It’s really easy to drop your money as if there was a hole burned in your pocket, so it’s important to always learn to balance it out!
Let’s put it in perspective for you…. A family of five, for instance, goes to the movies one night. Do you want to know how much money would be spent for that one night?
Try a hundred bucks, easy. If you think that’s crazy, go ahead and try it. You’re looking at $8 or $
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9 dollars for the adult tickets, and let’s say you have three younger kids, so $5 each. That would be at least $31 — just for the tickets.
Now keep in mind that you’ve got concessions to worry about, too — each kid gets a bucket of popcorn, a drink, and maybe candy. That’s pretty fair. Let’s skip the possibility that you as the parents don’t get anything. Just the kids. Go ahead and take a quick look at the concessions stand, and you’ll flip on the prices. First off, you get one bag of candy…. For five bucks! A small drink? Yeah, that costs about $4. A small bucket of popcorn can be anywhere from $5 to $6.
Let’s go on the low end here. Do the math, and you’re looking at $14 per kid. That’s $42 total! Add that to $31, and you’re looking at an easy $73 out of your pocket….
Oh, but it doesn’t stop there (forget the fact that you as the parents didn’t even bother to get anything from the concessions). This expense you might not have thought of: travel. Yes, you do have to travel to get to the cinema. It costs gas. Do you know how expensive gas is? Do you know that you have to get to work every day during the week? If your theater is a good 15 minutes away, you’re looking at possibly four or five miles there and back. And at $3 or $4 or even $5 a gallon, that’s pretty steep. You can expect to use at least $10 to make sure you have enough gas in the car for the rest of the week when it involves work. That brings your cost to $83. Out of your pocket.
You see what’s going on here? It’s a numbers game. Learn to balance your money. It’s really easy not paying attention to how much money you really spend, because it’s easy to spend it. So be mindful; your wallet will blow you kisses if you are.
