We went to the Toronto zoo yesterday – it was pretty good but since our kids are so young, I don’t think they get much out of it. It can be pretty expensive, however we used an Aeroplan gift card so it didn’t cost us much. I was telling Frugal Trader that I thought a zoo visit isn’t really worthwhile until kids are 6 or 7 – does anyone out there have any experience with this? Of course it doesn’t hurt to bring toddlers to the zoo – only that it’s a lot of money and hassle. Zoo money tip – bring ALL your own food. We bought 4 slices of pizza and it cost $18. It was good though (very greasy & salty). 🙂
Creative posts
One of the things I like the most in blog posts is creative topics – ways to save money when grocery shopping just doesn’t pique my interest. Here are a few posts that I thought were quite good and had creative topics:
- Pinyo from Moolanomy had a good post called “Never say we can’t afford it“. I’m not sure about the ‘never’ part but I tend to say this a lot even though it would be more accurate to say something about how it doesn’t fit in the budget or our financial goals.
- Ron from the Wisdom Journal wrote about the “left digit“. A very interesting post which talks about the effect of prices and how consumers don’t really roundup when comparison shopping.
- Weakonomics wrote about the Ikea effect and why his blog is so much better than this one (which isn’t hard).
- Jeff from Good Financial Cents had an entertaining guest post on the art of manliness blog (yes, there is such a thing) called How to be a financial stud.
And one other thing – MSN Smart Spending was kind of enough to feature one of my posts for the first time and they were very complimentary – Is that frugal tactic worth it?
Carnivals
Carnival of Cash Flow Consciousness
Carnival of Money, Wealth and Health
ABCs of Investing wrote about asset allocation for retirees.
8 replies on “LinkStuff For June 1 – Zoo Visit And Creative Topic Theme”
I don’t know the exact ages of your kids Mike, but from my experiences (when I was a kid and working with tots) a young child might not remember all the specifics, but the experience of seeing animals they might otherwise never interact with has a great developmental effect on young kids; especially if its an animal they really take to. All I remember from my first Toronto Zoo visit (4 or 5) was seeing Koala’s on loan from an Australian zoo and a tiger (my favourite animal). Everytime I’ve gone back I’ve had to see the tigers (still my favourite animal). Worst case you get to spend a great day with your family that you might otherwise miss out on and that’s probably the greatest thing they’ll remember.
We were going to take our 3 year old aughter to the Toronto Zoo over the weekend but thought it might be too cold.
I thought she might not get much out if it but she still talks about Canada’s Wonderland gets excited when we drive by … We went there last summer.
I think its a great experience for kids.
Thanks for the link love!
Brad – congrats on the Globe and Mail mention. My kids are 1 and 2.5 – they definitely won’t remember anything. I have fond memories as well from my first zoo visit at age 7.
tax Guy – the weather wasn’t bad – no rain at least.
Our youngest was pretty cranky yesterday which made the visit a bit more difficult.
You can become family members of the zoo which may help when they’re a bit older. You’d probably have to go 3 or 4 times before it pays off, but going off season can be fun. We were at a wildlife park in Ireland last week and with nobody there in rain got up very close to the animals. I’m 32 and love the zoo!
I can’t quite articulate why but the earnestness of that Art of Manliness blog makes me cringe. Better than average post there though.
Thanks for the twitter link! Yes, $18 for 4 slices of pizza sounds pricey. I remember visiting the Toronto zoo many years ago, and the Macdonalds combos were at least double the going price.
How many AP points did it cost you to bring your family to the Zoo?
Guinness – good point about the membership. Like Wonderland etc you don’t have to go very many times to make it worthwhile. Once the kids are 4 then it becomes worthwhile for us (kids 3 and under are free).
MDJ – 13,500 aeroplan points for a $100 entertainment card. The entertainment card is pretty limited though – the zoo, ballet (the real one), movie rentals etc.
I have a bunch of points (32k) that I’m going to eventually use to buy a $250 dining card which will be easy for us to use.
I used to value aeroplan points at about 2 cents each but they are so hard to use that they are practically useless for flights.
Thanks for participating in the Cashflow Consciousness carnival (next one is being held at Passive Family Income, I’m still looking for other hosts, too).
The zoo sounds just as expensive as the movie theatres. But I agree with Nurse911, the importance of being able to see and interact with animals is very important for the kids. Trips to pet stores and the SPCAs/Humane Societies could achieve some of that, though, too.