How To: Getting in cheap to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific

When you live on a student budget, you have to watch how you spend what precious dollars you have. So when it comes to attending museums, parks, gardens and what have yous, I try to score student pricing of some kind. Seriously, do I want to pay $20 to enter a museum where I'm going to get yelled at for being too close to the artwork, taking pictures with a tripod, or just taking pictures (yeah, SFMOMA, I'm talking about you)? Let's get realistic here, $20 gets me 200 packets of instant noodles, which will last me quite some time.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. The first thing you have to do is make sure you are a California resident. If you're not, stop reading this. The next step is to get yourself to one of the many Long Beach Library branches, and get yourself a library card. Third, go and check out a couple of books. They'll let you check out two, until you get your real library card which is being mailed out to you. You'll be presented a receipt with your books that lets you get up to 4 people in at a discounted admission price.

After obtaining your receipt from checking out your two books, get yourself to the admission booth for the aquarium, present your library receipt, and revel in the fact that not only did you save yourself 50% on admissions, but you now have books to read, and soon, a library card that you can use to check out 25 books at a time.