Last Sunday I went to the Minnesota State Fair with my wife and brother. The Minnesota State Fair is no joke – it has the highest average daily attendance of all fairs in the United States. People come from all over the state (and surrounding states) to eat a ton of unhealthy food, visit exhibits, and enjoy the entertainment.
Just look at this sea of people who were at the Fair on Sunday:
In 2010, over the course of 10 days, 1,776,211 people went to the Fair. That’s approximately 148,000 people a day.
After reading Peter’s post at Bible Money Matters about how much money he spent at the fair, I decided to do something similar. Throughout the day we kept track of all the money we spent to see how much money we blew at the Fair.
Here’s our spending breakdown:
2 Tickets: $24
Parking: $0< (Free Park and Ride)
Corn on the Cob: $3
Large RC Cola: $2
Pronto Pup: $3.75
2 Large Pops: $5
Cheese Curds: $5.50
Deep-Fried Candy Bar: $4
Game/Ride Tickets: $10
Total Cost: $57.25
Not too bad, considering the State Fair only happens once a year. As you can imagine (or have noticed in your own experiences), it’s incredibly easy to blow money at the fair. There are some ways to keep costs down, but ultimately you are going to end up spending around $10 to get in and probably around $15 on food, minimum. The best thing to do is to set a budget before going and sticking to that pre-determined amount.
Did I forget to mention we are going again tonight? I guess we have some more expenses to factor in than I first thought!
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Photos by Victoria Carlson
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Wow – now, I’m incredibly hungry even though I just ate breakfast. haha. “pops” huh. I grew up saying pops, but have converted to Soda mostly since moving to the NE. Where are you from?
@The Retired Landlord I’m from Minnesota, and I have had a flight attendant laugh when I said I wanted a pop….dang Dallas ppl….
That is pretty reasonable, actually. It is one of the places where it is so easy to forget a budget ‘cuz you can’t get most of the foods anywhere else, easily anyway. We went to the KISS/Motely Crue concert, so I would have to add another $87 (twice) to our State Fair budget. Ouch!
@RobertaRenstromNyquist Wow $87! That’s not cheap, but I did almost pay $100 for Incubus tickets recently….
That all looks so delicious. This seriously made me hungry. Our state fair is expensive too. $1o hot dog, anyone?
@Holly at ClubThrifty $10 hot dog??? What! We are headed back out there tonight, I might have to get another batch of cheese curds :0 And then recover until next year haha
That’s really not a ton of money for an awesome day out..
What type of entertainment do they have at the MSF?.. Music? Air Show? Tractor Pull?
-jefferson
@seedebtrun True I think we did good as far as spend. Honestly, they have all sorts of entertainment. KISS & Motley Crue, Wiz Khalifa, and others play at the grandstand http://www.mnstatefair.org/entertainment/stages/?stage=grandstand
Besides that there’s free music at the band shells. No air show, but maybe a tractor pull? Not sure.
We went to the local fair early in August. I think the only money we spent at the fair was the entrance fee and maybe $15 on food. We weren’t there to attend the fair though, there was a one-time motocross race that added $20 to the total. Next year I think we will just attend the fair (the race wasn’t much fun). Hope you enjoy your day at the fair.
@DebtnTaxes Awesome, fairs (usually) are a good time!
All of this food looks delicious! I think you did good with your money.
@SenseofCents Thanks, and it was delicious (and bad for us haha). Deep fried candy bar is something everyone needs to experience at least once.
@DC @ Young Adult Money My friend has a deep fryer and he deep fries EVERYTHING. The other day he deep fried a whole pizza.
@SenseofCents Wow…that’s….wow…..not sure how to respond.
So did you follow your own advice and set a budget? I’m sure you at least know roughly how much you plan to spend :)
@Money Life and More Haha yes I did!
You guys actually did pretty good. You saved by using the park and ride, and you didn’t eat nearly as much food as we did the year we wrote that post.
We’re going to the fair tomorrow (Saturday) and expect the crowds to be huge (160-170,000 people?). We’re planning on spending about $75-100 and we’ll be there all day. We’ll be paying for parking as well cause we just like to park there and walk across the bridge. We’re lazy. :) Of course this year we bought our tickets beforehand and saved $6 that way, and bought a coupon book that lets you get discounts on all kinds of food – 1/2 price on some, buy one get one on others. Hope you have fun tonight!
@moneymatters Yeah I didn’t realize how good the Blue Book is, I will have to pick one up next year. Last night we probably spent about the same. If we went all day I think it would be easy to spend $100.
You did not eat cheese curds and a fried candy bar on the same day! Only at the fair, I guess. What makes Minn. have such a rocking fair? The best that CO state fair ever has is Tom Jones and the state 4H livestock show.
@Eyesonthedollar Haha yes I did! I’m not sure why the MN State Fair is such a big deal, but it really is a HUGE fair. So much to see and do (and eat, of course!).
My stomach is in pain just seeing all that fried food…. the older I get, the less I can handle all that deliciousness! Anyway, I’m always surprised how the dates for state fairs differ from region to region. When I lived in NY (like you in MN), the fair was right around Labor Day. Now that I’m in the south, our weather doesn’t cool down enough to really make a fair enjoyable until mid-October.
@Elizabeth_SimpleFinance That’s interesting, I did not realize some states had them that late in the year but it makes sense based on the weather. I went a second day and had cheese curds yet again and it was a little too much, so I understand your lack of grease tolerance ;)
Mmm….deep fried candy bar. Your state fair reminds me of a fair that we have in Ontario, called the Canadian National Exhibition, or as the locals call it the Ex. It also consists of a ton of midway rides and various forms of entertainment such as an air show. I haven’t been this year but there was a food vendor called Bacon Nation which had Jack Daniels Bacon Sandwich, Bacon Nutella, Deep Fried Bacon Covered Hot Dogs, to name a view. Guess that would have been a fun post to do, cause of my blog’s name, but its only around for a couple of weeks, during the end of August. And I never got the chance to go. Maybe next year!
@MakintheBacon You should definitely check it out next year, sounds like a good time. There are some crazy bacon booths at the MN state fair, primarily chocolate covered bacon.
We went to a fair that was probably one-hundredth of the size this past weekend. I spent about the same, but got more (and shittier somehow…my bbq rib sandwich although good didn’t have any actual ribs makes you wonder)…we also brought our 21 month old with us. After winning a few TERRIBLE stuffed animals I realized it wasn’t the prizes that he wanted but rather just to play the game lol lesson learned the hard way.
@MJTM Oh man I see all these really little kids 1 – 3 years old at the fair and I can’t imagine bringing them. It’s hard enough to get around with adults, having kids seems like it would be really tough!
Oh man, all that rich food would kill me! Looks like you had a great time and honestly, spending less than $60 for a full day of fun is pretty good. Most people spend that during a two-hour meal!
HassleFreeSaver Yeah $60 isn’t bad at all for the State Fair – I know many who spend far more than that! The food is awesome and I can’t wait to get more tomorrow ;)