Five Frugal Family Fun Ideas
You don’t have to spend a lot to get a lot of fun. Follow these five suggestions for inexpensive ways to create lifelong happy memories.
1. Buy an Annual Pass
If your town has a zoo or an amusement park, it can be incredibly expensive to pay full admission price every time you visit. An annual pass usually costs about the same as two full price admission tickets, but it gives you access to the park all year long. Once you have an annual pass, you can take everyone to the attraction every weekend if you like. Many zoos have become part of an affiliate program, so your annual pass to a zoo in one city will be honored at a zoo in another city.
2. Visit a Museum
Almost every town has at least one art or history museum to explore. Some museums are free, while others charge a modest admission price. The current trends in museum exhibits include multi-media displays that are fascinating for children and adults. You can spend an afternoon going back in time or discovering a new artist that you hadn’t heard of before. Interactive museums have staff members who dress up in period costumes and recreate the experience of what it was like for regular people who lived in a distant time. Your museum visit will be informative as well as fun for the whole family.
3. Camp Out Inside
When the weather is too cold or rainy to go camping, you can build your own tent in the house. Pull two chairs together and drape a large blanket across the top to create an intimate tent that is the perfect size for one or two people. Children love to imagine that they are camping out in the wilderness when they sleep under these improvised blanket tents. It can be fun to transform your living room into a campground for the afternoon and see where your imagination can take you. The climate is always perfect, and there is no cost for the adventure.
4. Watch a Little League Game
Professional sporting events have become expensive, especially if you want to take the whole family. Most towns host their own recreational little league teams at local parks. You could treat the family to a baseball or football game for free if you visit the little league park almost any spring or summer evening. Weekend tournaments might charge small admission fees, but you can follow a specific team through the tournament until one team comes out on top. Recreational basketball leagues also tend to be free for anyone to watch during the regular season. Check with your local community center to find a game near you.
5. Go on a Photo Excursion
With current digital camera technology, it can be very inexpensive to play photographer for a day. Take your camera to a local park or downtown area and take pictures of everything you see. You could focus your photography on local wildlife, like squirrels and birds. You could create a photo journal about the architecture of your city. Anyone can take dozens of photos and keep them or delete them without having to pay for the development costs. Be creative and take crazy pictures from all different angles just to see how they come out. This will be both create and education for you and your kids.
Jessica Bosari enjoys blogging about ways to save money for LowIncomeApartmentFinder.com, a site that matches renters to cheap apartments nearby.
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These are really nice options for family to be together in frugal ways. I often visit museum and national shrines in field trips before. Maybe I will try these ways to bond with family members more.