Summer fun on the Cheap

One of the things I love about my city is the library's summer reading program. The kids keep track of their reading hours and when they turn them in, they get stuff for free. Just this past week, my kids scored tickets to the Dallas Children's Theater (valued at a whopping $18 apiece, like I would EVER pay for that myself), tickets to the Texas Rangers' baseball game next weekend, tickets to the Nasher Sculpture Center, and only one ticket to the circus. The younger two need to catch up to the oldest in order to get circus tickets in the next few weeks, so hopefully the kids will all get to go for free. We also have six free kid's tickets to the minor league baseball team from some random place, and I have three tickets for the Texas Rangers from a rain delay game we attended a few months ago.

Meanwhile, we already had two free Six Flags tickets from the school reading program this past spring, but I hadn't planned to use them because even with two free tickets, a family trip to Six Flags is a huge expense. Then, while using my free Dallas Children's Theater tickets last night, I engineered a trade with a friend for one kid's Six Flags ticket in exchange for our Nasher Sculpture Center tickets. She wasn't going to use her Six Flags tickets either, for the same reason as me, and we didn't really need the Nasher tix because the museum is free on Thursday nights and we can just go then. She wanted the Nasher tix because they can also be used at the Museum of Nature and Science, to which we have a season pass and do not need tickets.

Confused yet?

Anyway, I can get a $24 adult Six Flags ticket through the Girl Scouts, and I plan to take the kids next week when Greg is out of town. He kind of wants us to wait for him to go with us, but frankly that would double my cost and all we're going to be doing is hanging out in the kiddie section anyway, and there is no need for both of us to do that. We'll see.

So yeah, I am the Queen of Cheap and Free this summer. Earlier this week, a friend offered to babysit for me for free, and Greg and I went out to dinner and used a gift certificate. cha-ching! I also have a gift certificate to a spa that I need to use, if I can find it. Plus I got a free oil change because I complained about something last time I took my car in, but I'm giving that to Greg because I am generous like that.

The kids also got three free drinks from Sonic, three free burgers from Whataburger, and a ton of free fries from McDonald's. In order to stop the constant begging to use all of the coupons, we went yesterday and had ourselves a little progressive dinner. They thought that was pretty funny. Thankfully, all of those restaurants are on the same street.

This is completely unrelated and certainly not free, but I read this article in our local paper and now I am seriously hankering for a road trip. Only one of those places is in my area, and it is 1 1/2 hours away, but I might give it a shot next week, we'll see.

So. That's your Cheapskate Report for this week. Anything fun going on where you live?