In this day and age, we all lead very busy lives. We get up in the mornings, rush out the door to work and send our children to daycare or school.. After we get done working for the day, we rush back home to prepare dinner, assist with homework and then it’s bedtime. With all of this going on in our busy lives, it is important to remember to schedule in some quality family time too!
When it comes to spending time with your family, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. If you don’t have the extra money in your budget, don’t worry….there are plenty of free and low cost things for you to do. Let’s take a look at a few of them today.
1. Family Game Night: The most common activity that most family’s do is to plan a weekly family game night. This night is usually held on the weekend and includes great food, beverages and a variety of board and card games.
2. Family Movie Night: Another popular family activity is to plan a weekly family movie night. This night is usually held on the weekend and includes snack food, beverages and a family-friendly movie that everyone will enjoy.
3. Go For A Nature Walk or Go Hiking: Taking the family outdoors for a nature walk or a hike in the country side, is a great way to spend time together while getting some much needed fresh air and exercise. Pack a brown bag lunch, a camera and a paper bag to collect some ‘nature’ things while you are spending some time outdoors.
4. Family Crafting Afternoon: Another great way to spend some time together is by planning an afternoon craft project to do together. Crafting doesn’t have to be expensive. You can all sit down and make greeting cards, scrapbook, paint, crochet, whatever. You can get a lot of frugal crafting ideas by visiting various online crafting platforms like Ashley Yeo.
5. Family Pizza Party: When you plan this, choose to make homemade pizzas so all of the family members can be involved. Children love to be in the kitchen and teaching them how to cook is a great educational experience for them to enjoy. You can get small individual pizza crusts so the kids can create their own healthy pizza
6. Attend Local Community Events: Here in our city there are a lot of free and low cost activities available for family’s to get out and do. Look for free ‘to attend’ festivals, music concerts, museum family fun days, sporting events, etc.
7. Volunteering: Many charitable organizations need volunteers and will accept groups consisting of your family members. You can check out local animal shelters, homeless shelters, medical and health charities, youth groups, churches, etc. This is a great way to spend time together as a family and give back to your community at the same time.
8. Exercise together: Exercise together by playing outdoor games like touch football, soccer, volleyball, basketball or even just go from a bike ride as a family. It is fun for all and a great way to spend an afternoon.
As you can see from this list of 8 ideas, spending time with your family doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. The most important thing is to schedule in ‘quality’ sessions of family time each and every week.
these are wonderful ideas – I feel so happy just reading it! No need to spend big bucks all the time – or ever, if you don’t have them!! Also, to me, probably more fun!
Owning a car is becoming more and more expensive. I live next to a very nice park, and we all walk there and bring a lunch and hike the trails! I can save money on gas by walking to the park with my family and having a free day! Also we go to library that we can walk to, and check out very good movies for free!
We recently started exercising together. It’s not free – but our rec center charges on $160 a year for our whole family to use the facility – that includes the fitness classes too! We have been using it like crazy this summer.
Our local library has many programs for families. There’s also some bowling alleys and movie theaters that offer kids deals. Having fun and spending time together is the important thing.
Remember your local public library when it comes to low cost or free things to do. You can check out DVDs and books for free. They usually have a summer reading program that you can all do together.
These are great tips for a family on a budget. My family and love staying home and watching movies. It’s much cheaper than going to the movies and spending a fortune at the concession stands. For exercise and to save money, we also like to go on walks at our local park and have picnics at the lake.
You are absolutely right about these inexpensive tips and I am glad to say that when my sons were younger I did all of these activities with my family. At the time it surprised me how much they enjoyed an activity where they had to do something to help or create it.