Fun Activities for Frugal Families

Need an idea for fun that will keep you and your kids entertained while staying within your budget? Here are 30 creative, fun, and easy ideas to meet your needs, and make spending time with your family something you will always look forward to.

1) Go to a matinee showing of a movie.
2) Pick fruit at a local orchard.
3) Build a card house.
4) Have a picnic in the park.
5) Hold a neighborhood music recital in your home. Give the children a week to prepare and serve refreshments after the recital.
6) Learn a card trick.
7) Hold a scavenger hunt at the mall. Divide the family into two teams and let your children lead you to things on the list you have created. Call the other team on your cell phones with updates.
8) Go bowling.
9) Make a Diet Coke and Mentos geyser in your backyard.
10) Go to the dog park.
11) Make an exploding margarine tub with nothing but baking soda and vinegar.
12) Make a funny video, upload it on YouTube, and send it to your friends.
13) Make an origami project together.
14) Go to the zoo.
15) Visit the library.
16) Unleash your inner Jackson Pollack by painting splatter artwork.
17) Play a board game.
18) Build a water glass xylophone and play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
19) Rent a video.
20) Play a round of miniature golf.
21) Go garage saling with $10.
22) Take a weekend vacation to a friend's cabin.
23) Cheer up someone you know with a collection of "Your Special" homemade cards from everyone in your family.
24) Make paper airplanes at the park, and have a contest to see who's plane flies the farthest.
25) Participate in free workshops at your local craft or home improvement store.
26) Make an indoor fort with nothing more than bed sheets and cloths pins.
27) Play a round of indoor golf in your own home. Use glass tumblers for the holes and a homemade putter.
28) Make a homemade trumpet from a plastic soda bottle neck (mouthpiece), cardboard tube (main part) and a funnel (bell). Tape it together with packing tape.
29) Make a reading caterpillar made from a series of circles cut from construction paper. Start with a cute face, and then add a circle each time your child completes a book. Write the name of the book on the circle. Keep the caterpillar on your refrigerator.
30) Bake cookies. Yum!