What to know if you’re going to the Spokane Fairgrounds on a budget

Having fun at the Spokane County Interstate Fair doesn’t have to break the bank.

Sure, spending big does have its advantages: unlimited rides, the best fair food and drinks, concerts, and try after try at seemingly simple but maddeningly hard carnival games.

But these days, when many are complaining about the cost of everything, people can still have fun on a budget.

Here’s how to stretch your dollars:

On a date? Make $100 go a long way

There’s a way to save a few bucks on parking and admission, but time is money, too.

Parking is $10 and admission is $15 on weekends. For two people, that leaves $60 up for grabs.

After a short walk, the smells and sights of fair food will no doubt beckon.

For affordable but tasty food, Azar’s Food Haven booth has items marked at $5 each.

Two sliders and a shared $4 drink from Uncle Bill’s Corn Dog Shack total $14, leaving $46 for the rest of date night.

For the sweet tooth, a $6 churro at the Candyland food booth is perfect.

There are plenty of free events near the picnic tables for something fun to watch while eating, including from The Magician and the Muse/Illusionists (6:30 p.m. daily) and Mark Yuzuik, a hypnotist (8 p.m. daily), although there are also alternative free events during those times .

Now comes the real question: How many rides and games can a couple do for $40 dollars? That’s enough for two wristbands that includes 18 tickets each.

More traditional rides, like the Century Carousel and the Giant 16 Wheel, are four tickets each, which would leave you both with 10 tickets for games.

Most games are five to six tickets, so if you’re looking to do a mix of both, the Rope Ladder is a competitive game that requires five tickets. To win, you climb up a ladder and must ring a bell twice to win a stuffed animal of your choice. The Hoop Shot game is also a fun opportunity to win a prize; one ball is five tickets.

If you aren’t as much about the games as you are about the rides, you could use the remaining 10 tickets to go on the Ring of Fire, which is six tickets, and use the rest for another round at the Century Wheel.

An alternative would be to go on Scooter, similar to the traditional bumper car games, for five tickets, and use the remainder for the Rope Ladder or Balloons, a game in which you can pop a balloon for five tickets to win a prize.

But with so many games in all rows of the fairgrounds, mixing and matching won’t be a problem.

What about $65? No problem

If the food is secondary to the rides and the games, having only $65 might not be an issue.

With $30 for the admission tickets and $10 for parking, that leaves $25 to get a $20 dollar wristband to share 18 tickets.

Traditional rides such as the Century Carousel and the Giant 16 Wheel would leave 10 tickets. These could be used for a couple of games or for another ride, like Scooter or Haywire.

And with the free events going on throughout the day, the admission pass is enough for entertainment while waiting to figure out the next ride.

Other ways you can save

Mary Kae Repp, lead marketing manager for the fair, said there are discounts this week to help reduce the costs.

On Wednesday, there will be free admissions for frontline workers, which includes police officers, firefighters, ambulance drivers, EMTs and anyone who works at a hospital. All they need is an ID badge to get free admission all day through complimentary tickets at Carpet Barn.

There also are two big discounts on Sunday. With the help of the Spokane Teachers Credit Union, educators, both public and private, can get free admission all day. All they need to show is a pay stub or an ID.

That same day, if you have a kid and are planning to go, if you donate a new or gently used coat at the fair entrance, you can receive a free admission for kids 13 and younger.

Admission tickets are also $13 on Wednesday and Thursday, rather than the regular price of $15 on Friday through Sunday.

“We worked really hard this year to continue some discounts because we know it’s important to try to help people out,” Repp said.