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You Can Do A Lot With That $40
My two sisters in law and their five children are visiting us this week. Today some of us went to a local amusement park, which I much preferred to the big Six Flags style park we went to a few days ago. There were seven of us today, including the baby. This park allowed us to just walk in, and then pay for rides as we did them, which was great for moms pushing newborn babies in strollers - free! (at the big amusement park, my ticket still cost $25, even though I didn’t ride anything and spent the day with my baby).
My sister in law is famous for her frugal ways, and I had to smile when the children started asking for food. Of course there were food vendors all around, but my sister in law reached into her purse and pulled out a loaf of bread and some turkey and cheese that she had just taken out of the cooler in her car. We found a shady spot and she made sandwiches for all of us. Amusement parks usually charge quite a bit more for food than regular restaurants (which are spendy enough as it is), so it probably would have cost $40 or $50 for all of us to eat at one of the food places in the park. But thanks to her frugal ways, we escaped without spending anything. I am used to being the frugal one in any group, and I love having a someone else around who thinks the same way I do!
Your sil must have a large purse to pull a loaf of bread out of it!
When I was a teenager our family and the family next door used to go to Six Flags once a year. When we parked we’d try to be near a tree. When we got hungry for lunch we’d leave the park (getting our hands stamped so we could come back in) and go to the car where there was a cooler with sandwiches, chips and drinks. We’d sit under the tree and have lunch together. It never occured to us to eat in the park or buy any of that food, our parents never provided it as an option so we never missed it.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:08 am
the local amusement park around here even has a pony ride
it’s just so much more interesting than all that heavily branded stuff at the gargantuan parks–which are miles away–you even have to pay toll to get there
July 18th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Evie - we did the same thing. Whenever we were on vacation, my mom would fill a cooler with lunch stuff, and we’d pull over at rest areas to eat sandwiches. We never knew any other option, and the whole family enjoyed our traveling picnics.
GC - I had never been to this local amusement park, but it’s definitely somewhere we’ll take our son when he’s older. No lines, no paying for parking (the big park we went to last week charged $10 per car!), no crazy commercialism - just good fun. Much better
July 18th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I have three children and we do not spend a lot of money on entertainment. We find free things to do and there are a lot of free things to do with your kids. An amusement park could cost a fortune with three children paying $1.00 per ride!
July 19th, 2008 at 11:04 pm