It’s the night before we officially celebrate our nation’s Independence Day, though you’d think it was already the 4th based on all the snap, crackle, popping and occasional BOOM! going on outside all over my hometown in Kansas. And these are just the amateurs!
We just arrived at my parent’s house and can’t yet answer the question for ourselves of how much we’ll spend on fireworks; we’re waiting until The Day for our own purchases, taking the lead from my 12yo cousin to try to steal a few deals at the last-minute. The forecast is calling for rain tomorrow, so cross your fingers and say a little prayer: My sister is hosting a huge 4th of July Extravaganza, and lots of little hearts will be crushed if it gets rained out. (Lots of big hearts, too, if we’re honest.)
My sister and bro-in-law host an Independence Bash every year, but we’ve rarely been able to attend, what with our living all over hither and yon. Laws on shooting fireworks vary from State to State: Growing up in Kansas, we could start them at sunset the night before the 4th and continue until the 5th, if I remember right. Based on the racket going on outside as I type, I’d say nothing’s changed.
The laws in Ohio are quite strict. You can buy fireworks there, but you can’t legally ignite most of them.
I really don’t get that.
The law is not heartily enforced, however; I happen to know that people in Ohio are lighting them anyway… (That is, I think I heard of that happening once. *wink-wink*)
I’ve known of people spending thousands of dollars on fireworks every year. Just for themselves their kids. I’d say laying down a few hundred dollars is quite commonplace…
How about you? Are fireworks a major line-item in your budget every July? Do you get sparklers and call it good? (Do you live in a State where Sparklers are the only thing that’s legal?) Do you keep the kids up till midnight and brave the crowds and mosquitoes and enjoy your local fireworks display? (Do you ignore the whole thing and go to bed early?)
I wish you all a wonderful 4th of July filled with lots of fun and fellowship and meat on the grill. May you all enjoy the holiday without breaking the bank! Regardless, please share in the comments how much you splurge (or not) for the holiday. Inquiring minds do want to know. I will be updating our total as soon as I know it. Stay tuned.
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I spent 0. Was I suppose to spend money? I did not get the memo.
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We spent $64 dollars on fireworks. First time we have bought them. Our daughter is 10. We attend a large fireworks show, this time we stopped at a stand to buy sparklers for our daughter and my hubby thought it would be fun to buy a few fountains-the only kind legal in Idaho, although you can buy just about everything on a reservation, or some neighboring states. Anyway, this was a first. We set them off the next night after the big show.
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jolyn Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
And was it worth it? Are you glad you bought the fireworks, that is? My kids had a great time with what we bought here, combined with what other family members bought. (In the few minutes of break we had from the rain!)
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Here’s our tally: $165 on fireworks, $9.50 on red, white, and blue fingernail polish to do our own patriotic manicures and pedicures (which turned out adorable by the way!), $6 on two pairs of flag flip flops to appropriately show off our adorable patriotic pedicures, $50 on gas to go visit a friend for the long weekend, and that’s it since she refused to let me pay for any groceries while we were there! They probably spent about twice what we did on fireworks, so we had quite show down on the farm!!
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jolyn Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Ooh, I’m going to do the patriotic manicures next year! Olivia will love it.
Almost $500 is quite a lot of fireworks! What fun! We had enough of a break in the rain to do some ourselves out front of my parent’s house. So many neighbors were out, there was so much smoke it looked like a war zone! The neighbors across the street didn’t do any; they just lined up their chairs and enjoyed the show. I’m not exactly sure the total of what everyone spent, though I do know that we paid $40 ($40.80, to be exact) on ours and my BIL said he paid about $30. They bought them on July 4, so there were many discounts. We’d been having monsoon rains in this part of Kansas, so we weren’t even sure we would be doing any fireworks at all. I’m sure all the stands were glad to see the waves of people come by when the clouds finally parted enough for people to start setting money on fire! 
