Welcome! I’m glad you found us!
Wichita on the Cheap is all about living the good life no matter what your budget. We help by spreading the word about fun, family-friendly events, local places, and deals you can get online or right here in Wichita. We also pass along friendly advice or helpful tips for saving and other content that makes life better. You don’t have to live outside your means to live a full and fun life. You can totally do this!
About The Team
Carolyn Erickson is a transplant to Wichita who started Wichita on the Cheap back when her hair wasn’t gray (if that tells you anything).
Emily is a Wichita native, a wife, and a mom of five awesome kids. She loves exploring our city and state with them – especially when she can do it “on the cheap!”
Julia is a grad student who has traveled far and wide. Born and raised in Wichita, she’s enjoyed our wonderful annual events and local places her whole life!
Patti is a veteran journalist and the editor of Ft. Lauderdale on the Cheap. She is an expert at getting information and she keeps us all in-the-know by updating some of our most popular content.
A. Kid has spent nearly every summer and school break contributing writing, research, and photography. Even when she was very young, she always gave out business cards, and was extra careful to stay quiet when Mommy was on a work call.
About the Network
Wichita on the Cheap is a member of the Living on the Cheap network, which is a national network of frugal folks who like to share money-saving info about the cities in which they live.
How It All Started – the Backstory
by Carolyn Erickson
At Botanica on Mothers Day, early 21st century
Here’s a photo of my daughter and I at Botanica one Mothers Day when they had free admission for moms. It was such a treat. But I would have completely missed it if a friend hadn’t happened to mention it to me the day before. Back then, I would usually hear about a great deal or event after it had already happened and people were buzzing about how much fun they had. There wasn’t a website like Wichita on the Cheap to keep track of all the affordable things to do in Wichita, but I really wished there was!
It was serendipitous that a fellow writer in another state was starting a national network of “on the Cheap” blogs (now known as Living on the Cheap) at about the same time I was thinking, “Someone ought to write about free events in Wichita before they happen.”
Whenever I hear myself say “someone ought to,” I know that “someone” ought to be me. Or – if it’s not going to be me – I’m not going to give myself permission to complain about no one doing it.
I pitched the idea to a magazine I was writing for at the time but they weren’t interested, so I joined the network and wrote my first post – about Smithsonian Magazine’s Free Museum Day – in September of 2009. I was so nervous about it that I didn’t share it with a soul. But by December that year, I had heard about so many great freebies and deals that I couldn’t keep them to myself, and I began writing several times a week and sharing them on social media.
Today, readers consistently say they appreciate the positive, family-friendly, and local-oriented nature of the publication and the community of readers. Feel free to join the tens of thousands of people who make up that community on Facebook, Twitter, and via the free email newsletter subscription.
Anyway, the point is that no matter what your income level, there’s good, clean fun to be had here in Wichita, on the cheap.
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