How to Have Fun with Children on a Limited Income

For those of us who's Silver Spoon was more the color of a wooden one, sometimes, whether we want to or not, we are forced to economize. We not are able to hop on a plane and fly to some exotic country just to find ourselves, but there certainly are things we can do just by adding a little imagination. No, I am not trying to imitate Barney here!

The hardest part for me was when my son came along. I wanted to lavish him with gifts but my wallet just wouldn't let me. I had to find ways to entertain him without leaving us homeless. These are just some of the ideas and hints I have picked up along the way.

As you all know, just entertaining the thought of going to a movie these days will just about cost you an arm and a leg. Eight dollars for the movie each, five dollars for the popcorn, three dollars for the candy, and two dollars for a drink. Before you know it, you have spent about eighteen dollars and that doesn't even include gas there and back.

I started thinking, there has to be a way for me to do things with my son, without having to risk not having enough to cover the weekly bills. Let me tell you what I started doing.

First, I started getting the local paper. It was a Christmas present from my mother, and little did I know at the time, but probably the best one I got that year. At first I was using the newspapers for lining the bird cage. I was cleaning the cage one day when I found the most interesting article. It was called "Community Events". I read further down the page and I noticed that there were actually events listed there that you could attend and bring your children and, now here is the best part, they were absolutely free! All you had to do was just show up.

A lot of local churches and organizations had the same ideas that I did. Just because you do not have a lot of money does not mean you should miss out on having fun. I even found that going to Community Plays was better than going to the movies, since you can actually meet the characters when a play is over.

Most of the Community Events cost little or no money. It turns out that most all newspapers dedicate a section to support this cause. Especially around holidays you can find all kinds of things to do. You children will never realize that you are trying to economize; they will just assume that you are spoiling them rotten.

Should you be unable to find a Community Event for a certain weekend, you can always resort to your own imagination and creativity. For instance, you can have Cookie Night! On Cookie Night, you can mix up a batch of simple sugar cookie mix, break out the cookie cutters, and let the kids design there own cookies. You can get sprinkles and frosting for next to nothing at the local Dollar Stores.

Another great idea is to have a Scavenger Hunt. You will need to live in a town with a local Goodwill for this to work. You give your children two or three dollars and make a game of it. The person who can find the most unusual or interesting things for the price allotment wins! You can actually get several things most of the time at Goodwill for less than a couple dollars. Also, make sure to emphasize that you need to look through all those random boxes since you never know what treasures you may find. One mans trash is another mans treasure.

You may also try a picnic in the park. This is just an old original, but one that never fails to be exciting. You can let the children help put the picnic basket together too. You can also add a theme just to make things more interesting. Perhaps you are going on a picnic in the jungle. Set you blanket up around some trees and make up games while you eat. Let them make animal sounds and you guess what animal it is.

There are tons of things you can do on a fixed budget. These are just some of the ideas and things I have done in the past. Sometimes you just need a little nudge in the right direction!