The Budget Bambino

If you’re fortunate enough to live close to a zoo or children’s museum, you may want to consider purchasing an annual membership. You can often get an annual membership for less than $100, and while this may seem expensive, let’s face it—taking the kids somewhere they can go a little wild is, well, priceless. Consider the benefits:

-- You can visit as often as you like. The cost of going to the zoo or museum is upwards of $40 for a family of four. With the membership, you can go as often as you like throughout the year, and you’ll be saving money after only your third visit.

-- You can stay as long as you like. If you spent almost $40 every time you visited the zoo or museum, you would probably feel as if you needed to get there early and stay all day. Having the membership means you can run over to the zoo for a picnic lunch, or spend an hour in the afternoon doing an art project at the museum. Best of all, if one of your children has a meltdown five minutes after you arrive (and you know that’ll happen as some point), you can leave without feeling like you’ve wasted money.

-- Many zoos and museums have reciprocity programs. This means that your zoo or museum membership can be used at other zoos and museums. We’ve benefited from the reciprocity programs when we travel, getting free admission to children’s museums and zoos around the country. It definitely makes vacation planning easier when you’re looking for family-friendly activities that fit your budget.

-- There are often additional discounts for members. Having a membership at the zoo or children’s museum usually means enjoying discounts on things like gift shop purchases, meals, birthday parties and special programs and exhibits, so you don’t have to say no all the time.

We bought our first membership more than three years ago, and each year we renew without a second thought. It saves us money, the children love it, and we always have something fun to do!