Tag Archives: Frugal Fun

Cheap (or free!) summer activities for kids

swingingOh, summer. I have made no secret about the fact that it’s not my personal favorite time of year. Southern Indiana turns into a swamp in July. But I am determined to make the most of summer this year, so I’ve spent some time compiling a list of activities to fill up our schedule without draining my wallet.

Here are some of the ways we’ll be keeping busy this summer:

Discounted or free kids’ movies

Judah has never been to a theater. He really wasn’t ready to sit for that long before his brother was born, and I wasn’t about to take a newborn to a movie theater even for a matinee. Many theater chains are offering second-run morning movies during the weekdays in the summer, and it seems like a perfect opportunity to introduce a preschooler to the movie theater. At a buck or two per ticket, the risk of leaving in the middle of the movie with a restless kid isn’t so intimidating. Check with your local theater, but here are some nationwide programs:

Kids Bowl Free

Sign up to get two free bowling games per kid, per day all summer long at select bowling centers with this program. Age ranges vary, but some go up to 15 years old. You’ll still have to pay for shoe rental and adult games. Find a participating bowling center in your area and get more information at Kids Bowl Free.

Summer reading programs

Reading is free AND educational, and most libraries have a ton of programs and story hours available for free — not to mention thousands of free books and movies available for hours of entertainment for both kids and parents.

You can also participate in these reading programs for fun incentives.

  • Pizza Hut’s Book-It Summer Reading Program offers prizes for kids in grades K-6 who meet summer reading goals.
  • Barnes and Noble is giving away free books to kids in grades 1-6 who read 8 books this summer.
  • My personal favorite bookstore Half Price Books has an awesome summer reading program — track 300 minutes of reading with your child each month in June and July, and submit your reading log to get $5 in gift certificates each month. All kids under age 14 are eligible, so you can even track minutes with a newborn and use the gift card to build your baby’s library!
  • The “1000 Books Before Kindergarten” program offers fun incentives through local libraries and an iPhone app that allows you to track your reading progress for your preschooler.

Many bookstores also offer free story hours if you’re looking for some air conditioned fun, so be sure to check their events calendars for more information.

Take a hike

Early mornings and evenings are a great time to get out into nature for a walk or a hike before it gets too hot. This hiking trail database lists trails by state to help you find a state park or recreational trail near you. The American Heart Association also has a handy tool for finding paved walking tracks if the great wilderness isn’t your thing.

Kids Eat Free deals

If you’re going out to eat, you might as well get a free meal for your kids. Money Saving Mom has a great master list of kids eat free deals updated regularly to help you find a deal for most weekdays.

What are you up to with your kids this summer? Share your ideas in the comments!

How to throw a toddler birthday party for cheap

I grew up with three sisters, and I was third born, so birthday parties weren’t a yearly deal for us. We each had a party or two to celebrate big milestones, but my mom didn’t throw a huge party for each of us every year — and I don’t blame her. I probably won’t either.

For Judah’s first birthday, we had a small party with cake and food for family only. This year, I’ve made friends with some families near us who have children around Judah’s age, so I wanted to have a fun kid party to celebrate what we’re hoping will be Judah’s last birthday as an only child. When I started researching party ideas, I was shocked at how expensive most party venues are. I would love to have a backyard barbecue, but that’s not really an option for November in Indiana, and I was afraid to let loose 10+ kids under 4 in my living room. By making a few compromises, we were able to celebrate Judah’s second birthday with all his friends without spending a fortune.

Throw a joint party.

I’m lucky to have a friend whose son is just 5 days older than Judah. It was her idea to combine their parties this year, and I’m so glad we did it that way. We share a lot of friends, so our guest lists would have had a lot of overlap anyway, and we were able to split the cost of the venue, food, and decorations between two families. At 2 years old, the boys didn’t mind sharing their parties a bit, and since we were both pretty laid back about the party, my friend and I didn’t have any trouble planning it together.

Plan ahead.

