20 May
The Happiest $19 on Earth; A Frugal Day at Disneyland
Looking back at the things The Wife and I would do before we woke up and got a clue often amazes me. Like, flat out, mouth-hanging-open, what-the-hell-were-we-thinking, Amazes Me.
I was raised thousands of miles from Disneyland and although I have now lived in Southern California for nearly 15 years, going there is still a great treat. In the years before the kids were born we made several trips to the Magic Kingdom and spent $250 to $350 each time. That wasn’t blatant extravagance, mind you, but we just refused to watch what we were doing.
Parking, park tickets, a snack or two, lunch, some souvenir and potentially dinner all easily add up to a $300 day for two. All of it blindly put proudly on the ole Visa. Why not? We totally deserved it. Right?
Riiight.
Back in March dear friends wrote to let us know they would be at Disneyland this week and would love to see us and the kids. Oh boy. Serious temptation. My initial response was, “We’d love to, but there is just no way. It’s not in the budget.” Four of us? Disneyland? $40,000 in debt? You’re joking!
Perhaps we were emboldened by our recent frugal Hawaii trip, but we started to talk about it inspite of our gut reaction.
We put the call out to our friends and acquaintances who work for the park. Two graciously offered to “walk us in” as their guests, The Wife and I conjured picnic plans, the speech to the kids about “goodies” was practiced, and I started to think this might really be possible.
So yesterday The Wife was up early making cookies and sandwiches while I packed sun screen, snacks and water into a backpack and we did it! Disneyland on $19. Twelve of that was parking and, during the heat of the afternoon, I bought us two sherbets to share. That was it.
The kids were great. A brief talk about how lucky we are to have good friends and that we were there to enjoy them and the park, not buy stuff, paid off. They even walked all day! I saw 8 year-olds in strollers while proudly marching past with my 4 years-olds on their own feet.
We enjoyed our picnic lunch and homemade snacks while the kids made adventurous leaps like Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Railroad. There were a couple of times we had to remind the kids we weren’t there to buy things or (mild melt-down here) play in the arcade next to Star Tours, but the vast majority of the time was spent laughing and marvelling at the joy.
Driving away at the end of the day as two little heads quickly nodded asleep I was once again amazed, as I always am, at what the day cost. Only this time for a completely different reason.
the Dad
Posted by Lindsey on 05/20/09 at 6:56 pm
Very cool! I am quite impressed with the kids too. Mine melts down every time we go to the zoo over something, but she’s learning rapidly that many things are just “not in the budget” but that we can still have fun.
Posted by Tam on 05/21/09 at 5:22 pm
Now that we pay the kids allowance for chores.($3/wk that they must divide into “spend,” “save,” and “give” envelopes each week) we expect them to pay for their own “I wants.” This has put and end to all tantrums. Firstly, they never carry their money with them so when I say, “did you bring your money?” they mope, “nooooo.”
The boy is saving up for a Clone Troopers costume (Daddy is proud) and a few weeks ago the girl said, “we can put it all in give because I can’t think of anything that I need.” She did not say “want” she said “need.” I am proud of her. We did convince her to put a little in save in case something comes up. The point is that even after we have cut WAY back–like no Disney trips even though we have annual passes–she is not experiencing lack. That was just me….
Posted by the Dad on 05/21/09 at 5:45 pm
I saw a great post on a forum where the parents sat the older kids down with monopoly money equal to the monthly income and told the kids to spend it. First, of course, everything was on clothes and toys, them mom and dad asked about paying for the house… then utilities, etc…
The kids got very somber when they started pushing that “money” around and seeing how much really went everywhere. I thought it was a brilliant idea.
Posted by declutter on 05/26/09 at 3:07 am
Great job! Your post really highlights the fact that with planning ahead and work (making cookies, packing water, talking to the kids) you can really cut way back on spending. But it does not happen if we don’t do that planning and work!
Posted by AndrewBoldman on 06/04/09 at 8:26 am
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
Posted by the Dad on 06/10/09 at 6:47 am
Thank you for the support, Andrew. Good to have you!
Posted by Climbing Out » Blog Archive » No Birthday for You, Kids, We’re Getting Out of Debt! on 10/05/09 at 9:35 am
[...] won’t be the legendary $19 day we did last time, but it will be a lot less than throwing a party at home. No hotels for us. We’ll make the long [...]