HIP’s Summer Challenge Week #10: Kids Eat Free
So this week’s Summer Challenge is focused on taking advantage of Kids Eat Free specials that are offered by both local restaurants and national chains. At first glance, you may be wondering what a post about kids eating free has to do with entertaining kids on the cheap. However, if you spend most of the summer at home with your kids, then you can likely relate to that need that you may experience every so often to just get out of the house and do something (and kids often feel this same need as well).
In my opinion, kids eat free deals are a great excuse to take a break from your usual routine of cooking dinner and cleaning up. My kids always look forward to a dinner out with the option to order items that I don’t typically fix at home. And if the hubby and I find entrees priced around $10 or less, the whole family can eat for just $20 (+ tip) which is pretty awesome for a family of five.
Note that kids eat free deals vary by restaurant – most require an adult entree purchase in order to qualify for a free kid’s meal. Some will offer 2 free kid’s meals per adult entree purchase while others may only allow one per adult entree purchase. As an example, Chili’s and Olive Garden both seem to host kids eat free specials several times per month (I would encourage you to sign up for their FREE Email Clubs here and here and/or follow them on their Facebook pages here and here to be notified when these offers take place). Also, check out all the yummy Birthday Freebies that you can score at different restaurants by clicking here.
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HIP’s Summer Challenge
Every Monday throughout this summer, I will be publishing a Weekly Post centered around different activities that I have personally done with my 3 kiddos (ages 6, 8, and 11) for around $10 or less. You can check out previous Summer Challenge posts here:
HIP’s Summer Challenge Week #9: Taking Advantage of the Great Outdoors
HIP’s Summer Challenge Week #8: Free Dance Class
HIP’s Summer Challenge Week #7: Swimming at the City Pool
HIP’s Summer Challenge Week #6: Homemade Bubbles
HIP’s Summer Challenge Week #5: Homemade Slip N’ Slide
HIP’s Summer Challenge Week #4: FREE Movie Night at the Local Park
HIP’s Summer Challenge Week #3: Picking Strawberries at Local Idaho Farm
HIP’s Summer Challenge Week #2: Making Monsters University Scarers
HIP’s Summer Challenge Week #1: Bowling for Free[/h2s_box]
So where did u eat at Collin and break down of the deal please
Those pics are just from a local restaurant here in Boise. 🙂
Please don’t forget to tip on the FULL AMOUNT that the check would have been if you had paid for ALL of the food so the server isn’t being shorted! Every server I know absolutely hates Kids Eat Free nights and try to not get scheduled on them because people neglect to tip them as they should. The restaurant my sister in law works at stopped having Kids Eat Free because of the complaints from the waitstaff for being shorted. They work very hard on Kids Eat Free nights with kids running around and the extra messes they deal with.
Very well described Daisy! I am a part time employee at an Applebee ‘s in Michigan and we offer kids eat free every Tuesday night. I love that we offer families the opportunity to enjoy a night out at a reasonable price! I have 3 kiddos also so I feel like I am more tolerant than some other employees to the extra cleaning and sometimes smaller gratuity.
Thank you! I don’t work in the restaurant industry, but several friends do. I can understand wanting to save money, but if youcan’t afford to tip properly, you can’t afford to go out
Well said Stacy! My friends, family and I always over tip.. Especially if the service was really good. And we always look for the same great wait staff when we go to restaurants so we can always make sure they receive a great tip from us!
I was just about to post this reminder. 🙂 Servers have to do even more when there are kids because kids leave messes.
I agree totally, Daisy. Most people neglect to understand all the extra work it involves. Please remember to tip appropriately whether its kids or not.
The same goes for coupons or discounts at restaurants. Always tip on the amount before discounts. If you use a bogo coupon at Olive Garden, calculate tip before coupon is deducted. (I am an ex server as well.)
Cute kids Collin!
Thanks… I think so too! 😉
IKEA kids eat free on Tuesdays 🙂
You can check out https://www.kidsmealdeals.com to find kids meal deals near you. They even have smaller, lesser known restaurants listed. You can search by zip code, day of the week, and everything
Great tip. Thanks for sharing!
I think their “deals” are kind of lame, esp if you have a family with 6 kids. It’s usually only ONE free meal per paying adult. Then you throw in the “full” tip and it’s what it would have cost anyway practically. At least that’s what we found out at Chili’s when we had the kids eat free coupon. The server said only 2 kids would get free meals. I also totally “clean” up our messes/plates, so I basically bus the table for the server/busboy, so I’m not leaving a huge mess like some folks think is “ok” just because they’re eating out with kids. Our best “cheap” eating out is Pizza Pie Cafe, and Chuck-A-Rama with the kids eat free coupons they get for our state’s sumer reading program. We can get 5 kids in free with those.