I was particularly proud of the goody bags, which included a 24-pack of crayons, a full-sized Play Doh, some Play Doh molds, fruit snacks, and a print out coloring sheet. The Sesame Street “Thank You” sign is an Internet printable that my friend found on Pinterest, and we used Zip lock bags to hold everything. I bought the crayons in bulk during the back-to-school sales for 50 cents a box, and my friend got the Play Doh in a Black Friday sale for under 50 cents each, so each bag cost us under $2. And of course splitting the costs between the two of us made them even less expensive. I was happy to hand out fun toys that the kids would actually use instead of cheap things that would be thrown away or lost before they even made it home.

For toddlers, all you really need is a lot of space.

We called the zoo, inflatable play places, museums — all of them wanted $300+ for a 2-3 hour party, not including food. Even though we were splitting the cost, that was just too much for a toddler party. Finally we found a fun play place that’s really just a giant open space with lots of toys where the kids can run around. It cost $100 for 15 kids and 2 hours of play.

Other cheap (or free) options we considered:

  • Many local libraries have conference rooms that can be rented out for cheap or even free.
  • Your home if you have the space for it and the energy/desire to clean before and after the party.
  • A park or your own backyard if weather permits.

As long as the kids have room to run around, you won’t need to plan activities or games. It’s hard to wrangle kids and keep their attention anyway, and you’ll kill yourself trying to plan things. Since we only had two hours, and our boys are too young to have any expectations for gifts, we also asked our guests not to worry about presents. This gave the kids more time to play and saved us the trouble of coordinating gift opening for two active toddlers.

Always buy less food than you think you’ll need.

RSVPs are notoriously inaccurate for kid parties. Kids get sick, they miss their naptimes, things happen. We ended up with about half as many kids and parents as we expected. Add to that the fact that the kids were too busy playing to eat much (Judah ate a single bite of pizza and threw a mega tantrum when we got home because we was starving, pfft). We ended up with about 8 whole pizzas to get rid of at the end of the party (we ordered 15). Keep all of this in mind when ordering, and try not to overdo it. In fact, for very young children, you’re probably better off serving just finger foods and cake and having the party between meal times (2-4 pm, for instance). Trying to get the kids to sit still and eat is almost impossible, and without a big meal there will be more time for play.

Make a cake.

Since the boys were sharing the party, I wanted them each to have a cake. I am hopeless when it comes to decorating, and anything I made would likely end up looking like those failed Cookie Monster cupcakes we’ve all seen on Pinterest. So I ordered a small cake from the grocery store for $15. My friend’s mom is a talented cake decorator who made this adorable Elmo cake for the price of the cake pan and ingredients. Surprisingly, most of the cake did get eaten, so I don’t regret our decision to serve two small cakes. I probably could have saved a ton by baking a simple cake and decorating it with toys he already has (the baker at the grocery store suggested cars or dinosaur figures).

What are your tips for frugal kid parties? I’d love to hear them in the comments.

Why are you still paying for cable?

For the record: I am not being compensated in any way by Netflix, PlayStation, or anyone else to write this post. I am just sharing our setup, and I welcome your tips and recommendations in the comments for how you get around paying a cable bill.

Once upon a time, cable television was one of our only planned indulgences. We knew it was expensive, but we liked it. We thought it saved us money by keeping up entertained at home, and we liked having something to watch in the evening.

In September, we finally cut the cable, and we cut $60 out of our monthly entertainment budget. Around Christmas time, our future brother-in-law gifted us a Playstation 3 that he wasn’t using, which enabled us to stream Netflix to our television. Using a simple rabbit ear antenna, our television picks up all of the network stations in perfect digital HD. Now there is very little we could get from cable that we’re not getting from our current setup.

Current television shows

For our favorite TV shows that are currently on the air, we have two options. Sometimes if we’re home at the right time and we’re not busy, we just tune in live. We’re busy, though, and we’re reformed DVR addicts. So what do we do if we miss the network broadcast of 30 Rock or Lost? We stream it on Hulu or the network’s website whenever we want to watch it.

