My Frugal Friday Tip: Purchase a pass or membership each year and have year long fun for the price of one or two visits.When we purchased a family membership to a local planetarium two years ago, we found out that our $50 was worth a lot more then we thought. Apparently our planetarium is a member of the Association of Science - Technology Centers. This organization has a passport program that allows you to take your local membership and visit almost any one of the other 200+ passport member locations all over the world for free! (Local restrictions apply.)
When we went to Acadia National Park in Maine last summer, we found that the National Parks Service has a similar membership. For $80, you can visit all the national parks and a lot more for a year. The general FAQ has a list of places you can use it.
Later last summer we took our planetarium pass and went to the Boston Museum of Science and the Children's Museum. With our family of six, we would have spent almost $200 for the day, but it didn't cost us anything except the $16 all day parking fee at the MOS (and 50¢ a mile for travel.) But that's not the best part. We found out that not only is the Children's Museum part of the ASTC passport program, they belong to the Association of Children's Museums reciprocal pass program as well!
When I Googled, I found there is a North American Reciprocal Program for art museums. I'm sure there have to be more organizations like these.
A Bonus Tip: When figuring out which place you want to purchase your membership from, ask for their yearly fees and if local restrictions apply. In our case with the MOS and planetarium, it doesn't. When our membership to the planetarium expires, it's more advantageous for us to get a membership to the MOS because it includes OmniMax theater passes. We love the Omni! Check out the bang for your buck.
We love the planetarium and their programs. We have definitely gotten our money's worth! Our trip to Boston last summer was the icing on the cake. At this point, we've only used our park pass for Acadia. We're about $10 in the red. I want to hit historical Boston later in the spring and use our national parks pass with some of the sites there. That will make it well worth the money!
Don't forget to visit Biblical Womanhood for more Frugal Friday tips!
5 Nice Notes:
We love memberships like this...they really do save a ton!
Tracy
www.LinesFromTheVine.com
We have 7 children, so getting memberships usually ends up costing us less than the regular ticket price for ONE visit to zoos, museums, etc!
Great tip! We have membership to our zoo and our Museum of Science and History. They have similar programs where you can go to different zoos and museums across the country. With our family of 7 it saves us a ton of money and gives us something to do on a sunny or rainy day. :)
This is a r great tip. We also do the same with our zoo membership and our aquarium membership. We bought the Niagara Falls aquarium membership last year for $40, for a family of 6. We went to Mistic aquarium in CT for less than half the cost last year b/c of this. It pays to look around and see what is included in the memberships package. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, this is great for larger families. Thanks for all the links!!
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