Dixie Stampede: How do you afford family fun?

I took my nieces to one of our many local tourist attractions, The Dixie Stampede. I had gone last year with my inlaws, and suprisingly enjoyed it. So, when my nieces mentioned that they wanted to do someting "fun", I thought this might be the ticket.

Speaking of tickets, the cost to get into this joint were OUTRAGEOUS! It's over $40 per person! Luckily, I'm a local and got a significant discount in comparison, but still WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to high for my taste. But, as you parents may already know, when it comes to making the little ones happy, you tend to just grin and suck it up.

So, with this initial investment I figured that monetarily I didn't have to worry about anything else because dinner was included into the price of the ticket.

Ha! that's where I was suckered!

There's a preshow that's an hour before the actual show begins in the arena. Of course,they advertise snacks, like a scoop of sherbert in a "free boot" for $4 each. Seriously? The boot is free? That scoop of orange sherbert is $4?

Yeah- Exactly

So, after spending $8 on two boot cups with sherbert in them, I'm cordially asked if I'd like anything else like popcorn or nachos. My youngest niece was like all over that... so add $4 more. After giving the girl behind the counter the stink eye, we paid and enjoyed the show.

Me trying to get our picture on my new I-phone 4

Surely, after this, I'd be fine because the actual show was in the arena and dinner is included in the price of our tickets...

WRONG!

As soon as we were seated, a cute little girl came by with photos that were taken as we entered the building. Of course, these pictures were not free. They were $20 a piece for a set of two 5x7 portraits. The picture with all 4 of us looked, well, crazy. But the ones with the girls were gorgeous... and of course they wanted them. They gave me the " Tee Tee pleeeeease" look and I was suckered into another purchase!

So, outloud, in front of everyone, including the cute little girl who I'm now handing over a crisp $20 to, I annouce that I wasn't buying another thing... and I meant it!

WRONG!

Not 5 minutes later, another cute little girl comes over with Dixie Stampede flags. How much? $2 each. So, the whole premise is that there is a competition between the two sides, the North and the South- and how could they cheer for the good ole' North without a flag? Do you see where this is going? Yep, add $2 times 2 kids.

So, my wallet that WAS full of cash when I entered, looked like a gas station at night in the "hood"- empty!

This was the Native American portion of the show.  The glow in the dark natives freaked Taylor out.  She got a little scared. 

We enjoyed the rest of the show. We finally ate the dinner that came with the price of the ticket and cheered on the North with our Dixie stampede Flags. I was sure that all the money spending was surely complete becasue the show was now over.

WRONG!

The man in the white coat that had been narrating the entire show, wanted to remind us "good patrons" how wonderful our servers had been tonight. We definitely want to make sure that we "treat em' real good". So, add another $10.

At the end of the show, the riders line up around the arena for the kids to come talk to them and pet the horses. I immediately thought that this was another 'secret' ploy to get more cash. Luckily, it was actually free. So, I took their picture and got the heck up out of there.

Having kids is expensive on its own. But, taking them out to 'family' attractions is detrimental to the finances. How do you people with kids do this on a regular basis? We had a great time, but seriously, some of these things were just a rip off!...

But they didn't think so: