Budget does not mean Boring

Today we took our son out for a fun day before his Winter Break from school ends and he goes back to school on Tuesday. He had been asking to watch the movie Frozen for awhile, so we finally took him and let him choose from 5 other fun activities (Chuck E Cheese, Dave and Busters, Ice Palace, Jungle River Mini Golf or iTrampoline). He chose Dave and Busters, which was actually a last minute addition to the choices thanks to his dad suggesting it. I wasn't too thrilled that he chose Dave and Busters because I knew that out of the 5 options this was pretty much the most expensive choice.

Before we left the house I had estimated the amount that we would spend between going to the movies and Dave and Busters and made sure I had enough cash in my envelope to be able to pay for it all. I knew that if we were to resort to using our Debit card to pay for everything, we probably wouldn't have been very conscious of how much we were actually spending. But because we were using cash, it was very obvious how much money we spent as the envelope began to become lighter after each transaction. I'm happyto report that we actually came home with a little extra cash left over.

How We Saved Money

Throughout the day we made a few choices that helped us save a little bit of money. First, instead of paying for mochi crunch and candy to eat during the movie with our popcorn, we made a quick stop at Longs. There we only spent $7 and was able to each get candy that we liked. If we had purchased the mochi crunch and candy at the theatre's we would have spent well over $15.00.

The second way we saved a little money on our day of fun was through the use of the Consolidated Theatres Rewards card. Since we frequent the movies we make sure we use our card when purchasing tickets and food at the concession. On a previous visit we had earned a free movie ticket. We were already attending a Matinee savings us a few dollars, however since we had the free movie ticket, that saved us $9.25 for one of our adult tickets (On a sidenote: Ward Theater prices are a little higher that other Consolidated Theatres). When we purchased our tickets today, we received another reward of a Free Value Meal at the concession stand, however we chose to save that for a subsequent visit).

The next way we saved some money today was unplanned, when we went to Dave and Busters to reload our Power Card to be able to play some midway games, the cashier mentioned that if we were Military or affiliated with UH that we could get 20% off. I said no but told her that I am HPU affiliated and she said that's good enough for her and she gave us the discount. This saved us about $6.00.

After we played for awhile in the midway we had dinner downstairs in the restaurant and we ordered off the Eat and Play combo menu which gave us $20.00 on our Power Card and 200 tickets with our entrees. We decided to keep this money on our card for the next time we decide to go to Dave and Busters. Overall, we saved over $30.00 today.

Important Personal Finance Concepts

The reason I share this story is that there are a few personal finance concepts that I wanted to point out:

1. Plan ahead to ensure that what you want to do is within your budget
2. Using cash instead of cards helps to keep you aware of your spending
3. Using an envelope system helps you keep on track with your budget & keeps you from overspending. 
4. Use reward cards for things that you do often, what you earn can help you save lots of money over time. 
5. Take advantage of any discounts you can. 

The main point to this story is that even if you are on a budget doesn't mean you have to restrict yourself from having fun and treating your kids to a special day out. Of course we could have chosen fun activities that had little to no cost, however we were able to find the money in our budget to give him and us a little family fun.