TV on DVD

One of our favorite things about Netflix Instant Play is that we’ve been able to catch up on TV shows we never watched. For instance, after listening to the hype about “Lost” for years, we discovered that all six previous seasons were available on Netflix in December. Beginning around Christmas and continuing until February, we caught up on all six seasons in a few months. Bonus? No annoying cliff hangers.

Movies

For movies, we have also two options: Netflix Instant Play, which offers a huge list of movie and TV show options, or Netflix by mail, which is where we get newer releases. If we decide to watch a new release at the spur of the moment, there’s always Redbox.

If you’re considering kicking cable, I promise: you will not miss it. Thanks to all of the entertainment technology available today, you have plenty of options to keep yourself entertained.

Netflix Instant Play is also available on XBox and (soon) Wii. If you’re not a gamer, or you don’t want to drop a few hundred dollars on a video game console, you could also get a Roku player for $100. It will work the same as a video game console for streaming movies, but you won’t have the option to play games.

Over 300 hours of entertainment for $2.99

Do you have an iPhone? Are you a fan of “This American Life“? If you’re not, you should be, and the This American Life iPhone app is a great way to become one.

“This American Life” is a public radio show that offers a glimpse into the lives of real Americans through quirky stories and interviews. Each week, they feature a theme and the radio show includes different kinds of stories about that theme. One of my favorite episodes are “Somewhere Out There,” which explores the idea of soul mates, and “Matchmakers,” which focuses on (you guessed it) matchmakers.

For just $2.99, you’ll have access to almost every episode of the show ever produced. Tony and I love to listen to the podcasts on road trips, and with this app we won’t have to burn tons of CDs every time we take a trip.

It costs 99 cents per episode to download them individually. With almost 400 episodes in the catalog, this is an incredible price for portable streaming access to all of them. For a tour of the app and all its features by host Ira Glass himself, go here.

Take it from me, this is a fantastic way to spend $2.99. “This American Life” is absolutely the most interesting and entertaining radio show on the air, and you will love it. I promise.

If you don’t have an iPhone, you can stream episodes for free online. Take some time away from the TV this weekend to check it out.

Too busy for a slideshow this weekend

Karen

Tony

We spent the whole weekend watching independent films at the local annual film festival thanks to some free passes from my employer. We saw six movies in all, and we didn’t get much done other than that.

Because we spent so much time in dark theaters all weekend, we also didn’t have many opportunities for photos. So all I have is a couple pictures of our excitement before the festival started.

Please excuse my bad hair day. As I said, we were in dark theaters. I guess I didn’t think about the fact that I’d end up posting these pictures on my blog.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

I’m spending Halloween at home!

jackolanternThis weekend all of my sisters will be in the same state together for the first time since May 2007, and for the first time ever since my youngest niece and nephew were born.

Tony and I are flying to Indiana tonight, and my sister and her family will be there from Seattle, too. I can’t wait to see all five of my nieces and nephews in their costumes and experience the fun of Halloween from the perspective of young kids for the first time, well, since I was the little kid.

But with four families with five kids under the age of 7,  it’s going to be hectic. I don’t know if I’ll have time to check my email, let alone update my blog.

I’ll be back on Sunday with lots of adorable photos to share.  In the meantime, why don’t you tell me: what are you and/or your kids dressing up as for Halloween? I still haven’t come up with a costume, so I’m frantically searching for ideas!

I hope all of you have a safe, fun, and happy Halloween! See you Sunday!

Photo by boxercab

Are you up for a challenge?

nanowrimoIt happens every few months or so. I get restless. I start feeling unfulfilled and bored. I want some excitement, something new, but I don’t really know what that something might be.

We all get in a rut sometimes. The question is, what do you do about it? Do you complain? Wallow in unhappiness? Or do you try something new? Take on a challenge and see where it takes you?

