At the moment, we are trying to cut back on entertainment expenses due to our exorbitantly expensive trip to South Pacific in 2018. I was thinking about taking my parents to Disney in a few months, but decided against it. That’s an easy grand right there, when you factor in food and souvenirs for six people.
However, recently my husband made some extra money due to working overtime, so we decided to splurge on one-day tickets to Legoland for just him and my son. My sister-in-law just took our daughter on a getaway, so we wanted to do something special for our boy as well. He is a Lego fanatic, as in he talks about Legos, dreams about Legos and plays with Legos all day long. Oh, and his favorite movie is “Lego Batman.”
I wrote about Legoland before and mentioned various ways you can save on tickets. If you are a family of four and plan to visit the park for just one day, your best bet will be taking advantage of BOGO promotion, where you buy one adult ticket at regular price and get child’s ticket free. You can find a valid code by checking sites like Retailmenot
That’s the promo I originally planned to use for my husband and son, but then Black Friday happened. Legoland was offering what they call Awesomer annual pass for $99 (regular price is $149). It includes unlimited admission to Legoland, free parking, 10% discount on merchandise and food, plus entry to various attractions in Orlando. Yes, I basically got suckered into an upsell.
So, instead of $99 we ended up paying $200. But wait, there is more! My husband gets super tired on weekends, there is a reason he got all that overtime pay recently. As a result, he sometimes gets sleepy at the wheel. Sure, Legoland is only one hour from our house, but still. The thought of him driving there multiple times in 2018 made me a little nervous. So, I decided to treat my father-in-law to an annual pass as well and make him the designated driver.
He does a lot of free work of us, as in mows the loan, repairs our cars and the list goes on. Plus, this pass would give him a chance to hang out with the boys. He was ecstatic when I told him and wanted to reimburse me. Nope, it’s our treat, grandpa.
<
p style=”text-align: center;”>This family is into Ford Mustangs, big time
Spending like there is no tomorrow
When it comes to stuff, my husband is definitely the spender in the family. He likes nice things and he is willing to pay for them. Few days ago, he was showing off his $100 leather iPhone holder that said “Made in SF” (made in San Francisco). To me, all it means is “I could have bought it from China at third of the cost.”
Anyway, during the day at Legoland he ended up buying an overpriced photo of him and our son on a ride. Not being satisfied with that, he got a Lego version of the photo as well. Then this happened:
Yup, he bought the stupid Lego Batcave set with 1047 pieces in it. He said he got 10% off with the annual pass. I asked him how much this thing runs on Amazon, and he reluctantly confessed that it was $10 less even when factoring in the discount. Then why not buy it later?!? His argument was that it wouldn’t mean as much. Come on! This makes no sense. The boy is already thrilled beyond belief.
Now I was feeling pretty stupid for getting them the annual passes. How many batcaves can our savings account handle?
Picking my battles
In my younger years I would pitch a serious fit over buying all of these souvenirs, and especially paying extra for stupid Lego batcave. This time, I decided to just let it go. Honestly, we are talking $10. And it’s not like he spent the money on a strip club. Being sensible with cash vs. living in the moment is a constant balancing act, but our kids are growing up so fast…
The older I get, the more I realize that some battles are just not worth fighting. My husband works hard and we have no debt aside from 0% loan on his Ford Mustang. Plus, look at all the cash I spend on travel. It would be hypocritical to get on to him when I just dropped $5,000 on a trip to South Pacific. With that money he could probably buy an actual full-size bag made in San Francisco!
As you can see, our Legoland splurge ended up costing us WAY more than originally planned. But it’s OK. Over the next twelve months, my son will get to spend a lot of quality time with his two favorite guys. And how can you put a price on that?
Author: Leana
Leana is the founder of Miles For Family. She enjoys beach vacations and visiting her family in Europe. Originally from Belarus, Leana resides in central Florida with her husband and two children.
We just got back from Legoland! It was great, everybody enjoyed themselves. Trip report coming shortly.
@Nick Oh nice! I’m looking forward to your review. It is a fun place for families, especially those with young boys.
My kids are terrified of roller coasters, even the kid ones, so we’ll probably get several more years from Legoland. I like Legoland because it’s small, and I can handle taking the kids along when they have a random day off school. I’m glad your husband got the toy for purely selfish reasons. My son sure had fun putting it together with your son, and I didn’t have to buy it! I love that Grandpa will get to tag along. What special memories!
@Jennifer I love Legoland! Originally, I was thinking about buying four tickets. But my daughter didn’t seem all that interested. Plus, I’m kind of happy that grandpa will get to go with the guys. I’m sure years from now my son will think fondly of this time.
Oh, and I’m glad your son got to put the bat cave together. It allowed my husband to take a nap! #winning
Your son is the perfect age for Legoland, they grow up so fast, so I think it’s money well spent. My kids absolutely loved Legoland, and if we lived near one we would get annual passes. My 10-year-old keeps asking to go back, but I don’t think he realizes that he’s probably outgrown the rides.
@Nancy That’s kind of what I was thinking, too! My daughter (who is almost 10) is not that interested in going back to Legoland. I think after this year we won’t be taking my son either, but we’ll see. He was SO excited about going to Legoland, I can’t even tell you. My husband recorded his reaction when they pulled up to the park, and it was really cute. It is a splurge, no doubt, but I feel pretty good about it. I did tell my husband that I will kill him if he spends more money on toys! LOL
God, I know how you feel! It always seems like right when you want to cut back, all these great ideas for things to buy or do suddenly come up, creating an avalanche of spending. Like you, it comes more from my husband–he always wants quality, whereas I enjoy nice things once I have them, but rarely want to shell out for them in the first place. I am usually willing to pass or get the cheap version. It was all too clear in our respective apartments before we lived together–his lovingly and tastefully furnished, mine more of a dorm. I happily moved to his place and sold most of my furniture, though!
And I definitely come up with “ideas” of my own sometimes too. Like suggesting we get some new towels (and I was shocked when he was like, “What about the ones we have?” You mean all the mismatched, stiff, stained ones?? But then he surprised me by bringing home an excellent brand I probably never would have looked at for an admittedly good price). Or switching the order of our hotels for an upcoming trip so we stayed in the normal one first, followed by the Park Hyatt on points, even though the normal place was slightly more expensive those nights, for a difference of (gasp) 20 EUR total, because I think we will enjoy that order more). And oh yeah, all the exotic travel we do (duh).
Yep, picking your battles is vital to marriage, as I’m learning. But that’s a whole other can of worms. 😉
@Debra I think we must be related somehow! I tend to keep mismatched, junky towels much longer than I should. And you saw what my living room looks like right now. My husband doesn’t mind that part so much, but when he is in public, he likes to look presentable. Hence, nice Ford Mustang and fancy man purses made in San Francisco. 🙂
I do have few things I like to splurge on, like nice quality sheets. Everything else in the house can be cheap for all I care. I hope to drive my minivan till the wheels fall off.
But yeah, marriage is about compromises. It’s give and take. My husband and I are two very different people. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think we balance each other out. Thank goodness he is not into miles and points hobby! I think one freak in the family is quite enough.