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Save Money on Entertainment with Reciprocal Museum Passes

November 25, 2021 | Leave a Comment

Save Money with Reciprocal Museum Passes

Recently, I took my children to our local art museum. It was the first time we went, and we enjoyed it. Buying a yearly pass was twice the cost of one-day admission, so we decided to upgrade. We knew we would be back, so the passes will pay for themselves after our next visit. But then, I found out the passes offer us reciprocal admission to many museums around the country! Those passes will save us a lot of money and give us an affordable entertainment option throughout the year.

What Museum Associations Offer Reciprocal Passes?

The museum we bought the yearly passes for is part of the North American Reciprocal Museum Association (NARM). There are over 1,175 museums in this network, all of which we have free access to with our museum pass. These museums are in the United States, Canada, Bermuda, El Salvador, and Mexico. In our state alone, there are 12 museums to which we will have access.

NARM is just one of many museum networks. You can also choose from the following organizations:

Art Museum Reciprocal Network (AMRN),

Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) Travel Passport

Time Travelers (This pass offers free entry to some participating museums, but others only offer discounted entry with the pass.)

Smithsonian Affiliates, (Note that not all museums on this list choose to participate in the reciprocal agreement. While there are seven museums on this list in my state, only one participates in the reciprocal agreement.)

American Horticultural Society (AHS),

Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), (Membership gives you 50% off at most zoos and aquariums on their reciprocal agreement.)

Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums (ROAM),

Association of Children’s Museums (ACM), (Membership gives you 50% off the 200 children’s museums in the reciprocal agreement.)

Museum Alliance Reciprocal Program (MARP)

How to Save Money with Reciprocal Museum Passes

If you want to get the most for your money, choose the reciprocal program your family will use most frequently.

As mentioned above, read the fine details. Some reciprocal programs get you free admission to any of the participating programs. Others only offer discounted admission. Some have many participating museums in your state, others only have a few.

If you’re planning on taking a vacation during the year, check which programs have museums you’d be interested in visiting during your trip. Using a reciprocal pass can be an excellent way to reduce your vacation costs.

If You Can’t Afford a Museum Pass

Save Money with Reciprocal Museum Passes

Photo by Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash

Buying a season pass to just one museum in one of these reciprocal associations can make visiting museums throughout the year extremely affordable. However, some people cannot afford a season pass to even one museum. For those individuals, consider the Museum for All program.

Museums for All offers SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipients free or discounted admission to 700 museums throughout the United States. Where I live, if I go to a local science museum with my three kids, I will pay $30 for admission. However, a SNAP recipient will just pay $12 for her and her three kids to enter, so the savings can be significant.

Final Thoughts

I hope these strategies help you save money on entertainment with reciprocal museum passes. We’re excited we’ll be able to visit our local museum several times this year AND visit other museums in our state that are part of the same group.

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Melissa Batai
Melissa Batai

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in Arizona where she dislikes the summer heat but loves the natural beauty of the area.

Filed Under: Family Time, Money and Finances, Stuff to Do Tagged With: entertaining kids, Entertainment, Frugal, Museum

Save Money & Keep Kids Entertained by Rotating Streaming Services

September 23, 2021 | Leave a Comment

Rotating Streaming Services

If you’re a parent, you probably feel like your life is constantly juggling between caring for your family and working to make ends meet. It’s easy when it comes to entertainment because the options are endless, but this can add up in cost quickly. So if you want to save money and keep kids entertained at the same time, you can try rotating streaming services. With a variety of movies and TV shows, you’ll have something new every week without going over budget!

The Benefits of Rotating Streaming Services

Rotating streaming services offers three main benefits.

Save Money

If you have several streaming services, the costs can add up quickly. In our family, Netflix is approximately $15 a month, Hulu is $7 a month, Disney+ is $8 a month, and Peacock is $5 a month. Sure, each service is not unreasonably priced, but together, they add up to $35 a month. Keep in mind, we get the most basic of the basic services. If you want to pay more to avoid commercials or bundle streaming services, you’ll pay more.

Recently, we cut Netflix and Peacock, so our monthly streaming costs went down to $15 a month. The $20 savings doesn’t sound like a lot, but over the year, we’re saving $240.

Limit Boredom

How is this for irony? When my kids had all four streaming services, they constantly told me there was nothing to watch. Then, I cut Netflix and Peacock about four months ago. They dug around Hulu and Disney+ and found shows to watch. They were happy for about three months.

Once they started complaining, I cut Hulu and reinstated Netflix. They were so excited because during the time we weren’t paying for Netflix, several new seasons of their favorite episodes had dropped. Now, they are happily watching their favorite shows in the evening. However, my daughter is already planning when we should cut Netflix again and reinstate Hulu.

Maximize Your Usage

Rotate Streaming Services

When you have many streaming services, your kids can just gloss over what’s available. Because they have so many choices, sometimes they feel overwhelmed. I know as an adult, I used to feel overwhelmed by 200 cable channels when we had cable. Because there’s so much available, you don’t know where to start.

When you limit streaming services to two as we did, your kids have to dig deeper into each service to find shows they want to watch. This allows them to maximize what they get out of each streaming service.

Then, when it’s time to rotate, they can dig through the next streaming service. My kids have found shows they enjoy that they never would have tried if they continued to have so many streaming services available.

Final Thoughts

Streaming services are a luxury. Because each one is affordable, many people buy several streaming services at once. However, limiting and rotating streaming services can be better for your wallet and your kids. You limit their boredom, and they can maximize each streaming service. If you haven’t tried rotating streaming services yet, I highly recommend it.

Read More

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Melissa Batai
Melissa Batai

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in Arizona where she dislikes the summer heat but loves the natural beauty of the area.

Filed Under: Money and Finances, Parenting Blog at KidsAintCheap Tagged With: DisneyPlus, Entertainment, Frugal, Netflix

Do You Have Redudant Movie Subscriptions?

November 30, 2017 | Leave a Comment

Movie subscriptions can save you money over the theater but the savings evaporate if you sign up for too many of them.
[Read more…]

Jackie Cohen
Jackie Cohen

Jackie Cohen is an award winning financial journalist turned turned financial advisor obsessed with climate change risk, data and business. Jackie holds a B.A. Degree from Macalester College and an M.A. in English from Claremont Graduate University.

www.jackiecohen.xyz

Filed Under: Money and Finances Tagged With: Cable, Entertainment, Movies, Subscriptions, Television, TV

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Basic Principles Of Good Parenting

Here some basic principles for good parenting:

  1. What You Do Matters: Your kids are watching you. So, be purposeful about what you want to accomplish.
  2. You Can’t be Too Loving: Don’t replace love with material possessions, lowered expectations or leniency.
  3. Be Involved Your Kids Life: Arrange your priorities to focus on what your kid’s needs. Be there mentally and physically.
  4. Adapt Your Parenting: Children grow quickly, so keep pace with your child’s development.
  5. Establish and Set Rules: The rules you set for children will establish the rules they set for themselves later.  Avoid harsh discipline and be consistent.
  6. Explain Your Decisions: What is obvious to you may not be evident to your child. They don’t have the experience you do.
  7. Be Respectful To Your Child: How you treat your child is how they will treat others.  Be polite, respectful and make an effort to pay attention.
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