Planning Saves Money

A little planning can make even the simplest family outings more affordable, as well as more enjoyable. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to heed my own advice when we attended the county fair last weekend, a lesson I won’t repeat next year.

In less than three hours, our family of four went through $50 eating meager sandwiches, sharing drinks, and paying for a total of four rides. I grew more exasperated when I learned that we could have eaten better and enjoyed more rides for the same amount of money if I would have planned ahead.

Fortunately, my low threshold for unnecessarily overspending has turned this into a good learning experience. Below is a list of little epiphanies (as well as common sense) that I discovered. Maybe others can benefit from my mistakes.

Tips for Saving Money at the County Fair

1. Look in the paper AND online for admission costs, discounts, or free days. County or fair ground officials are likely to have a website with information. We missed out on the free admission day for kids.
2. If admission prices aren’t listed, call the fair office. A number should be available through the county. The website for our fair didn’t list admission costs.
3. Get a fair schedule with events and prices listed. Events may be discounted at certain times of the day. Often the best prices are earlier in the day. If the fair schedule isn’t available through the paper or online, contact the fair office.
4. If the fair does not list discounts or deals, call the fair office and ask about any specials available. Also check with local organizations that have food booths. For example, the Knights of Columbus might sell two for one ice cream on a particular day. This is a good way to support an organization while saving money.
5. Look for free or discounted ride days. Rides eat up a lot of the budget, especially if you have more than one child. After paying $3 a ride, I learned about the “10 rides for $10” special that ran earlier that week.
6. Avoid the big vender concessions if you want to hold on to your cash. We wanted to give money locally as much as possible so we did this, but we also found it was much cheaper to do so.
7. Search all the food tents, or as many as possible, before choosing a vendor. Check out some of the buildings or tents off to the side that may sell concessions. This was a big mistake for us. The 4-H groups sold food for a fraction of the costs of any of the other concessions. We stumbled upon this after we had already eaten. Later, however, we came back and got ice cream cones for $1.25 each.
8. Find out parking costs and alternative parking arrangements ahead of time. This was not an issue for us since parking was free. Busy, high-traffic areas, however, are likely to charge for parking. Don’t underestimate the cost of this.
9. If no free/discounted ride day is available, plan for expensive rides, and prepare your children accordingly. It’s just a fact of life: Thirty second rides cost more than they are worth. Let kids know ahead of time there is a limit to the number of rides they can go on.
10. Choose rides or activities that are more interactive. Not only do these tend to last longer, my children seemed to get more out of these activities than the passive whirly-rides that spin them around in circles for ninety seconds. My kids enjoyed the maze of mirrors better than any of the rides, and it lasted three times as long.
11. Bring a backpack with bottled water. It’s likely to get hot and everyone needs to stay hydrated. You can still patronize local clubs and businesses for the typical fair treats like lemon shake-ups. But there is no reason to spend $3 for a bottle of water. (I’d also recommend bringing wipes/hand sanitizer. Fairs aren’t the cleanest place. It’s also helpful after petting the animals.)
12. Spend time petting the animals and looking at the exhibits. This shouldn’t cost anything. Often a 4-H or FFA group will have an interactive exhibit about farm life that even very young kids can participate in. My kids loved petting the goats and sheep. Also, many of the 4-H exhibits have really come a long way. There really is something for everyone. My son loved the lego and rocket displays. My daughter was fascinated by all the different art projects.

County fairs can be a great experience for the whole family. Not only is it fun, it’s a great place to learn about animals and farm life. It might even open new doors for your kids. The 4-H clubs hold many opportunities for children to learn and gain leadership skills.

Madagascar entertains, but prepare yourself for some disturbing stereotypes, along with a good dose of over-the top-hostility from a cantankerous, old woman. The hostile old lady wields a purse like a javelin, usually targeting poor Alex, the theatrical dancing lion. Throughout the movie she is either throwing punches or on the receiving end of repeated blows. It’s like watching a hybrid of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and a dirty street fight. Not only was it way over the top, it went on forever. At one point, I wanted to scream “Enough! I get the point.”

