Our Day at the State Fair

The main thing to know, if you ever venture to the Texas State Fair: bring cash. Lots of small denomination bills. And if you think you have enough money with you, go ahead and grab a little more at the ATM before you hit the fairgrounds.

Thanks to one of The Mother of the BrideÂ’s friends, we had great tickets in hand before we arrived. What made these tix great? They were free. $0 invested.

We got to the fair early to make sure we were able to rent a stroller big enough for both kids. $10 for close parking and $15 for the stroller. And we had not even made it in the main gate, yet.

As soon as we got inside the park, the kids hopped in line for a kidÂ’s activity and I headed over to the coupon booth to hand over more of The Boss Lady's hard earned money. $20 for food, drink and ride tickets. Now we are $45 into the day and we have been at the fair for 15 minutes. Ouch!

The kids did some farming and then we hit the petting zoo. We dropped a couple of bucks there, for food for the goats and emus. Then we watched a Frisbee dog show, brought to you by TXU and Purina, while we ate an early lunch of corny dogs. Bought with coupons of course, because your money ainÂ’t not no good here, mister.

At some point during the morning I found three bucks worth of coupons on the ground. So we spent them. No, I donÂ’t have any remorse for not turning them over to the proper authorities.

After the dog show, The Talker really wanted to go check out the Kid Fishing area, brought to you by Toyota trucks. So we meandered across the grounds to find the pool where they were stocking catfish for kids to torment with live grubs. It was almost exactly like shooting fish in a barrel, except there were no guns. Instead Toyota trucks provided short rods without reels and bobbers with Toyota logos on them.

Our kids didnÂ’t land any catfish, but while we were there a 10 year old hooked one, proving that it could be done. Big fun AND free.

We actually kept cash in our pockets for a little while. After the free fishing frenzy, brought to you by Toyota trucks, we headed over to check out the master of card stacking, brought to you by MetroPCS.

After we left the CardStacker, we headed over to the Kidway, the midway for kids, brought to you by The Boss Lady, because believe me, the coupons came out on the midway. $10 more in coupons got us two ride for The Princess, Three rides for The Talker. Later, for $4 in cash, the kids each got to play one game. Both of them won the smallest stuffed toys ever made.

Once we bought more coupons, we got a junk food fix for everyone. And that concluded our coupon adventure at the fair. $32.50 worth of tickets bought, $35.50 worth of tickets spent and $9.34 worth of goods and services received. A fair trade.

We spent another $10 on drinks before we left the fair, but we were able to use cash for that purchase. Apple juice, milk and a couple of Dr Peppers. Now that is a good use of $10.

On our way out, we stopped by the Dallas Police DepartmentÂ’s Mounted Patrol stables. They have a small chroniclingonicling the history of the Mounted Patrol and the K9 units. The Boss LadyÂ’s grandfather was a member of the Dallas PDs mounted patrol until he retired. And The Boss Lady found a picture of him in one of the exhibits. Cool! And free.

We made stops at a couple of vendors as we walked to the gate. The Boss Lady got some freebie shirts, backpacks, books and bookmarkers for the kids at her school from a group promoting the new Charlotte'’s Web movie that should come out this winter.

At the last stop of the day the kids got candy for throwing newspapers at a target. And in case you wondered, the papers, targets and candy were brought to them by The Dallas Morning News.

In the end, we all had a blast. But I am not adding up all the costs, because I don't want to cry.