The child whose turn it was to pay would also be able to choose the restaurant. So after a tab of $73 the first night (for a family of five), we moved on to Chick-fil-A the next night ($26 total), and pizza the night after that ($32, after using the coupon that my daughter found).
It was funny watching the kids act out, and say to each other, "You guys can share!" or "No, you're getting water!" -- the things I'm usually thinking while biting my tongue.
As parents you always hate to be the ogre saying: "You don't need that." So you just sit there and spend your money, but this made them do it themselves and it was fun for them, because it turned into kind of a game -- with all of them looking for coupons and special deals when it was their turn to pay.
Because of these discounts and how much pressure the kids put on each other to save money, we potentially saved at least $50 a night. A couple of our younger kids had to take out a loan from us for some of the dinners, but they'll be paying that back.
We'll continue doing this on vacations. We're going to a wedding in Wisconsin in July, and my five-year old got off free on the last vacation, so he probably owes us one