I don’t think it is lame, but it is definitely not a good deal or fit for every family. I understand why restaurants have limits on the number of free meals, though they are using it as a draw to bring people in, but they have to weigh the cost vs benefits of the promotion. I can see why it would be frustrating for large families, but perhaps you could use these promotions as a way to spend some alone time with jut one child at a time? Like each child gets a mother-kid “date” night one or twice a year?
I have 6 kids too- we’re working on a Cheaper by the Dozen thing. 2 free kids meals is 2 more free than normal. I can’t blame them for placing a limit- I’m the one that chose to have a herd, not the restaurant.
I hate when people get all crazy about tipping… The servers don’t always clean the table themselves it’s usually a bus boy and more than have of the time someone else brings your food out… I am not tipping someone 20% to bring me drinks, take my order, and smile… I usually do around 10% unless they go above and beyond that much!
Ha ha! I agree!
Do you know how much (most) waiters/waitresses make an hour? $2.13. I’m not a waitress, nor have I ever been, but 10% is almost nothing, especially if it is slow. Plus, they often have to tip out at the end of the night to the bar tender (if applicable) and/or bus boy/girl.
That should be a bone to pick with the restaurant owners and not the patron. Tips are gratuity for going the extra mile, it should not be socially forced upon the patron. If the owners pays them meager wages, then don’t dine there. It is not the patron’s responsibility to supplement the waitress meager wages.
Yes, if you choose to be cheap (15% is basically considered the minimum for decent service), no need to announce it proudly to the internet.
And if you have someone else bringing your food and a bus boy clearing the table, it’s almost certain that your server has to “tip out” and give a percentage of their sales to those people, regardless of what they actually made. So they are likely ending up with far less than a measly 10% tip.
Again, if you can’t tip properly save your money and eat at home.
You are the reason some restaurants have mandatory gratuity built into their checks.
If you don’t like the money you are being tipped then find another job! I’m sure not going to support you because your job pays you shitty! Don’t hate on my opinion I have no sympathy for people not getting what they need or want from their job. If you don’t like something CHANGE it! Duh… I mean we already pay for over priced food, and yes I can afford to go out. my point is we don’t tip the employees at Panera, Boston Market, Chipotle etc… for cleaning up after us???? Let’s be real here. And yeah they make minimum wage at those places but they do just as much work there if not more!!! And the way people that waiter/waitress expect to be paid is well over $10.00 an hour after their $2.XX pay and tips… So stop complaining about how much people tip. Everyone has it hard somewhere so just deal with it or change jobs!!
Stephanie you must lack common sense which is why we should require a class for it in high school so we don’t have a bunch of lunatics running around . The reason why servers get paid what they do is because they work for tips they work to SERVE you so yes it is YOUR responsibility to support them . If you can’t afford it stay home cook and serve yourself.
Stephanie if you don’t like to tip to servers then stay home. What a negative mentality you have, it must suck to be so miserable. I am a server, but I have been a nurse for 10 years, I’m taking a break and going back to school. You try to support yourself with the tips that cheap, self-absorbed people like you tip! Get a conscience please. The over priced food your paying for is not ours its the company we work for. You don’t even realize all the extra BS that servers have to deal with. Usually we tip out a busser, even if there’s not one on , and the bartender. We are there 4 two hours after closing making $2. dollars an hour doing extra work (rolling silverware, sweeping, cleaning)
Boo hoo, like I said FIND ANOTHER JOB… I worked for “fast casual dining” (Boston Market) and did the same if not way more than a server and never got tipped so I changed it… As a server you know what to expect, you know what you are getting yourself into… Cry your river to someone who cares. Try going to school and finding an actual job to “support” yourself off of. Server jobs are meant to be STEPPING STONE jobs for teens and YOUNG adults not grown people with debt and family’s to support.
As a server you EXPECT that people have the common knowledge to know that they MUST tip. Nobody is saying to tip them outrageously but tip them what they deserve which is between 15% and 20%. If you lack that common knowledge you shouldn’t be able to afford to eat out because you shouldn’t have a job that pays you enough for the privilege! And college students don’t deserve good money? You were either pampered and had your parents pay for your college degree or don’t have one or you’d know how hard it is to live as a college student and support yourself. The fact that there is people like YOU in this world is disgusting PLEASE don’t reproduce we don’t need any of your offspring running around with your stupidity.