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We do a big family party each year. Normally I buy sparklers and call it good because my cousin runs the fire works stand for the church and usually gets good deals. This year we all gathered up some money and had a total of $120 to spend $50 of our own money. But we had a higher roller in the group who spent at least $200 before the 4th and another $150 to combine with our money to get a big package for the kids. He kept asking my hubby at the fireworks booth, “Are you sure the kids will be happy? Are you sure?” I couldn’t even imagine spending that much. We had a total of 15 kids, so if it was just my family I’m sure we would head to the local fire works show and get a few sparklers and snakes.
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jolyn Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
What a crack up! He was probably glad to have the excuse of the kids to have some fun himself.
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I hope you’ll have a wonderful time with your family.
We went to watch the fireworks and then had dessert at a cafe later. We only spent $20 for the whole holiday.
Aloha!
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jolyn Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
And aloha to you! So glad to see you here!
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Our town does a fireworks display. I bought some sparklers for the kids and a box of ice cream treats. Total cost was 7 dollars. Oh and bugspray, but we already had that.
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Oddly enough, in a neighboring town they do their celebration on the 3rd every year, so I went to a BBQ and fireworks show last night for free. Tonight I’ll walk down to the beach here and watch the ones off the Queen Mary. All free for me. I would maybe buy sparklers if I had kids, but I think that’s it. My dad used to joke that he was just going to light a $50 bill on fire and have all the kids watch it burn in the street. I always think of that when I see the stands.
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jolyn Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Ha! the rain finally let up here and my husband and BIL went out and got some fireworks and had a grand time with the kids in the street. After a really good one w/ go off we’d yell, “Hey, how much did that 30 seconds just cost?”
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We spent $205 at Phantom Fireworks this year. This is a little more than usual, but the kids really enjoy it, so we splurge in this area.
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jolyn Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
I totally get that. Between us and our family here all buying some fireworks, we had a good amount and the kids had a blast — once it finally stopped raining, that is.
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So far, we have spent a big fat ZERO on fireworks — it’s raining and showing no signs of stopping!
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Our town will have fireworks on the river tonight. And a local band decided this week to offer their services for free, as the usual concert was canceled for budgetary reasons.
Happy Fourth to all, but be careful!
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jolyn Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Fireworks on the river sounds grand! We will be celebrating near water ourselves. Unfortunately, it’s the sort falling out of the sky.
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Our town also cancelled our legendary fireworks this year, which happened to take place yearly in the park right across the street from my house. Now there is truly no redeeming aspect of living in this house. We are headed to Cape May, so will see fireworks this evening over the Atlantic. It’s over an hour away, so we’ll be spending on gas, and eats, and to park, and beach tags if they have them there (a NJ phenomenon.) I’d say $80-$100 total.
Funny thing about the laws regarding fireworks. We live very near PA. In PA, there are fireworks sales, but it’s illegal to sell to a PA resident. I believe they are allowed to ignite them, however. On the other hand, they can freely sell to NJ residents, but they are totally illegal in NJ. It’s the weirdest situation. Happy 4th of July. Send us some rain.
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jolyn Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
Ok. That is severely messed up. What is with these laws?
Yes, please take some rain! It finally stopped here, so maybe you got some?
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Cathie Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Nope, no rain in sight. Heat and humidity galore, upwards of 100 degrees F today. Here’s the final tally: gas $25, tolls $2, parking free, beach tags $10, umbrella rental $7, pizza $21 (yikes!) fudge $11 (hey, we were at the BEACH-you gotta get fudge!) and a really awful cup of coffee for the long late ride home, $2. So, final number $78. We’re bbq-ing today, so if you count what I bought for that I guess we’d hit $100, but I’m counting that as regular groceries.
Enjoy your vacation!
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We bought a $29 kit from Walmart.
Our town actually canceled the big display this year due to budget cuts. Typically, they were shot over the river, and it was a great display. But the display, security, etc runs about 65k and I guess they decided that money needed to go elsewhere.
We aren’t fighting crowds or going anywhere. Burgers on the grill. Ice cream and magic shell for dessert. And $29 worth of fireworks. Happy 4th!
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