We’ve always half joked about how once we no longer had to spend our Monday-Fridays in the office, new (often free/low cost) activities come our way. This weeks post is about one example that recently happened in our world which demonstrates the Catch22 that once you no longer work, you end up spending less money – especially when it comes to kid related costs.
Our town offers free passes to the Telus Spark Science Centre. There’s no catch, they are completely free passes. You just shoot over an email with the date and number of tickets you need and poof, free access to an awesome science centre that normally costs $26/adult and $19/child or you can purchase an annual pass for $76/adult and $55/child. Parker is still considered an infant and free so this comes out to an annual savings of $207 for our house.
Most people in our town are too busy working to access the free Family Resource Network (FRN) facility and all the free weekly programming they have and thus they are out of the loop on this offering.
But that’s not what this post is all about. There’s an addendum.
Finn wants to be a scientist when she grows up so as you can imagine, we visit the science centre quite often. Because we have so much free time and request this pass frequently, Finn has become the FRN’s “science gal” whenever chatter about Spark passes comes up in their office. The staff there need to submit applications to get the free tickets each year and they use our family as an example of how important STEAM activities are to young kids, especially young girls.
While we were at one of the free weekly classes, one of the facilitators mentioned to us how they received one free week long summer camp position at Spark this year and they asked us if Finn would like to have the free pass.
Yaaa!
Summer camps aren’t typically on our radar as we are fine having the kiddos at home with us – that’s our life not just over the summer… I didn’t even realize they offered summer camps, but after speaking with the FRN staff we went to the Spark’s website to see the camp offerings to select which topic and date works best from our end.
Holy cow!
Guess how much a week of summer camp costs??
$340!
That’s bonkers, but hey, we’ll take it!
So now not only are we saving over $200 for the year with access to the science centre for our family, but Finn now gets to attend a sweet week of science summer camp! All thanks to having the time to access these awesome resources available to our community.
That’s it for today. A short and sweet story illustrating the power of FI.
Have you ever noticed that when you have more time, free or low cost activities come your way too? If so, please let us know in the comments below!
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Wowza! What a great example of a huge cost savings/perk of having free time as a result of FI/RE! Congratulations! 🤩
I live in NYC and have been able to attend free film screenings, live theater, and even participate in paid focus groups because of FI/RE flexibility. Happy Summertime & thank you again for sharing such a wonder-full win!
That’s amazing Damon! Thank you for sharing your experiences too and highlighting the power of time freedom 🙂
Way to go, Finn! Enjoy that summer camp! One step closer to being a scientist!
She’s pumpeddd! We’ll have to whip out the microscope before classes start
Free library arts and crafts activities for the kiddo here was much enjoyed 🙂
Yes!! We just attended our library’s Summer Reading Kick Off party and are enrolled in a few summer reading programs and a mindfulness class at the library. I wish more people utilized their library!
This is awesome. We’ve randomly stumbled upon free activities too. Time freedom is the best.
Thanks Maria! We were pumped for this lucky experience. Time freedom certainly is the best 🙂
It’s always shocked me how much summer camps cost. Lucky Finn to get a whole week for free! What a huge win for all of you. Yay!