FREE on Pesach 2025

I just HAD to take a break from Pesach cleaning to share this with you all!

Here's the list of Bank Hapoalim's free attractions for Pesach 2025. I have linked to websites in English, whenever possible. I hope you find this list helpful, and that you get to have some super-frugal fun over Pesach!

*Please note that I put a lot of effort into this post, tracking down websites in English for your convenience. I know the Bank Hapoalim info and other info is available to the public in Hebrew, but this blog post has added benefits for the English-speaking community. Because it was so much work, I request that you link back to this post if you share this information. Thank you!*

Please leave a comment with your favorite place to visit!

If you haven't already, go ahead and like my Facebook page so you don't miss out on deals and great info all year round!

The following are free to the public (April 14-18) courtesy of Bank HaPoalim. Pre-registration is required, and will open on Sunday, April 9. Click here to register

North:

Ancient Katzrin Park

Dubrovin Farm

Homa V'Migdal - Kibbutz Chanita Museum

Hula Valley Lake 

Mt. Hermon

Umm El-fahem Art Gallery

Regba Aqueduct

Botanical and Zoological Garden Nahariya

Druze Heritage Center

The Wilfrid Museum

Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod

The Ghetto Fighters' House Museum

The Golan Archaeological Museum

The Treasures in The Walls Museum

Yigal Allon Center

The National Maritime Museum

The Haifa Museum of Art

The Janco-Dada Museum 

Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art

The Haifa City Museum

Hermann Struck Museum

Central Israel & The Sharon Region:

Beit HaGalgalim - House of Wheels

Planetanya

The Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art

Yaacov Agam Museum of Art

The Yemenite Jewry Heritage Museum

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art

The Nachum Gutman Museum of Art

Anu Museum of the Jewish People

The Rabin Center Israeli Museum

The Israeli Cartoon Museum

The Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art

The Rubin Museum

Bialik House

Jerusalem Area: 

Hasmonean Aqueduct in Armon Hanetziv

Israel Museum

Jerusalem Walls Tour

The Bible Lands Museum

The Hasmonean Heritage Museum (Modiin)

Museum of Islamic Art

South:

Meshek 77 (Strawberry picking and more)

Kibbutz Chatzerim Visitors Center

The Tzon Barzel Heritage Museum

Meshek Haviv

The Dolphin and Sea Center, Ashdod

Lunada Children's Museum

Park Timna

Ben Gurion's Hut

Beta Israel Village

The Joe Alon Center for Bedouin Culture

The Legends of Yamit Visitors' Center

The Corinne Mamane Museum of Philistine Culture

The Salad Trail

Chavat HaDekalim Petting Zoo

Ron Art Judaica Studio

The Sea Museum, Palmachim

Other venues that are also FREE:

April 15-16, 10:00AM - 3:00PM: Register in advance

Dubrovin Farm

The Valley Train Site - Kfar Yehoshua
Old Courtyard - Kibbutz Ein Shemer

Herzliya City Museum

The Story of a Kibbutz, Yad Mordechai

Israel Parks and Nature: free guided tours at various sites. Register HERE 

More coming soon, as I find them!

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Have a great time!

Please share this with your friends, so everyone can plan a fun and frugal Pesach!

Find me on Facebook

If you want to find (and share!) shopping deals, please join my deals groups on Facebook: 

Kosher Frugal

Israeli Shopping Overseas 

Live in Israel, Shop Online 

Israel Deals Made Easy (in English) 

I'm also on WhatsApp with an opt-in group where you'll get links to deals I find. Only admins can post.

Deal: Balance Bike!

(this post contains affiliate links. When you click and make a purchase, I may get paid a commission. Thanks in advance for your support)

Shop from Home!

Here's another deal for people who don't feel like leaving the house! A Balance Bike - a great way for kids to get the hang of biking without training wheels. If you've never heard of these - check it out - it's not a traditional bike. (They give kids the skills and confidence needed to just take off when they are ready for a regular bike!)
This deal costs 119.90 + 29.90 shipping (which is less than I've seen it at other places)!

