* Image Credit: www.elevatedmedianetwork.com
There’s no need to stress about spending $100 or more for a simple family outing. By following the steps below, you’ll be able to treat your kids to a fun activity, and take your family for a nice restaurant meal followed by a few hours of shopping for as little as $14!
- Search for restaurant deals. Splitting a meal with a spouse is one way to save money at restaurants. But there are better methods of dining on a dime. The first step is to go to www.restaurant.com and purchase a $25 restaurant gift certificate for only $10. By doing so, you’re already saving $15! Currently, you can snag 60% off of the $10 price tag by entering the coupon code “SWEET” at checkout. This will bring your total down to $4! If you don’t think your family can dine out on just $25 worth of food, you can purchase gift certificates in additional denominations.
Here are the prices for higher value www.restaurant.com gift cards.
- $100 gift certificate for only $40*
- $75 gift certificate for only $30*
- $50 gift certificate for only $20*
* Prices before 60% off coupon.
In addition to your gift certificate, choose a restaurant where kids are allowed to eat free in order to stretch your dollars (refer to this post). By doing so, you’ll only have to pay for two adult entrees and any appetizers or drinks that are ordered.
* Image Credit: www.heckrodtwetland.com
- Create a scavenger hunt for your kids. A local park is the perfect location to host a scavenger hunt. Simply setup your list of items, set a timeframe and let your kiddies roam the park with an adult in tow in order to collect every item on the list. There’s no doubt that scavenger hunts are fun, but it’s even more fun when the items on the list are things that your kids already know and love, such as candy or their favorite (already owned) action figures.
- Go Shopping. This week, I’ve got a very awesome scenario for shopping at Old Navy. If you’re a cardholder you can score a BOGO deal. Simply purchase an adult item, and you can score a kids’ item of equal or lesser value for free. So, if your family consists of mom, dad and two kiddos, you can score free clothing for each of your children by simply purchasing an item for mom and dad.
But that’s not all. On Saturday morning (until 10:00am), Old Navy is having a $10 sale on sweaters. So, you can get away with spending $20 on sweaters for mom and dad (one each) and receiving free, quality sweaters for your kids. By doing so, you’ll essentially purchase each sweater for just $5.
- Play the Barker’s Bone Game on Facebook every week in order to win printable coupons. Every game results in a coupon. However, each game results in a coupon for a different value, such as $5 off of a $20 purchase.
Other Deals
If Old Navy isn’t your cup of tea, you can score a killer 50% off deal at Sears by printing this coupon. The coupon offers $10 off of a $20 order. The coupon is also valid on sale and clearance items, so $20 should go quite far this week at Sears. And the best part about this coupon is that Sears has major clearance deals on their baby and toddler clothing. Shirts are going for as little as $0.99, bodysuits for as little as $1.99, girl’s dresses for as little as $1.99 and sleepwear for just $2.99. With your $20, you can purchase 7 shirts, 2 bodysuits, 2 dresses and 2 sets of sleepwear for a total of $20.94. After your coupon, you’ll only pay $10.94 out of pocket! Purchasing 13 items at this price breaks down to a cost of just $0.84 per item!
If you take advantage of the deal going on at Sears, you’ll only spend $10 for kids’ clothing, $4 (price after coupon) for a gift certificate of $25 to a restaurant of your choice. All in all, you’re only coming out of pocket $14! Alternatively, if you choose to take advantage of the deals at Sears, Old Navy and dine on the $50 gift certificate (priced at only $8 after coupon), you’re still only spending a grand total of $38! As I’ve always said, the deals are out there if you’re willing to scan for them before heading out the door.
