I imagine you pay taxes to your state, locality, or school district, which funds your local lending library.

Still, its certainly not a money dense activity–just not free.

I’m not in any way saying that it’s valid to spend a ton of money at Disney, and I’m not saying that Disney is a frugal vacation. I am, however, saying that $25 per hour is an unreasonable estimate for a Disney vacation. Believe me, my idea of roughing it is slow room service, so if my vacation didn’t cost that much, you’d be hard pressed to find someone whose did.

Disney frequently runs specials for families where they can stay on property (enjoying certain benefits), including a dining plan and theme park tickets for as little as $1,400 for a family of four for 5 nights. Obviously, once you factor in flights and souvenirs (let’s say $300 per person total), you are looking at approximately $130 per person per night, or $16.25 per hour for an 8 hour day.

If you consider that most people will spend more than 8 hours in a theme park each day, plus they’ll probably spend additional time at the hotel pool, a 12 hour day is less than $11 per hour. It’s still not a cheap vacation, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not out of reach for a family that plans ahead to pay for it.

Plus, Disney is super fun!

@Brittany – $285 – good for you!!! There definitely are options for everyone.

About the costly activities, if they are VERY much enjoyed, they should be budgeted in as much as you can afford it. If you live frugally all year so you can go to Disneyworld without worries, then power to you! BUT if you have cheap hentertainment needs, then you will be able to indulge more frequently for the same price — without exception.

Last time I went to Disney, it cost me $285 for the entire trip, including travel, lodgings, food, and 3 days of disney. There are options, if you’re smart.

Overpriced amusement park food is nowhere near “enjoying local food.” Pack your lunch for Disney; make you evening meal at a nice low cost local dive. Best of both worlds.

In all my travels, eating out of local markets has always been one of my favorite activities. I’ll take it over expensive restaurants anytime.

- going to a baseball game
- taking a semester-long class at the local community college
- a 4-session kayaking class
- a wine tour of Napa
- visiting an art museum
- going to bars with friends
- learning to crochet
- seeing a Broadway show
- going to a yoga class
- visiting street fairs and community festivals (which can be free, but for me usually means buying some food, crafts, etc.)
- camping at Yosemite
- seeing a friend in a local high school play
- playing mini golf
- renting a kayak to go snorkeling on a tropical reef

The community college course was probably the most expensive in total, but not per hour with all the time I spent in class and doing homework. The wine tour was probably a similar cost to the Broadway show, but a better deal per hour since it was a whole day instead of a couple of hours. Yoga classes seem reasonably priced on the face of it, but they’re several times as much as a movie ticket per hour, since a class is only 50 minutes.

It’s an interesting way to look at things – how much value and I really getting out of my entertainment dollar? If I’m spending more per hour, is it for something that I will value and remember more?

I also like the idea of satisfaction per unit cost. This, of course, would be subjective and change from person to person. (Just a quick perusal of the comments here bear that out.)

However, it’s much harder for me to figure out the satisfaction per hour that I get. It seems to me that the ideal would not be simply to minimize the cost per hour, but to increase the ratio of satisfaction per hour to the cost per hour.

I just finished a great novel, which I borrowed from a friend. That number is way up there. Our family finally went to Disney World a few months ago and we had a pretty negative experience due to a variety of extenuating circumstances (cancelled flight,sunburn, losing my wallet, a sick child, etc.) That was a VERY low number.

The best leisure activities are when you hit the ideal convergence of satisfaction vs. cost. Maybe if I could win free tickets to the Olympics (and an all-expenses-paid trip)…..

That, and many other examples, illustrate why this is a good exercise to consider for yourself – is the enjoyment I get from this activity worth what I will pay for it? NOT ‘is this on the approved frugal-person list?’

One needs to conduct some sort of analysis to figure out that taking a walk is less “money-dense” than going to the movies? …and this somehow enables one to achieve some sort of “enlightened perspective”?

Egad.

What’s next? A revelation that a Corolla is a more economical alternative to a Ferrari?

@Brittany, I think Trent was being phenomenally generous by not including travel time and expense and potential hotel/motel fees in his estimate of Disney World’s cost. Once you factor that in, Disney WOrld is way, way more than $25 per hour (even if you figure a 12-hour day). Unless you live in Orlando, there’s no way that Disney World is cheaper, per-hour, than going to the movies. You might also want to consider that enjoying the local food is part of any well-rounded travel experience. So you can pack your own lunches, but you’re denying yourself part of the experience that you spent a bunch of travel costs, hotel fees, and ticket fees to have. I don’t know that I’d consider that frugal at all.

@Michael, your garden has a cost but also has an output. If you grow 30 lbs of tomatoes, and tomatoes cost $1.00/lb at the grocery store, your garden earned $30 (or offset $30 of expenses, depending). Figure out your yield, and re-calculate your true costs at the end of the season to see where you are at that point.

@Courtney & @Kathy, Trent offers two sets of numbers for the movie theater – one with snacks, one without. I know my fiance and I just eat our evening dinner while we watch movies. No additional snacks needed.