Parenting and Living Our Way: Thrifty Baseball Game Outing

This week's Thrifty Thursday post is all about saving money at professional sports events.Robert and I are huge San Francisco Giants fans. We are lucky to live less than an hour from the stadium, so we can go to a game or two each season. Between tickets, parking and concessions costs, each game can easily run $250 or more. This simply isn't in our budget, so I've picked up some tips that have help save us at least $100 per game.

Buy tickets when they're first on sale. Most sport teams use market rate pricing, so big games cost more and the closer it is to game day the tickets get more expensive. We bought our tickets the day they went on sale and paid just under $100 total for 2 tickets. 4 weeks before the game they would have cost $118 each.
Parking lots closer to the stadium are $40. If you're willing to walk a few extra blocks you can find parking for $30. If public transportation is an option you can cut your parking cost completely.
You can bring soft sided coolers into the stadium. Food has to be wrapped in clear plastic, and apples and oranges must be quartered. Unopened plastic bottles and juice pouches/boxes are allowed. I froze two Capri Suns to use as ice in our cooler. I packed 6 bottles of water, sandwiches, chips, oranges, strawberries, and snacks. I bought a few candy treats and some peanuts from the bulk bins at Winco so we weren't tempted to buy anything at the stadium. We each had a beer to enjoy as our treat with dinner and called it good.

Our Cost - $186
Tickets - $100
Parking - $30
Gas - $20
Toll - $6
Beer - $20 (YIKES!)
Dinner & snacks - $10

Non-Thrifty Cost - $388
Tickets - $236
Parking - $40
Gas - $20
Toll - $6
Beer - $20 (YIKES!)
Dinner & snacks - $36

Water - $30 ($5 for a bottle of water is RIDICULOUS)

Total Savings - $202

Little things add up. Read up on stadium policies and see what you can and can't bring with you so you can save money and still see your favorite teams.