so, i've been thinking about the times when i could check out $40 bucks
and have that get me through a weekend at least, but times have changed
and $40 bucks comes and goes pretty quickly with two kids in tow. i've been
thinking about challenging myself and figuring out ways to stretch $40 bucks
with two kiddo's. my first challenge was the orange county fair. i know people
who go to the fair and drop a $100 bucks easily in just a few hours. though i
have never done this, it's the fair and it can get pretty pricey. now, i know there are
some elements of the fair that people don't want to miss like the food, really how
often do you get the chance to buy a deep fried snickers bar? but, this is something
i can pass up, which leads to my first tip on spending under $40 bucks.
tip #1. don't buy food at the fair. fair food isn't very good. it's greasy and gross
and you'll probably get sick. we usually eat before we get to the fair or bring in our
own food. tip #2. know what you want to spend money on. if you know and your
kids know you're only going to buy certain things you won't be so tempted to spend
money. i know when we go to the fair we will spend $10 bucks on photo booth pics.
it's my thing, we've taken our pictures here every year since the mister and i have
been together. i also let the little miss know that she can choose one thing to buy or
do for $10. tip #3. do all the free stuff first. there are so many things to do at the
fair for free, the gardens, farm, petting zoo, all of the exhibits, livestock
competitions, etc... hopefully the kiddo's will be worn out after all that
and forget about the games and rides.
tip #4. go on a donation day. the oc fair has designated wednesdays for their donation
day, which means they choose a certain type of item you can donate each week.
on the week we went it was books, which was great because i needed to clean
out my book shelf for the new school year. we donated enough books to get
four tickets. even though the kiddo's were free to get in i wanted the two
extra tickets because you get one free ride with every ticket. cool,
we got four free rides. tip #5. share. we all got a little thirsty while we were
looking around and the ice cold lemonade looked real refreshing, so instead of
buying one for each us, we just bought one and shared it. it quenched our thirst and
saved us $12 bucks. same with treats, buy one or two between your family and have
a little of each. with that i think i will say that these are my top 5 tips for spending
less than $40 bucks at the fair. if you live in or around the oc you have until
the 15th to check out it. here is a break down of what we spent:
lunch = $15 at in-n-out before we got to the fair
(includes our treat because we got shakes too)
parking = $2
(we parked across the street at the college and walked to the fair - tip#6)
admission = free
4 rides = free
photos = $10
lemonade = $3.50
face painting = $8
fun times = priceless...
the little fella enjoying the petting zoo before
we realized he was allergic to the animals
the gardens
photo booth pics
the little miss chose to spend her $10 on face painting
the little miss and the mister chose this as their free ride
it was worth it, she was super excited
i gave my free ticket to the little miss so she could have another ride
of course, we went to check out where my photo was displayed
not bad for $38.50 huh?
