baseball games Archives - Lazy Man and Money

Spring is here and the baseball season is underway. Today and the next two days, I’ll be watching the Red Sox visit the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Colosseum. The tickets were around $60 a piece, but at least they are among the best in the house.

Going to a major league baseball game is not cheap. When I lived in Boston (and was lucky enough to get tickets at face value) it would still cost $120 for even the worst seats. The problem was that the tickets for the season sell out in hours… and there’s never enough phone lines to get through. If I wanted to watch a game I typically had to buy tickets on the secondary market – where prices can easily double. Some of the premium tickets at Fenway can go for $1000 or more – and that’s just for a regular season game. That’s obviously and extreme case, but still worth mentioning.

When you add in beer, hot dogs, and soda – it really gets expensive. It’s not just the cost of tickets and concessions, there’s souvenirs and parking (which for some premium games has been up to $100).

With all that in mind, here are some tips for enjoying baseball games even in an economy such as this one.

Watch your favorite team in another city – This is what I’m doing to save money (well same money, but much better seats) the next few days. I’m fortunate to be living in a place where the home team has plenty of tickets available. The other idea here is to plan a summer vacation around the baseball schedule of your favorite team. Washington D.C. can be an extremely fun and educational vacation – and you can catch the Red Sox and Yankees play the Orioles there. It’s a pretty fast and cheap flight from Southwest.
Eat before the game or bring your own food – Many people might not know it, but many ballparks allow you to bring your own food to the game. Fenway Park has a long list of items of not allowed, but food is not listed. For drinks, you might be limited to juice boxes since they prohibit glass and plastic. Some of the people I’m going to the game with tomorrow are bringing Passover friendly food.
Public transportation is your friend – Whether I go to games in Boston or in Oakland, I’ve found that it is much cheaper to drive near the game and take public transportation the rest of the way than it is to park. I also noticed that I get home quicker because I’ve avoided the traffic at the end of the game.
Get souvenirs in advance (not at the game) – Souvenirs of call kinds are going to be more expensive. I went to a Celtics’ Finals game last year and instead of paying for a shirt there, I stopped by T.J. Maxx and picked up a perfect “Beat LA” shirt. If you have more time, there are some great shirts that can be had on Ebay or other fan websites. You’ll save money and be appropriately dressed for tailgating.
Think about the weather – Some games are a sunburn threat. Other games are a hypothermia threat. Some are both. For day games, grab a strong sun block, and bring a blanket for the night games.
Consider minor league baseball – This won’t work if your favorite team is a major league team, but if you are a fan of just watching baseball, there are great savings to be had. I went to a Modesto A’s game a few years ago and though I had no real investment in the results of the game, it was a great experience. The tickets and food were reasonable. They had giveaways every inning. They even had dollar drafts for an inning.

In years past, I’ve watched over 130 Red Sox games on television. This year, with the games ending around 7PM local time, I’m not sure if I’m going to catch as money. It’s why I’m going to make the most of the games I can.

Image Credit: wallyg

When I was going through my mail last week, I noticed something interesting. It seemed like I got a flier that was thicker than usual. Wait, it was this month’s Money Magazine. It feels like the slimmest edition of Money Magazine I’ve seen… yet, I happen to have the July 2007 copy handy and they are both the same 128-pages. So much for my conspiracy theory that advertisements were down and Money Magazine might be undergoing some financial issues of their own. Either July is just a light month in general or I’m just crazy thinking this copy was thin.

Anyway, here are some of the highlights from this months issue. If you have a copy, you can follow along with me. If you don’t, here are some of the things you might be missing.

– Save money on drug prescriptions with the advice on p. 19. The hint: go shopping at Wal-Mart.
– Women want to talk more about money (p. 20). True.com survey says that 33% of women want to talk more about money while only 21% of men do. This goes against almost every female I know who would rather have a root canal than talk about money. My wife fits in that group. What do men wish the talked more about… big suprise, but it’s sex.
– Frank Boucher, certified financial planner learned he could save money on baseball games by bringing his own food (p. 20). He could have learned this months earlier if he read my article on Saving Money at Baseball Games
– It’s only a good idea for a select minority to get the $100 unlimited cell phone plans that some providers are making available. (p. 26)
– Jean Chatzky says driving a little greener can save you money on gas (p. 28). Five Cent Nickel found out the same thing first hand.
– Interesting article about taking care of your finances for couples always on the run (p. 33). Maybe it’s just me because I’m experienced, but much of my finances take care of themselves most of the time. Online banking shifts money into almost all the right places. I pay credit card bills online, but I have a back-up set up with Chase so that they would get paid in full if I forget. About the only thing that I remember is to write the rent check.
– The Right Way to Take a Pension (p. 40). What’s a pension ;-).
– Are you paying your financial adviser 3% (p.44)? It seems that many are. This is one reason why I spent time to learn to invest myself. By limiting expense ratios and diversifying with exchange traded funds, I often pay closer to 0.5% in expenses. That adds up to a lot of money compounded over the years.
– Walter Updegrave says that your retirement number is a moving target. I came to this conclusion with my My Ever Expanding Retirement Goal.
– Inspiring entreprunal highlight (p. 53). I love reading about people starting their businesses and the troubles they have with them.
– How do you protect your idea from being stolen by a big company (p. 53). I’m surprised to see that it doesn’t mention anything about writing out your idea and sending it to yourself via certified mail. You’ll get a date stamp on the sealed envelope. If it has to go to court, handing the judge the envelope should be great evidence.
– Learn how artificial materials can be better than the real thing in your home (p. 62-64). If I was to redo my home, I would definitely heed all these suggestions. It looks like they’ll last longer and in some ways cost less to begin with.
– Invest globally with one fund (p. 69-70)? I say no, but I like reading about investments. You might not be like me.
– Invest in networking companies (p. 78)? Is it 1999 again?
– Six pages on Inflation (83-89), this is a major article in the issue. This is one my biggest financials fears. If I had to guess it’s probably yours as well.
– Pages 91-95 – Feature on People Living Without Plastic… This was the article that featured two personal finance bloggers I previously mentioned.
– Do you know your spouses finances? This a 5-page feature.
– College Loan article that I won’t read from pages 102-105
– Page 106 – OMG, full size, close-up picture of Suze Orman… If I had a mustache like the one she’s showing, I wouldn’t allow a close-up like that to be published.
– Page 107 – This Suze Orman article is the first one I’ve read of hers that was good. Check it out.
– A family looking for a simpler life quits their high paying jobs and moves out to the farm. What about their finances? Page 109-113
– Looking for a Home Security system? See the review on page 115-117.
– Getting a lightweight PC? Look for the round up on 118-119. They left out my Asus EEE.
– The last page is an article on carbon offsets. I didn’t find it that interesting.

Save Money at Baseball Games

Money Magazine July 2008 Highlights