We’ve all seen those Entertainment books that promise to save us money. We buy them for a fund raiser or online with the hopes that we’ll be able to have more fun for less money. Then we throw the book under the seat in the car or it gets lost in that pile of papers that we tell ourselves we’re going to go through later but never get too. It’s a terrible waste! Let me make a suggestion for making that book a true friend and useful aid in the quest to save money and have fun.

1.       Browse through the book, when you first get it, and make a list of the top 10 restaurants and the top ten entertainment venues you’d like to visit. Have your kids and spouse do the same.

2.       Put the lists on the refrigerator or bathroom wall where you’ll see them often.

3.       Keep your coupon book in your purse or the back seat pocket in your car where you’ll have easy access to it and it won’t get lost.

When Friday night rolls around and Jungle Book starts running through your mind, those lists will be a quick reference of places you can go and you can feel confident that you’re getting a great deal because you already have your Entertainment book filled with discounts and coupons!

The pictures you see before you are from a recent beach trip I took with ten other moms for one of my girlfriends’ birthdays.  We all planned it out, split up food assignments, made sure our husbands could take time off to watch the kids, packed up the cars and took off for 3 days of girl time.  I won’t tell you all the transpired that weekend, but here are a few of the highlights.  We took several walks on the beach, watched a bunch of chick flicks, ate a ton of food, stayed up way too late and even made a choreographed dance video to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.”  Yep, you heard me right.  At around 2am we all put a bunch of sparkly makeup on, ratted our hair and acted like 14 year olds.  I’m sure the video will somehow make it to You Tube and will get quite a few laughs.  I know my husband found it very entertaining.

So, here’s the overall message of this blog.  Moms need to get away from normal life every once in a little while in order to stay sane and be good moms and wives.  Yes, when we get together we act very juvenile, but I think we’re allowed to do that sometimes.  When you’re ready to make this great leap, go to hotels.com, find a fun hotel near you and go crazy.  Spend a few days doing nothing but hanging out with your girlfriends and don’t feel guilty about it.  This is very important:  YOU’RE NOT A BAD MOM IF YOU WANT TO GET AWAY FROM YOUR KIDS AND HUSBAND SOMETIMES!  It means that you’re normal and healthy.  Alright, now it’s your turn.  Find a place, call your friends and have fun!!

So, I did some looking around on couponbuzz and online with a “cheap ticket” search to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  I was so happy to find several places that sell “discount” tickets.  Two I liked were razorgator and stubhub.  Both sites had tickets on the first deck at Reliant Stadium for half of what I would have paid through the actual rodeo site!  So, basically, I got 4 tickets in the 100 sections for $50!  That’s a 50% savings!  It was great!

Turned out my kids did enjoy the rodeo and we had decent seats.  With 2 little ones it was really nice not to have to hike all the way up to the 3rd or 4th decks of the stadium.  I will certainly be doing that again next year and really, any event/attraction/concert I go to in the future, I will for sure check out online discount ticket places first!