The Value of Memberships

Hey guys!! How are you?? We are plugging right along on our debt free journey, slow and steady wins the race.

I wanted to talk to you guys today about entertainment on a budget. One of our favorite ways to have fun and not spend a lot of dough is through memberships to different places. We actually have three of them and it has saved us tons of money! We always have a place to go to meet friends or take family from out of town. We have extra passes that came with each membership so we can take friends and family with us. Since we can invite them along we don't need to meet at a restaurant or any other place that would end up costing us extra, and since we can take a picnic along to each place, we save even more.

We have one for the zoo ; that we bought for Xander on his birthday. This zoo is so big! Instead of rushing around to see everything in one trip we now get to take our time and look at just a few animals a visit. We find many teachable moments at the zoo too. Xander (and even Hannah!) is learning so much and so fast.The zoo never really gets old either, because the animals are always doing different things!

We also have one to a beautiful nature center. I can't even tell you how nice it is to leave the city behind and take a walk in the woods when ever you want. Also, talk about learning opportunities! Xander is learning about trees, animals and plants and even how to catch frogs :D
There is also a serene beach. It's the prefect way to de-stress and unplug for a while. We don't bring our gadgets with us (except for my camera of course!) we just hike and enjoy the beauty of god's work.

The last one we have is for the  museum,.We buy this membership as a Christmas present to our family. We have been going to the museum for quite some time now (5 years) and it still isn't old! There is so much information in there I don't know if we will ever be able to see it and read it all!!We find this membership especially valuable in the loooong winter months in Wisconsin when it's too cold to be outside. It gives us a place to get out and walk and learn with out any extra money being spent.


We feel like with these 3 memberships we have the best of all worlds! We get to spend the whole day exploring different places and when we do the math it costs less than .50 a trip. That is hard to beat. Do you guys use memberships? What is your favorite way to spend your down time?