Click here to go to GROO to buy this deal! This deal won't last, though - so if you want it, grab it!

Don't forget to follow my page on Facebook and join my Facebook Deals group or my Whatsapp Deals group! Thanks!

Deal: Skechers Kids' Sandals!

(this post contains affiliate links. When you click and make a purchase, I may get paid a commission. Thanks in advance for your support)

Shop from Home!

Here's another deal for people who don't feel like leaving the house! These sandals are perfect for your little ones this summer! And right now, they are 99.90 and shipping is FREE!

Available in sizes 28-35

Click here to go to GROO to buy this deal! This deal won't last, though - so if you want it, you've got to grab it TODAY!

Stock up and now you'll be set for a while! 

Don't forget to follow my page on Facebook and join my Facebook Deals group or my Whatsapp Deals group! Thanks!

Budget-Friendly Snacks

If your kids are anything like mine, you'll hear "I'm hungry" a LOT this summer. It seems the business of being a kid really works up an appetite!!

So I'm trying to figure out how to keep our snacks healthy and filling, and inexpensive.

I find this much more difficult here in Israel than I did in the USA. There, I'd find healthy-ish crackers, pretzels, granola bars, and other convenience foods for truly ridiculously low prices - I used coupons, shopped sales, shopped at Big Lots and the "scratch n dent" food store. I always, always checked Target's clearance shelves (and almost always found an amazing deal - yes, even in the grocery section), and was not embarrassed to stock up on foods at Walmart when there was a great sale. When we lived practically next door to Aldi - I shopped there. Never once did I bump into anyone else from our little Jewish community at Aldi, though. I guess there was a stigma I did not care about, I preferred 19 cent deals!

But here - well, to be honest, the deals are harder to find. TRULY hard up here in the Golan with limited shopping options.

But - despite that, we still need to eat and most importantly, we need to feed our children!

So here's what we try to keep around for when the kids start the "I'm hungry" chorus:

Fresh fruit - we try to only buy the less expensive ones, so right now, pickings are slim. But since this varies week to week and season to season, we usually manage to keep somewhat of a variety of fruit around (right now we have apples, watermelon, and cantaloupe in plentiful quantities, other summer fruits are still a bit pricey).

Carrot sticks - carrots are usually one of the least expensive vegetables, and require no cooking. They can be dipped in something like techina or chummus or some other dip, or eaten plain

Cucumbers - same deal as the carrots, only they tend to be a bit more expensive than carrots.

Popcorn - we have a Popcorn Popper  so it's super easy to pop up a bowl of popcorn, and a bag of popcorn should cost less than 10 shekels/kg. I'm sure I paid 8 for a kilo last time I bought it. (I've seen some great deals at The Hut on small appliances like popcorn poppers, be sure to check them out!)

Homemade Crackers - very yummy, but a bit of work. Much less expensive than store bought crackers

Roasted Chick Peas - these are an amazing snack. Just toss chick peas (cooked and drained) with olive oil and spices. Place on a baking pan and roast in the oven at 200C till they are crispy. They are super-addictive, so don't say I didn't warn you!

Roasted lentils - same idea as the chick peas above, and even cheaper! I like the chick peas better though.

Banana chips - in general, dried fruits are pricey here, but I'm finding banana chips to be surprisingly affordable. And since I can only eat bananas that have been cooked, it's one of the few ways I can enjoy a banana!

Muffins, of course. I buy fruit from the sug bet rack regularly and make muffins. Lately I've been getting kishuim from the sug bet rack too, and we really like muffins made with them!

What are your go-to snacks? I'd love to hear!

Shokolada Kids - Exclusive Savings for you!

Shopping for new kids' clothing?

