Splurging on a museum trip

Image by jeremy_tarling via Flickr

With thousands of our closest friends at hand, little Paul Poorhouse and I braved our local science museum on Monday during the dreaded school vacation week.

Once upon a time, when we were solvent, we had a membership to this museum. And a membership is a good deal if you have a family of four or more and visit more than once a year.

It's not such a good deal if you're broke, though.

Our day at the museum lasted us from 3pm to 8pm and cost more than $120. For the two of us.

Why so much?  We paid for the museum admission, coat check, a special exhibit, a 3D movie, a snack at the snack bar, parking, and dinner at a diner on the way home.

We could have cut this substantially.

1. We could have used the free museum pass at our local library. Savings: $50
2. We could have packed our food. Savings: $30
3. We shopped on ebay after we got home instead of being at the mercy of impulse at the special exhibit gift shop. Savings: $30 [note: this was allowance money, not mine]

In all honesty, we would have had a much better time if we had chosen a less crowded day, but we wanted to have a special mother/son date, and this was his choice. But it was close, especially in the special exhibit. Not so fun, really.

Anyway, planning ahead would have made a real budgetary difference.