Date Night. Usually, the expense of child care is the straw that breaks the camels back.

But what if child care was free?

Huh? Did I say FREE??

Yep. Talk about entertainment savings.

There are three strategies you can implement to get free child care for a date night.

Grandma
This might seem obvious, but sometimes it is overlooked.

If your mother, mother-in-law, sister, aunt, or even if your cousin lives close by, they would probably be willing to watch your munchkins for you once in a while (say, once a month) to allow you to go out for a Date Night with your husband.

Just ask!

Most moms have been in this situation before, and with family, you usually do not need to worry about compensating them with money. Just the joy on your face is payment enough.

Trading with Friends
No family living nearby? What about your best friend?

My friend and I live about a mile apart. She has toddlers, and I have school aged children. Once a month, she and her husband go out for the night and I watch her kids. I usually just bring my kids over to her house (her husband has a PlayStation, we don’t, and my kids love it) and we play for a few hours. Then, once a month, she watches my kiddos for me.

We never charge each other anything, which saves us both money. Plus, since we are friends, we all know each other, and the children do not have any attachment issues when mommy leaves the house.

Babysitting Co-Op
For those who like the trading childcare duties with friends concept, you may be interested in stepping it up a notch and forming a babysitting coop.

What is a babysitting coop?

A babysitting coop is a group of mothers who trade childcare duties to avoid having to pay for childcare.

Please note: this is for occasional childcare, not for everyday care while mommy works.

This is a great way for moms to be able to both save money, and place their children in a home that they trust.

Since there are quite a few moms involved, those spur of the moment or emergency care needs are usually able to be met.

How does it work?

Each mother earns child care time based on her involvement with the group. Moms receive credit towards care for watching other children, helping to manage the group, etc. These credits are exchanged for child care when she needs it. Credits vary depending on how many children need care, and for how long.

In addition to using the credits for Date Nights, moms can use them for shopping, doctor’s appointments, getting their nails done, even sleep.

If this interests you, you will want to pick up The Smart Mom’s Babysitting Co-Op Handbook by Gary Myers. You can find it here on Amazon.




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current coupons and codes for entertainment savings.

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