A Frugal Mom's Guide to the Fair!

My friend Tanya contacted me the other day and asked if we wanted to join her and her crew at the Orange County "Super" Fair. A bit hesitant because I have heard horror stories about the amount of money spent at this fair, she promised me that we would do our best to spend the least amount of money as possible. I agreed and we were off! Here's an account of how we "fared".

Our first stop was FREE parking! We found a side street across from the fair that was not permit only and found two spots! They were right next to this park so we let the kids run around while we got settled (and we contemplated just staying at the park) then we were off to find an entrance.
Kids 5 and under are FREE so we got all SEVEN kids in for FREE! Our tickets were only $5 (instead of 10) because we had a coupon and were there before 5pm!

Our two big rules for all these kids? 1) No rides and 2) No toys. Sounds harsh but believe me- it didn't matter- there were so many great FREE things to do!
For example- in the "Super Swine" tent we could look for porks in beans :) and play with the fun house mirrors.

We got to play with Mac n' Spam noodles too

Outside the Swine tent there were these huge oxen to look at followed by the horse exhibit!

We met this pretty horse named "Princess Aurora" and got to pet her and kiss her nose!

We also got to see and pet goats- lots of goats!

And brand new baby piglets!

We watched people take rides on the elephant

We got FREE balloons from the Marketplace and got front row seats for the Pig Races!

And they're off!

At the end of the races we got coupons for free bacon from Ralph's! LOL

Are you keeping track? So far I've spent the 5 bucks on my admission! That's it! woo-hoo!

The petting zoo was free (you had to pay for food- we didn't feed the animals)

Our crew!

So we finally broke down and bought some food (I brought in sandwiches for the girls so I got them french fries). The fair is famous for its Deep Fried food items- so Tanya and I tried the deep fried Reece's and Snickers bars.

It was good- but I would have been happy with a plain old snickers ($3.75 for the snickers and $3.50 for the fries). LOL

Then we hit the JACKPOT! We went to watch the dueling pianos and came across a booth that had FREE ice cream!!! Sure it was 9:30 at night- but how can you pass up free ice cream? Everyone got one and then to our delight- the kind men behind the booth gave us moms each an insulated cooler bag (along with a big wad of napkins!)

Happy, happy mommies!

Then I busted out the leftover glow sticks we've had sitting at home and everyone got two!

My girls were beyond tired at this point (Maddie asked me if the Super Fair had a hotel LOL!!) so we headed back to the vans with sugar-high, tired kids.

I'm telling ya- the good-byes are so sweet among triplets!

Love the expression between Jaden and Ashley below!

So our final score was: $12.25 out of pocket PLUS all those free goodies! The ice cream and cooler cost more I'm sure!! Very very happy mommies and very very happy tired kids that were asleep before we hit the freeway! We can't wait to go next year!