Planning birthday parties can be almost as stressful and hard on your budget as a wedding can be these days (doesn’t it feel like it?!), but if you make the simple choice of going to a great place like Chuck E. Cheese for your party you will find much of the planning taken care of for you and the budget issues disappear. If you are worried about the expense of having parties at a restaurant check out these tips on How To Plan a Chuck E. Cheese Party On A Budget. Not only can you give your child a special event that includes games, characters, fun foods and prizes you can sit back and not worry about them running around and being loud because that is expected at a location like Chuck E. Cheese. Additionally, since you are not hosting at your home, you get the joys of leaving the mess behind for someone else to clean up.
HOW TO PLAN A CHUCK E. CHEESE PARTY ON A BUDGET:
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USE CHUCK E. CHEESE COUPONS. One of the reasons we prefer Chuck E. Cheese over other fun play zone type venues is because of the frequent coupons we receive not only with weekly coupon inserts in our newspaper but also via email. These offer great package deals that can save up to 50% off regular price for routine visits as well as party packages. Check out my recent post regarding how to get Chuck E. Cheese coupons for more tips on savings.
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ASK FOR A PARTY PACKAGE. Call your local location and ask what packages they currently offer. Although the chain of restaurants has similar pricing and product available individual location managers have the choice of creating their own special packages. You may be able to pay a flat rate for a select number of kids and adults that will include a private room, a bucket of tokens, cake and even have the Chuck E. character appear for a bit to say hi to the kids. Do be mindful of what the packages include & what add on options are. As listed below, providing some of add on options yourselves will save more in the long run.
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BRING YOUR OWN CAKE. Check with the location policy but often you can cut cost by bringing your own cake or cupcakes to the party. Whether you make your own or purchase at a local store you can easily shave $20-$25 off the Chuck E. Cheese birthday party package cost by bringing your own dessert.
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ASK FOR SPECIAL PRICING ON BULK TOKEN PURCHASE. Most packages include a set amount of tokens but when you have several children in attendance, those don’t go very far. Remember most of the games require 1-2 tokens to play and if each child only has 20 tokens they will quickly disappear. There are often coupons for “Buy 100 tokens get 100 free” available as well as options within their party packages. Be sure to ask in advance for bulk pricing, and remember for every hour they will have of “play time” you should expect to need 25-50 tokens per child.
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BRING YOUR OWN FAVORS. Although there will be prices awarded in exchange for tickets earned on the games not every child will win the same amount. Make sure to have a bag of prizes for each attendee so nobody leaves empty handed. I recommend checking out stores like Dollar Tree or $0.99 stores (even Amazon has you covered) for bulk inexpensive favor bags and ribbon then ordering the prices to be included from someone like Oriental Trading for cheap, fun and inexpensive favors that will be suitable for whatever age group you are planning for. Don’t forget to make use of Ebates when you are shopping online, as that is a very easy way to get cashback on the purchases you were making anyway (it’s completely free, and new members get $10 after using the system when you go through my referral link!).
The most important part of planning a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party on a budget is to make sure you ask a lot of questions of the staff ahead of time to see what your options are. There are often hidden packages, deals and special discounts you can get you just have to ask in advance. Include using the coupons you can readily get any time of the year and bringing a limited amount of your own supplies and you will be able to throw an unforgettable party on a limited budget.
You might also enjoy my blog post about planning a superhero-themed birthday party for girls, so be sure to check that out! Good luck with your party planning!
Hi this was so informative i never through a chuck e chees party before and they just built one in my location could i use coupons with their package deal or should i do them separately.
does anybody know if you can reserve tables for walk in?
I am currently planning a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. I called the reservation number & they said you can only reserve a table with a deposit. That money down will go towards whatever you purchase when you get to Chuck E Cheese.
Hi,
I would like to do a party for my dd bday.
There will be around 20 kids of 4 n above age and few will be less then 1.5 or new borns. What are the tips for me to arrange a cost effective party.
There gonna be parents of kids , few family and frnds without kids. So for adults food what the best way to order
This will be our fourth birthday party @ CEC for our kids. We have two kids, but they keep wanting their party there. It is well worth it and a great time for all. The most we have ever paid is $250, which isn’t too bad when it includes 12 kids.
I work at a Chuck e Cheese in Oklahoma and I am a party hostess there. If you’re trying to plan a cheap Chuck e birthday, then I would do what we call a “walk-in party” where you basically tell all your guests to show up at the location, you bring your own cake and decorations and find someplace to set up. It’s usually cheaper than the party packages we offer and you don’t have to follow a set schedule or anything. If you still want to get a reserved birthday party, i would definitely visit your local Chuck e cheese to ask about special promotions they have that could help you save money. I know at my location, we offer 100 bonus token to parties booked on Fridays and Sundays. You could also ask any parents attending to pay for their own drinks/food (Kid’s food is included in the package). We also offer birthday candles for free. Hope this was helpful.
I live in Puerto Rico . The Star party cost $150 for 2 hours for 10 kids including my b-day girl daughter.Includes 2 slices of pizza and unlimited soda. Each extra kid is $12.99.If you make a walk in party in their tables is $10.00 . The email and the coupons are ok but at the end you have extra spendind in the pizza and tokens. Its not cheap but its worth the birthday party !
Parties at Chuck e cheese can be affordable, but I would disagree on bringing your own cake. My location offers a 24 slice sheet cake for $17.99 and bakeries usually charge about $30 for a sheet cake. If you want a special flavor you should bring your own, but affordability wise, I would say Chuck E’s cake would be better.
Also, coupons can be found on the website anytime even if you aren’t signed up for the emails. Not as good as the e-mail club coupons, but will still save you money 🙂
I am amazed by that first response. you can google images for cec coupons and see some dating back to 2010. All the games have been 1 token for years, it was not a one time deal.
In fact to add to the savings now, print out the awards on the cec website and bring them for free tokens. We get 20 tokens for two small children, let them run around and then go next door to CiCi’s pizza buffet for even more savings on better pizza made however we want.
Have u ever been to cec??! There are no magic coupons that save u half off nor any that are buy 100 tokens get 100 free. They don’t do “buckets” of tokens. This article was super dumb and here was zero research done before writing. Oh btw it’s also been years since Cecil has been doing and promoting all games taking one token.
Sorry to hear you feel that way, Janet. My Chuck E. Cheese does still advertise every game being just 1 token…perhaps your experience is different from mine, though. And I receive coupons from Chuck E. Cheese regularly, as well as find them on their website. They really do offer some great deals that can help make a birthday party much more affordable than one might think.
My CEC also offer 1 token per game and also offers the coupons online which does save money! Thanks for your blog post 🙂
We have had MANY parties at CeC (4 boys) and we have used coupons for ALL of them. Our local CeC’s do give us a “bulk discount” on tokens but, you have to ask about it and already be spending quite a bit there.
I live in Hawaii & all games here are only 1 token each.
Yep, I’m in GA and all our games take 1 token and I just used a coupon that was buy 50 get 50 tokens this past weekend.
Our place in Georgia does buy 100 get 100 free and the bucket of tokens. They also give 20 free tokens to the kids on their birthdays.
Great ideas 🙂
Good God, you are BRAVE! I managed to keep my kids from learning about Chucky Cheese until they were past the age where they would want to go!
thank you for the tips I really want to have a chuck and cheese party but I don’t want to spend much!
Well look at your new fancy-pants design!! (Sorry if it’s a few weeks old, I haven’t touched blogs in a week and a half at least …)
I like the idea of bringing your own favors. That way it helps keep the cost down and helps to ensure the kids get what you want them to have.