AHH! OMG! Win Season Tickets to the Sharks!

Shh, don’t tell everyone (because I want better odds of winning), but the Sharks are doing some special fan giveaways this week as a thank you for not boycotting them for abandoning us all fall. Today’s prize? SEASON TICKETS! Yeah, it’s a short season, and yeah, it’s only 24 games, but hello, SEASON TICKETS.

You actually have a few more days to enter, and can also still enter for the previous days’ prizes. These include dropping the puck on the home opener, having lunch with some of the players, and even going on a road trip with the team. Heck, even if you don’t like hockey (and if you don’t you’re weird) you should still enter because if you win, you could always sell your prize for the cash. Or you know, give it to me. 

Affordable culture: not just for tourists

I about freaked out when I discovered the SF CityPASS yesterday. It gets you into the California Academy of Sciences, SF MOMA, the Exploratorium or the De Young, the Aquarium of the Bay, a Blue & Gold Fleet Cruise around Alcatraz AND a 7 day pass for MUNI and the cable cars for the low price of $69. You can even upgrade your Bay cruise to take the boat to Alcatraz for just 5 bucks more. 

Okay, 69 bucks is kind of a lot of money, but when you calculate how much all that stuff costs on its own, this is close to half price. One adult admission to the Academy of Sciences alone is $30 for the day. I have been dying to go there ever since they remodeled a few years ago. Between the architecture that my husband keeps raving about, the exhibits, and the floor-to-ceiling aquarium, what’s not to like? Oh yeah, the $30 entry. Enter CityPASS! I'm assuming this was designed for tourists since it includes the 7 day MUNI pass, but San Francisco has such great museums that it is always worth a trip. 

So yeah, as soon as I have an extra $69, or let’s be honest, $138 because how much fun would this be to do alone, I am so all over this pass.

The fine print

Each pass is good for ONE admission to each attraction. When I first ran across the CityPASS I thought it was an annual pass. Of course not. This is the Bay Area, after all. For those of you who live in other areas, they also have these, for different rates and attractions, obviously, in a number of other major cities like Seattle, Chicago, New York and Toronto. Also, the Exploratorium is currently closed until April 17^th as they’re in the process of moving over to Pier 15. Until then, that CityPASS coupon is good for entrance to the De Young. 

Gym memberships for less

Did you know the YMCA offers financial assistance for memberships? I recently received a flyer in the mail with this information and thought I’d go check it out. I had always assumed the Y cost a small fortune to join, especially since the one by us has a pool and offers childcare.

Turns out, not only do they have some great programs, many of which are included, but their membership fees are pretty comparable to other area gyms. Years ago, (we’re talking more than 10 years here) I had a membership to Club One, subsidized through my employer at the time. Their enrollment fee back then was something crazy like $300, and my monthly membership was $65 if I remember correctly. After doing research into other gyms in the Peninsula area, I’ve been hard-pressed to find too many gyms that charge less than $60 or so a month. Well, for an individual membership, the YMCA charges a pretty reasonable $90 enrollment fee and $70 a month. Wow. If you account for inflation, the Y membership is much, much cheaper. For a two-parent family membership, kids included, enrollment is $150 and the monthly fee is $108. The family membership includes ALL dependents living at your address under 24 years of age. So if you have one kid or six, you can all use the facilities. They also have discounted rates for seniors, teens, and college-age adults.

So onto what membership includes. You get full use of the facilities, which house a lap pool, family pool, full workout room with weights and cardio machines. You have access to something crazy like 200 classes a month, FREE childcare, up to two hours per day while you work out (which includes enclosed outdoor play time for the kids). They also have all sorts of additional and some included programs like kids dance classes, swimming classes and youth camps.

This place is also crazy family-oriented like no other gym I’ve found in my area. As long as kids pass a safety test, they’re allowed to work out in the weight/cardio room at age 8. They also offer a number of parent-child exercise classes, and special family pool time.

