Purchasing a membership is one way you can save, and still enjoy getting out of the house. Reciprocal memberships are memberships you can purchase to a museum, garden or other attraction that gives you the benefit of getting you into similar places.
For instance, this membership to The Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia grants you access to over 150 children’s museum in the US. No kids? No problem! There are memberships to gardens, botanical centers, science centers, etc. that may have the same benefits. Whatever your taste is you are sure to find some kind of museum or attraction that offers admission to other local, national or worldwide places.
Tip: Another membership that has saved us money is Amazon Prime. You can read my review of Amazon Prime or just go ahead and Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
You will often get FREE admission, but check with the organizing body, like the American Horticultural Society’s website. With a little digging you may be able to find a less expensive membership to a reciprocal museum or garden at some other location for less than you would spend on your local museum. I personally would rather support my local museums or gardens even if it means spending a few extra dollars.
We have used this tip time and time again to a huge cost savings. I would estimate we’ve saved over $1,000 in the last 5 years. This was a HUGE savings when we traveled to Baltimore last year with the kids. We got into the Children’s Museum, and the Science Center for FREE! It saved us over $200 in admission fees.
Learn more: Use Membership Rewards For Holiday Shopping
My favorite part of using these memberships though is it gives us something constructive to do with our time, and memberships force us to get out of the house and go DO something more often.
Don’t forget to do the math! With 6 people a membership usually pays for itself pretty quickly, like our recent trip to the Philadelphia Zoo. We would have paid $106 plus parking, but instead I bought and printed out our membership for $99 which included free parking. We’re planning on heading back this month, so we’ll have saved over $100 in just 2 trips!
Tip: If you are traveling a lot with kids these Mabel’s Labels Bag Tags are a very handy and easy way to tell which ones are yours. Plus, they have great labels for anything you can think of!
Is a membership worth my money?
Here’s a simple way to figure out how many trips it will take to make membership worth your money.
$ cost of tickets x # of people= $ cost for 1 visit
$10 x 4= $40
$ cost of membership/ $ cost for 1 visit=#of visits to pay for membership (round up)
$100/$40= 3 (rounded up)
I hope you find this tip helpful! If you do I would appreciate it if you would pass it on. (there are links at the bottom of the post for you to share with various social media tools)
If you have memberships, what memberships do you have, and do they offer reciprocal membership?
Kelly
Learn more: Hacks To Help You Have An Awesome Year
Great advice.
I did a post a little while ago called “Consider Lifetime Subscriptions.” Your post is discussing annual memberships, but some venues offer lifetime passes!
After some research I came up with an “average” (I didn’t really do an average.. it was more an anecdotal judgement call) of about $500 per person. Some places just offer annual memberships, though.
Math for $2,000 Lifetime subscription for 4:
($2,000 lifetime divided by $115 per visit = Break-even point)
17.4 visits = BEP
Great advice.
I did a post a little while ago called “Consider Lifetime Subscriptions.” Your post is discussing annual memberships, but some venues offer lifetime passes!
After some research I came up with an “average” (I didn’t really do an average.. it was more an anecdotal judgement call) of about $500 per person. Some places just offer annual memberships, though.
Math for $2,000 Lifetime subscription for 4:
($2,000 lifetime divided by $115 per visit = Break-even point)
17.4 visits = BEP
We used our Philadelphia Zoo membership to get in free to the local Zoo on Mother’s Day. Love it!
We used our Philadelphia Zoo membership to get in free to the local Zoo on Mother’s Day. Love it!
That’s great Sheila!
I just looked up the benefits to some of the places I want to visit in San Francisco to see if any other local places are reciprocal and I found a few.
Hope you are able to use the benefits to your advantage.
That’s great Sheila!
I just looked up the benefits to some of the places I want to visit in San Francisco to see if any other local places are reciprocal and I found a few.
Hope you are able to use the benefits to your advantage.
Liz, I have heard from many people that you can, but I have yet to purchase a membership to a cheaper venue specifically to use it at a more expensive local venue.
I have had success using our memberships in that way though.
I believe you can purchase a $100 membership to Hands-on-House in Lancaster that will also get you into Please Touch Museum, but I have yet to try it personally.
Liz, I have heard from many people that you can, but I have yet to purchase a membership to a cheaper venue specifically to use it at a more expensive local venue.
I have had success using our memberships in that way though.
I believe you can purchase a $100 membership to Hands-on-House in Lancaster that will also get you into Please Touch Museum, but I have yet to try it personally.
A timely article for me–I just purchased a membership to our botanical gardens. I discovered that this membership entitles me to go to other botanical gardens in the U.S., although I’m not sure about the restrictions.
A timely article for me–I just purchased a membership to our botanical gardens. I discovered that this membership entitles me to go to other botanical gardens in the U.S., although I’m not sure about the restrictions.
Hi Kelly! Have you found any memberships that you can purchase for inexpensive venues, that are then honored by more expensive venues? Hope that makes sense.
Just wondering if we were planning a trip to an Aquarium that would cost us $100 to visit, if they might honor a membership from another venue that costs only $80 for the year.
Good tips!
Hi Kelly! Have you found any memberships that you can purchase for inexpensive venues, that are then honored by more expensive venues? Hope that makes sense.
Just wondering if we were planning a trip to an Aquarium that would cost us $100 to visit, if they might honor a membership from another venue that costs only $80 for the year.
Good tips!