under $40 bucks

so, i've been thinking about the times when i could check out $40 bucks

and have that get me through a weekend at least, but times have changed

and $40 bucks comes and goes pretty quickly with two kids in tow. i've been

thinking about challenging myself and figuring out ways to stretch $40 bucks

with two kiddo's. my first challenge was the orange county fair. i know people

who go to the fair and drop a $100 bucks easily in just a few hours. though i

have never done this, it's the fair and it can get pretty pricey. now, i know there are

some elements of the fair that people don't want to miss like the food, really how

often do you get the chance to buy a deep fried snickers bar? but, this is something

i can pass up, which leads to my first tip on spending under $40 bucks.

tip #1. don't buy food at the fair. fair food isn't very good. it's greasy and gross

and you'll probably get sick. we usually eat before we get to the fair or bring in our

own food. tip #2. know what you want to spend money on. if you know and your

kids know you're only going to buy certain things you won't be so tempted to spend

money. i know when we go to the fair we will spend $10 bucks on photo booth pics.

it's my thing, we've taken our pictures here every year since the mister and i have

been together. i also let the little miss know that she can choose one thing to buy or

do for $10. tip #3. do all the free stuff first. there are so many things to do at the

fair for free, the gardens, farm, petting zoo, all of the exhibits, livestock

competitions, etc... hopefully the kiddo's will be worn out after all that

and forget about the games and rides.

tip #4. go on a donation day. the oc fair has designated wednesdays for their donation

day, which means they choose a certain type of item you can donate each week.

on the week we went it was books, which was great because i needed to clean

out my book shelf for the new school year. we donated enough books to get

four tickets. even though the kiddo's were free to get in i wanted the two

extra tickets because you get one free ride with every ticket. cool,

we got four free rides. tip #5. share. we all got a little thirsty while we were

looking around and the ice cold lemonade looked real refreshing, so instead of

buying one for each us, we just bought one and shared it. it quenched our thirst and

saved us $12 bucks. same with treats, buy one or two between your family and have

a little of each. with that i think i will say that these are my top 5 tips for spending

less than $40 bucks at the fair. if you live in or around the oc you have until

the 15th to check out it. here is a break down of what we spent:

lunch = $15 at in-n-out before we got to the fair

(includes our treat because we got shakes too)

parking = $2

(we parked across the street at the college and walked to the fair - tip#6)

admission = free

4 rides = free

photos = $10

lemonade = $3.50

face painting = $8

fun times = priceless...

the little fella enjoying the petting zoo before

we realized he was allergic to the animals

the gardens

photo booth pics

the little miss chose to spend her $10 on face painting

the little miss and the mister chose this as their free ride

it was worth it, she was super excited

i gave my free ticket to the little miss so she could have another ride

of course, we went to check out where my photo was displayed

not bad for $38.50 huh?