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I am so excited that spring has arrived! 

Yeah, you guessed it.  We are on our fourth or fifth day of lovely spring weather.  And today, there's nary a cloud in the sky.  It is just stunningly beautiful.  It's a day made for... playing hooky!  Oh yeah, I've decided to take most of the day off to spend it outside with the kids.  We're thinking about visiting the zoo and saying goodbye to the elephants before they head off to their new homes in Tennessee at the Elephant Sanctuary and the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.

My kids love the zoo.  We have a membership and visit all of the time.  The membership makes sense from a financial perspective.  The cost per ticket for my husband and I is $16.95.  For the kids, it's $13.95 for each of Katie and Amy.  Charlie is free.  Parking adds another $10.  If you do that math, it's pretty steep - a whopping $71.80 for a family visit.

For only $89, though, you can get a Family membership.  That means free admission throughout the year plus free parking.  What a deal!  And it gets better...  The zoo has reciprocal agreements with other zoos and aquariums (aquaria?  that sounds funny) around the country which means admission to those plans is either free or reduced.  This has come in handy on family trips - we got in for free at the Pittsburgh Zoo and the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher with our Philadelphia Zoo membership.

We've had similar results at museums.  By joining the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Academy of Natural Sciences, we've saved tons of money on repeat and reciprocal visits. 

And wait, it gets better.  Usually, memberships come with perks such as cool newsletters and activities for the children.  You get first dibs on new exhibits and special features.  Sometimes parking is free or reduced and there are discounts in the gift shops (our discount for the Philly Zoo gift shop was also good in Pittsburgh).

And (you were waiting for this bit, weren't you?) a portion of your membership is often tax-deductible as a charitable donation whereas straight admission is not. 

The best part of the memberships isn't the actual dollars saved, though.  It's the freedom that comes along with a membership.  And here's what I mean...  If I've paid $71.80 for a visit to the zoo, my husband is going to want to get his money's worth.  With three kids under the age of five, you can't predict when and where the meltdowns are going to be.  If we're in the zoo for 20 minutes and Amy falls asleep, or it rains, or someone gets chilly, or if we need to leave for any reason, it's tough to leave if we've just plopped down a load of money.  But with a membership, we can just leave.  The membership is paid whether we stay 20 minutes or two hours.  And we can always come back later... for free.  And if the day has been long and we want to pop in for half an hour just to pass the time, I don't worry about it.  This freedom to stay as long or as little as you want?  It's priceless.

The next time you're in a zoo, museum or aquarium with your family, ask about a membership.  Check out the reciprocal museum/zoo/aquarium list.  Ask whether any portion of the membership is tax-deductible.  Make a few mental calculations - don't forget to consider the intangibles like the freedom and flexibility that membership brings.  And then join the club, you'll be glad that you did!