Saving You Money at the Movies with Kids

Our local theater does a summer movies series for kids. For 12 weeks, you can go and watch a movie in the morning - they are usually movies that are already out in video, or close to it. The cost for the entire 12 weeks is $7 per person, 2 and up. Check around and see if any theaters or libraries, city recreation depts, etc. are doing this in your area.

Our theater sells a fun kids pack which includes an icee, popcorn, and a treat. This year, they increased the price to $4.50. Since I have 3 kids that like to eat during the movies (and we go with cousins, so they never sit together) this could cost $9-13.50 per week. That doesn't sound like a lot of money....but if you add it up over the summer, I would rather spend that money doing something else with my kids.

So this is what I did today. Mike & Ikes were on sale for $0.97 each today at the store. I got popcorn free with coupons. Walmart also sells an 8 pack of popcorn for $2.00. I divided up the Mike & Ikes in snack size bags and made up 13 bags, which will cover 6 movies (my youngest doesn't eat the candy). With the free popcorn, this will cost us $2.91 or $0.48 per movie! Even if I paid for the popcorn, it would still be less than $1 per movie. We will take drinks in water bottles (probably juice or a drink mix) and they will never know the difference!