Thursday, April 7, 2011

Frugal Friday: Zoo Pass

Whew! Now that's a picture with a lot of flash on it :) Thanks babe! Sooooo it's Frugal Friday, and I'm posting about becoming a zoo member (if you live in phoenix- but I'm sure it's still a deal in other states as well). We became members about 3 weeks ago, and have gone twice! It has been a BLAST! They opened up a really cool splash pad area with a cavern type cave and lots of shade for the parents- this was defintely Ellie's favorite part! We're headed back to the zoo again tomorrow, and hopefully I'll take some fun shots of her water adventures :) Wondering how this is a definite deal if you have kids??? Wonder no longer! Here's the breakdown: If you go to the zoo and pay to get in it costs $18 per adult and $9 per child. Eek! That's $45 if both parents are going and you only have 1 kid. Pricey pricey. If you become a member, you pay $80 for the entire year! This includes 2 adults to get in and any children 2 years old or under. Plus they give you 2 free admission tickets for other guests. Score! Adam and I figured this was a good deal considering that Ellie is now interested & can really enjoy the zoo, and we figured we'd go at least twice this year. Thus paying for the membership completely! So instead of going twice, we can go anytime we'd like. Another bonus: You don't have to go and exhaust yourself by staying the entire day to get your money's worth! Both times we have gone, we have stayed 2-4 hrs and it was just perfect. We still had energy to do other things once we left and it wasn't overkill. Also, Adam thought I should include in here how we paid for this membership since there's no "become a member of the zoo" envelope in our budget. We allot ourselves $40 for "entertainment" each month. This is mainly for us to go out on dates (and that doesn't go very far if we spend it all on going out to eat and getting a full meal- which is why we either don't go out to eat, or do the appetizer thing!). ANYWAYS, we sacrificed our whole envelope in that category ($40) to pay for the membership, and used some money that Ellie & Claire's grandma sent to fund the rest- what a great way to spend grandma's money, aye?! :) Definitely worth the sacrifice on our part too, because he and I have been having a ton of fun on our outings. So there you have it. Go! Get a membership. Even though summers seriously SUCK in Arizona and you won't be seeing our faces anywere NEAR the zoo for those 4 months, there are another 8 months that you could literally go every. single. darn. day. if you wanted to! Here are a few zoo pictures:
Ellie & Farmer Jed (or Shed as Ellie says) She LOVES the farm area!!! Daddy and Ellie checking out the not-so-pink flamingos! Daddy & Ellie. Not sure why Ellie is looking so mysterious, but it's cute either way! Love, Krystle

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