The movie is PG, so parents are given notice. But the PG rating doesn’t excuse poor taste or bad judgment in a children’s movie. Kids shouldn’t be laughing at human punching bags. I felt some relief when the elderly woman’s aggression was directed at a Machiavellian lion, who had used trickery to conquer the peaceful savannah and then cruelly banished Alex.

Thankfully, young children probably won’t pick up on many of the worn stereotypes. Adults are the intended audience here, part entertainment and part message. The message is clear to adults, zebras who all look the same and can’t be recognized one from the other. Disturbing, and maybe not so funny. But like it or not, the filmmakers use stereotyping for a reason.  Children are entertained, while adults look on with that “Aha” recognition of real life stuff. (Even if it’s real life stuff that makes us squirm.)

Once you get past all of this, the movie has some good scenes and a pretty decent cast. Bernie Mac (who sadly died this year) plays Alex’s dad; Ben Stiller, Alex; Jada Pinkett, the hippo who realizes she is more than the sum of her voluptuous parts; Chris Rock, Marty the Zebra; and David Schwimmer, the giraffe who is secretly in love with the hippo. My daughter loved the dancing scenes–nothing like lions performing street dances in Africa. My son laughed a little too much at the kickboxing old lady for my comfort. And for the adults, there were monkeys blackmailing a dictatorial penguin for his tryst with an unknown, female bobble-head. Hmmm…How often has this been the downfall of powerful penguins men?

Then again, maybe my I’m reading too much into this. After all, it is just a kids’ movie, isn’t it?

A trip to a pumpkin farm always signals the end of fresh local produce.  Matt pulled out the last few carrots from the garden and we said good-bye to the lettuce which hung in surprisingly well.  But the last hurrah was finding a farm to pick out our pumpkins and enjoy some hot cider.  For us, that’s when the fat lady sings. 

To celebrate–or commiserate–this end, we spent a cold Saturday selecting pumpkins at a local pumpkin patch.  Being hardy Wisconsonites, we handled it without too much whining.  (Any whining that did occur, probably came from me.)  Before we left,  we rewarded ourselves with cider and donuts, making it worth every toe-numbing second. 

The local pumpkin patch is really not that local for us.  “Down on the Farm” is in the southwestern part of Wisconsin in a little town called Fayette, right near Dodgeville.  While Dodgeville is listed as the address,  you reach the farm before hitting the city limits of Dodgeville if your coming from the east.  Highway G winds through the quiet little farming community of Fayette, the signs taking you right to “Down on the Farm”.  It took us about forty-five minutes to reach Fayette from the Monroe area.  

My son had already been to the farm on a school field trip this year, and my daughter had gone last year with her preschool when we lived in Illinois.  Both kids loved it.  After seeing it for myself, I understood why. 

The place offers a lot of things to do, including a corn maze, hay rides, play area, gift shop, and of course pumpkins.  I thought the gift shop was pretty reasonable.  We skipped the corn maze because it takes about thirty five minutes and I didn’t think Little Miss would make it through because of the cold (or maybe I wouldn’t make it through).  The kids enjoyed playing the bean bag toss and climbing over the bails of hay in the play area.  The farm also puts on an annual one-night haunted house. 

The two owners, Joann and Monique, run the farm more as a hobby than a money making enterprise.  I find this a little sad.  They put so much work into it, and it is so well done, they deserve to profit from it.  Unfortunately, I think so many local businesses and growers make just enough to cover expenses, if they’re lucky.  It’s a great service to the surrounding communities and tourists, and  since its on the way to Dodgeville, it really wouldn’t be that out of the way if you’re in the general area and wanted to make a day of sight-seeing and shopping.

We spent the afternoon carving pumpkins and roasting pumpkin seeds.  I had forgotten how sticky and time-consuming it was to pick through the seeds, rinse them, and then roast them.  Good thing we only do this once a year.