Have you ever heard of Shokolada? They sell really cute dresses and other clothes for kids (yes, they have a boys' department too, although it's a bit limited), and are not too expensive either! And they are based in Israel, so you won't have to wait long for delivery!

The have really cute cotton clothes that you're going to love.
 
They specialize in "twirly" skirts and dresses, which are, naturally, my daughters' favorites. They LOVE the dresses on this site!

And I have an exclusive coupon to share with you - valid for the first 20 people who use it!















Get 20 shekels off your purchase of 100 shekels or more (even on sale items!) when you use coupon code KF1505
 
 
Hurry! Coupon expires no later than June 1, 2015

Enjoy your savings!

 


 

How my boys got free glasses in under an hour

My boys both wear glasses. Not surprising, as I am severely myopic.

Both boys have been reminding me for several months that it's been over a year since they had their eyes checked. One said he couldn't see out of his glasses at all, and then, he even managed to break his glasses in half at the bridge just to prove his point! And this did, in fact, motivate me to check out my options. Buying glasses in this country, frankly, scares me. It's just so notoriously expensive, and I wasn't sure what to do...

BUT, I remembered that If you have Clalit Platinum, you can take your child (up to age 18) to any participating optician and get 600 shekels toward a new pair of glasses. In many cases, this amounts to free glasses.

I decided to go in Teverya (there are no participating opticians in Katzrin), as we had plans to be there on Friday anyhow. In the interest of saving time, I went to "Shimshon" because it was the closer of the two to where we'd parked (at my husband's workplace). We walked in, and found the store to be relatively crowded for such a small place of business.

But, to my surprise, within 5 minutes, an optician was taking down our insurance information, checking the boys' glasses for their latest prescription information, and getting testing underway. She convinced the optometrist to check them next. Then, when she saw how much the prescription for my younger son had changed, she convinced the staff to get these glasses done in time to take them home for Shabbat!

It was AMAZING. We walked in there around noon, and walked out at 12:50 pm with two new pairs of glasses, anti-reflective coatings and all, AND ZERO pressure to get upgrades, with no out of pocket payment whatsoever.

I'm thrilled, and my boys were also incredibly surprised that they got such stellar service!

For more information about joining Clalit or one of their upgraded plans, just click here to go straight to Clalit!

*this post contains affiliate links

Free access to BrainPop Israel

Brainpop Israel is opening up their site for free while "Operation Protective Edge" is going on.

In a goodwill gesture to the many children stuck at home for the summer, due to camp closures for safety reasons, Brainpop is giving access to their Hebrew and ESL programs!

So, if you (like me) wanted to see if Brainpop in Hebrew is as good as they say, let your kids try it out!

You'll still need to login, so use username and password שקט (for both)

Click to go to Brainpop Israel

I'd love to hear what you think of brainpop - let's compare notes!

Sorry - I have no way of knowing when this promotion will end.

Free kids' digital magazines (summer promo!)

We love the Cricket family of magazines. 

Not only are they ad-free, they are high quality, interesting, engaging, and all around perfect for my curious kids who love to read! There are so many of them - each with a different focus and on various reading levels.

 
This year, we bought 5 subscriptions and the kids were thrilled with the digital versions! They read and reread them. They discuss and debate them. They enter contests and send in comments.

And one of my kids is so proud that his note was published in one of the editions! 
(Look in the picture - he marked his submission! I guess those are his 15 seconds...)


I recently found out that they have made their summer editions available for free, for anyone to try.

To sign up for your free editions, check out Cricket's summer reading page.

Enjoy!

Here's more info about which magazines are available on various devices:

 

Chanukah!

It's Chanukah, and that means we all feel compelled to eat fried foods, right?

My plan for this afternoon is to try out making sufganiyot with my kids. I found this pretty easy-looking recipe on King Arthur Flour's site. I love their site, they have great baking tips and some awesome recipes (just some - others can be full of pricey, obscure ingredients that are not found in my kitchen!).

Here's the recipe we'll be using! I'll try to post our review later...