Stephanie: There are plenty of people who have careers working in restaurants. I am from New Orleans and the service industry is a main source of income. Please do not dine out where someone comes to the table to take your order. Stick to Panera.
Some restaurants are really cool about these deals. We live near a Freebirds, which is like Chipotle. They have free kids meals on Mondays. Since it’s an order at the register sort of place, almost everything is take out. They let you order a kids meal to go even if there are no kids with you. You can take it as lunch the next day.
Wow….way to abuse the kids meal deal. They’ll probably stop doing it soon if people do that a lot.
I’m not sure what difference it makes whether she eats it or a child eats it or she feeds it to her dog or gifts it to a homeless person. Kids Eat Free is a promotion designed to get people to come to their restaurant. By making it a kids meal, rather than BOGO adult entrees, generally they are getting you to buy a $10 meal to get a $5 one for free. Not much different than buy the 16oz bottle, get the 4oz one for free.
Because it is meant for a KID to eat free. Not your dog, not yourself, not a homeless person (unless they come in with their kid).
Chili’s is a great list to be on anyway. They send an email every week with either a free dessert or appetizer. I go to Chili’s about once a week with some friends and we always enjoy sharing chips and queso or a dessert. Tonight it was for a free dessert, so we got the new reese’s molten lava cake, which I highly recommend. Plus, when you share dessert with 3-7 other people, you don’t have to worry (as much) about the calories 🙂
If you don’t want to tip(15%-20%) then you can’t afford to eat out.
Whoa. What a wake-up call this morning. I think when most people consider dining out.. they want to relax. They don’t want to clean. They don’t want to cook. When I tip, I not only take into account my server, but I also weigh the quality of the food, the speed at which it came out (with consideration for what was prepared), the kindness of the host.. all kinds of things. It is the EXPERIENCE. Yes, Panera employees cook, clean, and generally take care of you. They also make (as was already pointed out) at least minimum wage to do so. There is a huge difference in a “cafeteria-style” restaurant and a sit-down dining establishment, and we should think of that before choosing to eat there.
I don’t appreciate the negativity on this board. Collin works super hard to present amazing ways to save money, and as a single, working Momma, I appreciate her more than I can tell you. Stephanie, you had to know that there would be bite-back with your opinion. Please take a breath and count to ten before getting so defensive. And everyone else, she is entitled to that opinion (no matter how unpopular it might be).
Amy,
I agree wholeheartedly with your entire second paragraph. (imagine clapping hands icon LOL)
I have to respectfully disagree a bit with your statement “When I tip, I not only take into account my server, but I also weigh the quality of the food, the speed at which it came out (with consideration for what was prepared), the kindness of the host”
The tip is part of the server’s wage and should, in my opinion, be based on his/her performance; 15-20% unless something was exceptionally good or bad. The things you described above are mostly out of the server’s control. I’m not at all saying those things don’t matter, I think they definitely factor into your enjoyment of the evening and whether you want to go back to that restaurant but I don’t think the server should be penalized if one of her coworkers is having a bad day (or conversely rewarded if she’s slacking because her coworkers are doing a great job) – I know I would be pretty upset if my annual raise was based on how often Susie two cubicles over called in sick!
Generally management or kitchen staff orders the food and is responsible for checking its quality (in corporations the partnerships with suppliers and recipes are probably chosen by the central offices). The kitchen staff (chef, manager, cooks, etc.) are largely responsible for the speed your food comes out, although how quickly you server entered it into the point-of-sale computer and how quickly she picked up and delivered your tray are also factors. The host or hostess is usually paid a regular hourly rate and/or ‘tipped out’ based on sales. In the restaurant I worked in the hostesses made about $6/hr (that’s less than our local minimum wage but higher than the server base wage) and also got 1% of all SALES (not tips) taken from the servers’ tips. So if my table’s bill was $40, $1.20 was taken from my tips for the evening (1% each for the hostess, bartender and bus boy) regardless of what that table left me as a tip.
Wow! I had no idea about all of that. Thanks so much for the respectfully-presented information. 🙂 My server’s work definitely weighs heaviest in my mind when tipping.. and I agree that if my food came out late or the host was rude that it is unfair to punish a server (and I don’t think I would, but that was what came out early this morning without coffee, lol). I’ll keep this in mind as I venture to restaurants in the future!
No problem! I know what you mean – sometimes your overall mood can affect whether you feel extra generous at the end of the meal or not, even subconsciously sometimes.
My husband and I have always been average to good tippers but the 10 months that I was a SAHM by day/waitress by night were certainly eye opening – so the differing opinions on these threads interests me.