I’m constantly challenging myself to try new things and explore new interests. Most of them don’t stick. A lot of them end up being unfinished projects or even unstarted projects. But you’ll never discover new interests if you don’t challenge yourself with new things.

Quilting, photography, this blog … all of my hobbies started out with a trial run. And it’s time for me to take on yet another challenge.

This year, I’ll be participating in National Novel Writing Month. I will write a 50,000 word novel between November 1 and November 30. I already have an idea and a rough plot outline.

The purpose isn’t to write a great piece of literature. In fact, it’s likely that the finished project will be total crap. It will be rushed, unedited, and hastily written. But it will be a novel, and it will force me to write creatively every day for a month.

I haven’t written fiction since junior high, so I’m looking forward to this new challenge. At the end of the month, I may decide that I’m better off sticking with nonfiction for the rest of my life. Or I may discover a new passion for fiction. Who knows where this new challenge will lead me, but that’s part of the fun of it.

I’m going to try very hard not to let this new project interfere with my writing here, but the fact is, I might be a little pressed for time in the coming month. If I miss a day here or there, you’ll know why.

So how about you? Is there something you’ve always wanted to try? Are you hungry for a new challenge? Have you always wanted to run a marathon or make a scrapbook? There’s no better time than now to make it happen. Let’s make November the month of new beginnings!

Photo by olivander

My favorite frugal things about fall

This is my absolute favorite time of year, and even though our weather isn’t quite as cool as I’d like it to be, it hasn’t stopped me from enjoying the season.

fall

Fall isn’t just cozy and comfortable. It’s also frugal. Here are my favorite frugal things about my favorite season.

  • Finally opening the windows, airing out the apartment, and turning off the air conditioner. Hello, lower electric bills!
  • Warm oatmeal for breakfast. A huge canister lasts two weeks, and it only costs $3!
  • Big pots of soup that last all week.
  • The crunch of leaves under our feet during long morning walks bundled up in cozy sweaters.
  • Staying in on the weekends to watch a movie under the covers.
  • Bundling up on the couch to work on a quilting project.

What are your favorite frugal things about fall?

Unexpected benefits of life without cable

TV unpluggedDon’t you love when you make a life change for one reason, and realize that it benefits you in countless other ways? That’s kind of how we feel about canceling our cable. We made the decision to shut it off to save money. We were paying $70 a month for a service that we barely ever used. But after two weeks without cable, we’ve discovered a long list of other ways it’s improved our lives.

We have more time.

Now that we’re not wasting time watching junk on TV, we have more time to pursue other hobbies like blogging, reading, and listening to music. We still watch our favorite shows online at Hulu or on network websites, but we’re more purposeful about what we watch now. Plus we don’t spend countless hours zoned out while channel surfing and looking for something good when there’s really nothing on.

We’re more active.

I used to spend the evening parked on the couch on nights when Tony was in class late. Last week, when Tony was on campus and I was bored at home in the evening, I headed to the gym for my second workout of the day. On the weekends, we’re more likely to get up and get out of the house instead of zoning out in front of the Food Network.

Our house is filled with music again.

We used to keep the TV on in the background all the time, but only now that it’s gone have I realized how distracting and annoying it could be. Now when we’re writing or spending a quiet evening together, we play our favorite music in the background. It’s much more relaxing.

We’re branching out and watching new things.

It’s ironic, but only now that we’ve stopped channel surfing and feeling obligated to watch our expensive cable have we started getting into new TV shows. We rent TV shows on DVD from Netflix that we’ve always wanted to watch, like “How I Met Your Mother” and “Lost.” Our Netflix plan is only $8.99 a month for unlimited DVDs (only one at a time), but this is plenty to discover new shows and movies that we never had time to watch before.

Life without cable isn’t for everyone, but if you’ve been considering it, I say give it a shot! We still get to watch our favorite shows online for free, so canceling cable has been nothing but positive! Plus, we’re putting that $70 to better use!

Photo by puffsdaddy