If the membership fees are out of your budget, and let’s be honest, if you’re reading this, you probably don’t have an extra $70-100 a month to spend on working out, just ask for a financial aid application at the front desk. You can apply for assistance with gym costs or for things like the youth camp programs. I’m not sure what the income cutoff is, and I would assume it probably varies by where you live. To check out your local YMCA facility, see their website. 

Free bread!

Like bread? (PSA: If you don’t, you’re weird) Like FREE bread? Grab a loyalty card at any Le Boulanger location, register it online, and enjoy a free loaf of bread, every month. That’s it. You don’t have to accrue points or buy lots of expensive deliciousness, and they still give you a free loaf every single month. Did I mention it’s free?

Honestly, I don’t know why everyone doesn’t know about this program. Hot, fresh, gourmet bread is awesome. Once you have a registered card, it will automatically load your free items. Each month, they offer a different bread-of-the-month and that is the one you’ll receive free.  Just bring in your card, they’ll swipe it, and bam, you walk out with your bread. In addition to that, I received a free cookie just for registering my card, and a free cinnamon roll on my birthday. If you actually spend money here and use your loyalty card, you’ll also earn points to earn more free stuff like coffees and lunch items. Pretty awesome, no?

I’ve only used this at a couple of South Bay locations, and normally have no problems with it. However, every now and again, things seem to not load onto the card. I’d recommend checking your card online before venturing out to the bakery just to verify your free items are on the card. 

Why Sephora is awesome

I’m a big fan of Sephora. Not because they carry just about every beauty brand you could ask for, but because they offer tons of free stuff. Seriously. If you sign up for their Beauty Insider program, you earn points for every dollar you spend, which can then be cashed in for products. You’ll also get a free birthday gift every year, as well as frequent free samples when you shop. If and when you earn 100 and 500 points within one year, you also receive special gift products.

When you sign up for the Beauty Insiders program, make sure to input your email. Normally, I avoid companies’ email lists like the plague, but sometimes Sephora will send out some real gems. For instance, I once received an email coupon, valid for 24 hours, for a full size Ojon shampoo and conditioner. When I went to snatch this up at the Stanford Mall Sephora, I found out that each bottle was selling for $25! So yeah, for a simple input of my email address, I received $50 worth of completely free product. Incidentally, I love what that shampoo and conditioner do to my hair and wish I could afford $25 shampoo. Hah.

Why else is Sephora great? Beauty Insider or not, if you have a product you’re interested in test-driving, but don’t want to shell out the dough to purchase the full-size product, try asking one of the sales associates for a sample of the product. I’ve done this a number of times, both at the Valley Fair and Stanford locations, for everything from Frederick Fekkai hair products to perfume to skincare items.  It’s a great way to try out that $50 skin cream to make sure it works for you, before dropping big bucks and finding out the hard way it doesn’t.

In conclusion, while I wouldn’t exactly recommend paying regular price for products at Sephora to someone on a strict budget, the perks of shopping there and signing up for their Beauty Insider program can save you a lot of money and give you access to beauty products you might not otherwise be able to afford. 

Welcome!

The economy sucks. Millions of folks are out of work and struggling to make ends meet. The media is constantly spewing out scare tactics that we’re all about to careen off the edge of the fiscal cliff. But there are still millions of people living in the Bay Area where the median home price is $588,000. People are still living and thriving here despite the astronomical rents and real estate and cost of living. So if your family doesn’t have a six-figure income, how do you survive in an area this expensive? Surely not everyone is shacking up with their 14 closest friends in order to make rent, right?

My goal in starting this blog is to share the things I’ve found that can help Bay Area families on a budget. This won’t be another couponing site, but rather a resource for Bay Area specific frugal finds and ways to save money on everyday living expenses. I’ll also offer up general frugal living tips that I run across or use myself. Hopefully one of the resources I’ve run across can help someone else survive and even thrive for another day living in one of the most expensive places in the country!