Taking kids out and about on field trips, to outdoor events or museums can end up being a pretty costly way to spend time together as a family. Zoos, museums and indoor bounce gyms are a lot of fun though! To afford the fun activities, we try to save money on kids activities in easy ways.

Tips to Save Money on Kids Activities

With a few simple tips, you can feel good about the money you won’t spend when enjoying great activities with your kids.

Tip 1: Buy the annual pass if you think you will visit more than once.

This has been the best choice to save money on kids activities that are not free or cheap. It also allows us to enjoy attractions more than once.

With kids, we never see an entire zoo, children’s museum, or fair in one visit from start to finish. With an annual pass, I do not feel bad if we cut a visit short. We can go again and it will not cost us extra when we have an annual pass.

Tip 2: Visit kids activities that are free.

Do a quick search for free or cheap kids activities in your area.

I have put together a list of free or cheap activities for kids. You can also submit your favorites to be added to the list.

These fun events that do not cost much if anything at all are great to save money on kids activities.

Tip 3: Bring your own snacks into the park.

Most kid events and attractions let us bring a small cooler of snacks and drinks in with us. We pack sandwiches, cheese sticks, apples and a variety of healthy snacks the kids will eat. I make a bunch of ice with our counter top ice maker and pack our snacks.

This helps keep the kids from having hangry meltdowns – which can cause an early exit from a zoo or park. It also helps us save money on kids activities because other than our pass to get in, we spend no other money!

The food at most kid friendly activities is not very healthy anyway. With my counter top ice maker I always have enough ice to put in the coolers so our snacks stay cool and safe.

Do you have a counter top ice maker?

It makes packing healthy snacks and drinks so convenient. I can make a full ice bucket full of ice in about 20 minutes. I am so glad I got the New Air counter top ice maker. It is so helpful for saving money when we are out at family events. Use code JAIMI for 20% off NewAir ClearIce40.

Tip 4: Get the kids their own water bottles.

It is a big money saver to bring water rather than buy sodas or juices when out and about. We got smart.

After years of our kids just sipping from our water bottles, we bought each of them a stainless steel insulated water bottle.

I can add Vitality essential oils to flavor the water naturally-without added sugar. That helps the kids drink more water! It saves us so much money-and saves our kids’ health because we are not buying juices and sodas.

Adding ice to the insulated water bottles from our NewAir counter top ice maker makes it taste refreshing no matter how long we are out.

Tip 5: Take lots of photos rather than buy souvenirs.

My kids always want a toy when we visit out local zoo, children’s museum or amusement park. The gift shops are always positioned right as you are leaving the site.

While I am a mom very comfortable saying “no” to my kids when it is necessary, I do want them to have a memento of our time together at fun activities.

Instead of buying an over-priced stuffed animal that my child will play with for about 20 minutes, I take a lot of pictures when we are out at kids activities.

It is an easy way to save money on kids activities. Making photo books is more economical than toys. My children love looking at our family albums and scrapbooks. Photo books or looking through photos of your time at a special event is much more memorable and fun than a clutter-causing stuffed animal.

It really is simple to save money on kids activities. You can pay to enjoy some great children’s events and locations but don’t waste money on the things that do not matter like the junk food and money-wasting toys.

Save money on kids activities with these 5 tips and have more quality time and fun in the process.

What are your tips to save money on kids activities?

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In exchange for writing this post I received a NewAir Counter Top Ice Maker. All opinions are my own. Please view my disclosure for more info.