Saturday, November 5, 2011

Membership Savings

Today we went to a children's museum here in the Seattle area that we have a membership to. The membership was a gift, but I was thinking how much cheaper it really is to get a membership if you are going to go multiple times. Let's break it down.

I come with my two girls and admission is $7.95 per person. That's $23.85 every time. Sometimes my husband comes to, so we'll throw in an extra admission every couple of times. A basic annual membership is $85. So we would only need to come three times for our membership to pay for its self.

Let's take another local attraction. The Pacific Science Center is $14 for an adult (16+) and $7 for a child (3-5). The PSC is usually a whole family event for us so our cost would be $35 every time (since our youngest is under 3). Another thing is that you can throw grandparents into this family membership, so it could be $63 per visit if granparents were coming. An annual family membership is $80. For our family we would only need to come three times for our membership to pay for its self. If we included the grandparents (who often visit with us) it would only be two times. And if the grandparents are AAA members (10% discount) the membership would only be $72. It would almost pay for its self the first visit! I didn't even account for the fact that if you wanted to see an IMAX film you would need to pay $8 more per person.

Of course you need to ask yourself if you will actually use it or need it, and don't forget to think about transporation costs. Like I always say, break it down and see if it's worth it! Those pesky math skills that you never thought you'd need again come in handy.

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