A relative of mine is currently on an international trip with her kids and posting about it regularly. I've been vicariously enjoying it and so pleased to see her and the kids get to go to beautiful, exotic places--smartly, on a budget, with her very no-nonsense attitude. They stay at AirBnB's, shop at grocery stores to make their own meals, walk instead of getting taxis, etc.. It shows that it is possible to see these things if you are smart, determined, plan in advance, and stick to a budget.
Today she posted about another way she saves money--by lying about her children's ages! Her older child turned 13 a couple of weeks ago, but many places they go, 12-year-olds and younger get steeply reduced or even free tickets, so she's just been telling ticket agents the child is 12, and has also downgraded the younger one from 11 to 10 years to make it more realistic. Also, she foolishly didn't mention this to the kids beforehand, so they actually had an argument about it in front of a ticket agent, ending with my cousin saying, "This is my kid, and I say how old he is!" I don't know how prevalent English is where they were, but she claimed other passengers gave them disapproving looks. The older child also leans towards looking older anyway.
This just really bugged me. I think part of it is the attitude--bragging, being proud of it. It reminded me of a former friend who would do stuff like put an old parking ticket on her own windshield, then park illegally all day--and then brag about it. In my cousin's case, since the kid just turned 13, it wouldn't seem totally unreasonable to me to just quietly say "12" when asked by a ticket agent, pay the lower price, and go on with your day. But obviously she should have warned her kids about it beforehand--like, "Okay, if you want to go to this museum, we're going to say you're still 12. Otherwise we can't afford to go." And once there was a correction in front of a ticket agent--"No, Mom, I'm 13!"--I would have immediately gone, "Oh that's right, he just had a birthday. Silly me," rather than get into an argument. Like, don't be so darn blatant about lying, and then brag about it online!
Even so, it's still lying, about something that's not a surprise. She knew when she scheduled the trip when the kid's birthday was! And she obviously has done a lot of research for this trip and knew how the kids' ages would affect things. I'm sure lots of factors went into the timing of the trip, but I think she should have said, "Okay, that's after his birthday, so his stuff will cost $X instead of $Y. Let's adjust our itinerary so we aren't spending as much money." It's one thing to save money by foregoing luxury and convenience, quite another to outright lie about restrictions that are pretty unambiguous.