How to Have Family Fun Cheap
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Not everyone has enough money to visit places suggested as perfect for family outings. There are a lot of things people want nowadays, but with a family you have got to be budget-conscious to have fun. Here are soome ideas for how you can have family fun on a budget.
Steps
- Figure out what matters most to you. Is it:
- your home?
- your family?
- your food?
- your home?
- Prioritize the things that matter. All of these are important of course, but what do you enjoy the most? If it is all of them, you'll need to consider how you can juggle between them, to stretch your dollar as far as possible.
- Think about the sorts of things you like to do. It may be learning; outdoors activities; eating out; movies or other ideas. Once you have thought about these things, the next step is to consider the ways that you can do these things without it costing too much, or perhaps even for free.
- Look at the following activities and suggested "low-cost" or "free" alternatives. See which ones appeal to you and come up with more of your own alternatives as well:
- Learning activities: Visit the library. Libraries offer several resources that can be of great benefit for free or for a very low joining fee. You can borrow books (fiction, non-fiction, craft, art, hobbies, language, math, science etc.), music and reading CDs, DVDs and videos and even games and toys at some libraries. Save by not buying these things but borrowing them for the whole family; take the whole family to the library for regular visits, so that everyone can make their own choices. Libraries also offer a lot of activities such as "meet-the-author" sessions, book reading evenings and children's clubs. All of these are a great way to meet others and to have an enjoyable time.
- Rent movies and stop cable TV subscriptions: Get rid of cable TV costs through regular movie borrowing or cheap rental from DVD stores. Initially there will be withdrawal symptoms but soon you'll discover that between the movies you can borrow for free or rent for low prices and the free-to-air choices, you'll have plenty to watch. All the extra time you gain to spend together as a family is an enormous bonus!
- Increase your knowledge: You can learn a lot of new things from reading books (the ones you've borrowed from the library). A great way of learning is to base the learning on a famous novel. For instance, after reading a novel like Little House on the Prairie, your family could follow up the reading by borrowing books on farming during different periods of history. Learn together the different ways people have done things and how they are done today.
- Take up craft or homesteading activities: Try craft books, "free fun" books, homesteading books (old-fashioned knowledge and tips), games books and science books (kids love the experiments). You could have a fair in your house - make up the games and have events like balloon dart-throwing.
- Learning activities: Visit the library. Libraries offer several resources that can be of great benefit for free or for a very low joining fee. You can borrow books (fiction, non-fiction, craft, art, hobbies, language, math, science etc.), music and reading CDs, DVDs and videos and even games and toys at some libraries. Save by not buying these things but borrowing them for the whole family; take the whole family to the library for regular visits, so that everyone can make their own choices. Libraries also offer a lot of activities such as "meet-the-author" sessions, book reading evenings and children's clubs. All of these are a great way to meet others and to have an enjoyable time.
- Make the most of city life. Cities offer a lot of free events - hit every free event imaginable with your family and enjoy them. These include parades, outdoor concerts, national day celebrations, marathons, charity runs, food promotional fairs, art displays, children's events and more. Keep an eye on the newspaper or internet for upcoming freebies to attend. Many museums and galleries have "free days" where you can visit for nothing at all. Don't forget to take a packed lunch or meal and plenty of water. Saves queueing as well as money!
- Visit garage sales. What other people no longer want, you might get for a song. make it a day's event to trawl around garage sales in your area. Even the haggling can be fun and you never know what you might find.
- Take a "field trip" downtown. Many cities, towns and villages have amazing buildings in their central district. Pack a great lunch (sandwiches, drinks etc) and catch the bus in to go "sight-seeing" as a tourist might. You can glimpse animals outside the zoo on the way, ride the elevator to the top of the biggest building to look out the windows and if you and the kids look presentable and well mannered and you ask the receptionist at the top office nicely to look out the window they'll probably say yes. Learn all that you can about the buildings from plaques on the walls, signs or a library book on the history of your area. If you become really knowledgeable, you might even end up telling tourists in the area more about what they're looking at!
- Shop wisely. Visit the bulk buying area at the grocery store and save money on the things you need (don't buy things you don't use just because they're cheap - it's still a waste of money if you won't use it.)
- Have a "junk food party" at home. Save on restaurants or fast food places by letting the kids enjoy the fast food at home. When shopping, buy the "junk food" items and store them at home for special days. Another way to make junk food stretch is to only buy some of the junk food (like a burger each) and then cook the rest at home (store brand or homemade fries/soda pop, for instance). It'll taste a lot better and it goes a lot further. If you do want to eat out, buy the burgers and split the fries, take your own drinks and extra food items with you and eat it all in the park instead of inside the restaurant. (Take the picnic gear and it'll feel 100% better than staying in the restaurant!) Do the same with take-out - only order some of it (e.g., the pizza) and make the rest at home (e.g., the salad, the rice, the wings, the sauces etc.)
- Be home savvy. Learn some enormously useful skills that 'll save you a lot in the long run. For instance, learn to sew and use your hot glue gun. Visit the dollar stores for bargains and also visit used (secondhand) stores and thrift stores, which have a lot of goodies that people don't want anymore but are still in terrific condition. Learn to dress up old stuff! Finding a bargain can in itself become a real addiction and as you learn more, you'll find more bargains.
Tips
- Try this fun home fair game: use an old fridge box, cut out holes for your heads (box laying sideways) and take turns being the "groundhog" sticking your heads out with the rest of the family shooting at the heads with squirt guns and even the hose! See if the "groundhog" can duck back in fast enough.
- When you shop, plan an 'at home restaurant type meal'; it'll still be cheaper to make it at home. Buy a bag of shrimp or a fancy fish. Don't buy the stuff and still go out to eat. If you stick to it and make the out-of-the-ordinary meal at home, it will be cheaper than going out.
- Another good at-home meal is making burgers and hot dogs but make all of the fixin's: Cut up tomatoes and cook bacon, heat up some hot dog sauce n' sauerkraut. Have it all out to make your own ultimate burger or hot dog.
- When reupholstering, you can use a scrap fabric that's "close to", if not perfectly what you want, and staple gun the thing to the underside of the chair or other item that you're doing up.
- Curtains are a three step process, anyone who can use scissors and a sewing machine can do it.
- To get your hands on a sewing machine: If you think hard, you probably know someone who has one. They could show you how to thread it, if you can do this you can work it. Another place to try is thrift stores; leave you name and phone number with a request for the next one that comes in.
- Swags are just flowers you like and that match your home, arranged on anything you can bend into a swag shape (hanger, a stick): Just hot glue them until they look good. It's a great past time to pull apart old arrangements and "refresh" them by giving them a rinsing and gluing them like this.
Warnings
- Don't go to a federal or government building asking to look around unless you know in advance that they allow tours. They will only say "no" and they may not be polite about it either.
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