memberships

[Outdoorsygal]

We had a neighborhood family pool membership for $400 a year when our son was ages 4-10 (1991-on). Our son had many friends thru it to so though we used it about 2.5 months out of the year, it was more than worth it.

I joined a gym a a few times. Kept getting followed around and hit on so never went back after a few times. That's likely normal for most young people. Now I am older so it would probably be ok, nothing like before for sure...but am still thin enough it might still happen. Just seems too creepy now if it happened. Everyone has gained so much weight here that even though a person would normally appear average 30 years ago, that same person of the same age, would look pretty good nowadays. My guess is the obesity epidemic isn't likely any worse here in California than other States

[Outdoorsygal]

We haven't had any memberships at all, but we're moving up to Alaska in the next month, and when we went up to find a house, we did get a zoo membership for our family. Our 1y/o son enjoys seeing animals, and we've been told that especially in the winter (and also in spite of it...brrrr....), you need to just get out & do things. We're going to make the zoo one of those "things", since it's easy and kid-friendly. The cost is quite reasonable, at $80 for our family, which pays for itself after 4 visits...we've been once already, and plan/hope to go at least once a month. If we find that goal to be unreasonable/unattainable, we may not continue our membership.

I've considered memberships for a variety of places, though.
- If OKC had a better selection of shows we were interested in (4-5 vs. 1-2 per year), I would have long-since gotten a membership with one of the performance houses.
- I'm not a sports fan... but as a Christmas gift, I bought my brother season tickets to our local minor league baseball team, and he loved it.
- If we lived closer to a theme park (closest is Six Flags in Dallas, 3hrs away), we would likely do a membership there. Notably, my brother & his wife (same brother as the baseball tickets) DO have season passes there, and have been there 2 or 3 times since they got married in April.

In the end, these types of memberships depend on 2 things: (A) your interest in going to them regularly; and (B) the likelihood of you actually using your membership regularly. If both of these are favorable, a membership can be a great option.

If it is ok to ask, where are you moving in Alaska? We love that show Alaska the last Frontier.

[kork13]

If it is ok to ask, where are you moving in Alaska? We love that show Alaska the last Frontier.

Anchorage area. Never seen that show (we don't really watch much TV), but as nice as I'm sure it is, it probably still doesn't truly demonstrate how gorgeous it is up there. I've been up to Alaska a few times, and I'm always impressed by how simply beautiful it is.

[scfr]

Can't believe I forgot to mention DH's golf membership! It's only our biggest non-essential spend.

He uses it all the time (every day he's home). For him it provides fun, exercise, stress relief, and social interaction. So it's worth every penny.

[ladonnarosso]

We have a 3 year old, so we have a membership to the Museum of Life and Science that's about 30 minutes away. It pays for itself since we can take friends and go at least once a month. It's great to have to entertain him on day when the weather may not be nice or we need to do something different! It was Christmas gift though, so we didn't purchase it ourselves.

[sv2007]

We have memberships to the 3 local amusement parks, a local museum, a semi-local aquarium, and a gym. If you visit the place more than 3x per year, you've got your money's worth. Plus, many places let us bring a friend and give us discounts with the membership.

I'd think people would just make the calculations and buy memberships when financially sensible (although 4 of the above places try to play on donation too).

The thing I'd like to see is the places giving current members a discount for the next year's membership (as we've been annual members for the last many years). But none do. Many places actually reward new members but gives nothing to renewing members. Oh, wait, one park just this year is giving renewing members some benefits.

[sv2007]

When we had small kids we had a lot of memberships. It was a very frugal way to entertain the kids. & then always had something to do that didn't cost money "right now".

Today we don't have any memberships. I might get a museum membership this month, but was thinking of that more from a simplicity and "supporting the museum" standpoint. It wouldn't be to save money. I was thinking more of a nice treat for the adults, also. Which may be some of why we haven't had any memberships for a while. The kids have been more busy with grade school and their own things. It's only now that we are starting to go out more without our kids.

I think holding memberships isn't too much tied to kids. What is tied to kids is the type of memberships.

When we were childless, we were subscribers to many of the area's theaters/production companies. Now we have these museum and theme park memberships.

Memberships are just a way to save money if you go to the venue often. I don't think I've ever joined anything in these cases just out of kindness.

[disneysteve]

Memberships are just a way to save money if you go to the venue often. I don't think I've ever joined anything in these cases just out of kindness.

Memberships also often have other perks. There might be member-exclusive events. Members might get first shot at tickets for special events or there might be a member-only preview before a new exhibit opens to the public. Members also may get a discount at the venue like at the gift shop or in the restaurant.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Agreed with kids it makes it easy to go like MM said right now without it costing anything. Went to the aquarium this week. And next week doing a zoo members only event. I've found that having the membership makes us more likely to go and more likely just enjoy it without pressure that we aren't getting our "Money's" worth .

I also take advantage of the members only events.

[FLA]

I have a membership to our local rep theater. They start you off really cheap, like 6 shows for $50 (it costs more to park, lol), then raise it a little each season. It is the only thing my terminally ill mother still tries to do no matter how bad she is feeling. It makes me happy to watch her face during the plays.

I love our little rep theater. Our big theater is now selling tickets for over $200 for some shows. That's ridiculous for the size of our city and makes it nearly impossible for the average family to attend.