Hello there. Mrs. 1500 again, asking about favorite family-fun activities that you do outside of the house. We have a fairly nasty day today, and can usually find something to do inside. But there are times in the winter when you have been in your house for too long, and need to get out of it. I will have some of my favorite ideas at the bottom of this post, but first, let’s recap some of your favorite frugal travel tips from last week.
Jen from JenSpends reminded us that price aggregators don’t always have the best flight prices, and to double check on the airline’s web site before you book. Thanks, Jen!
Mrs. PoP says that staying at those “cheaper” hotels can actually save even more money that you think, with their free breakfast, internet, gym, pool, parking, etc. So right! We stay at the Choice Hotels chain, and they always have a breakfast (sometimes it is really good!) and internet. Not all of the locations have gyms or pools, but that is ok with me.
Over at Green Money Stream, she takes the points earned by her husband when he travels for work, and uses them for personal travel, saving on hotels. I used to do this, too when I had a job.
Writing2Reality suggested traveling during off-peak times and out of season to avoid the crowds. He told of a near-empty flight to Chicago recently because of the time of year, when Chicago is deemed “too cold” for vacations. Which reminded me of yet another tip, being prepared to be bumped off a flight. We usually fly Southwest, who oversells every plane to ensure that all seats will be full on every flight. But sometimes, they have too many people show up for the flight, and they need someone to volunteer to lose their seat on this flight in exchange for reimbursement. If you plan ahead, either by driving yourself to the airport, or by making sure your driver can accommodate a change in plans, you can volunteer as soon as they ask for people, giving yourself a better chance at a free ticket.
Mrs. Y over at Live Happy, Retire Early suggested using Yelp.com and similar sites to check out local places to eat. You can find great reviews from locals, and they have a code for how pricey a place is. A great way to experience the local food while not blowing the bank.
Done by Forty, Jane Savers, and Anna from Are Ya Gonna Eat That? all suggested bringing snacks like protein bars with you so you eat out less.
And Michelle from Fit is the New Poor suggested Airbnb.com. Airbnb is a way for you to rent out your house, entire level in the house, a room or even just couch space. You can say yes or no to anyone, and it allows you to save tons of money while they make a little extra cash. Mr. 1500 and I are going to next year’s Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting and hotel rooms were $250+! Um, nope. We found a room on Airbnb for something like $45 a night. We can walk to the convention center from her house, and she is so close to the airport that we can take a $10 cab ride to and from her house, saving us the car rental. Thanks for the reminder, Michelle!
Now for this week’s question, what is your favorite frugal, family-friendly, out-of-the-house activity? We just discovered a cheap-seats theatre not too far away from us, where movie tickets are $2.50 instead of the $9+ that first-run theatres cost. I took the girls last week, and spent $15 on 3 tickets plus a bag of popcorn that had one refill!
So, how do you have cheap family fun outside of the house?
No matter the weather, walking always works, whether it’s around a park or around the neighborhood. In the winter, promise hot chocolate at home if you can spot something for each letter of the alphabet—in order. In the spring, the game is seeing how many signs of the changing season can be found. In the summer, everybody walks the way Dad chooses to for 10 steps, then the way a child walks for another ten, then imitate the dog. The problem will be getting them to stop. In the fall, find the biggest leaf, smallest leaf, straightest leaf, yellowest leaf. Make up your own walk rules; better yet, let your children think of them. I’ve done this frugal activity with my grandchildren for years; we love it. It’s healthy and fun.
Oooh I love the idea of letting the kids make up the rules! And we already compete for the biggest leaf! Thanks, Aunt Beulah!
As an active person, anything I can do outside, is generally both free and healthy. Go for a bike ride (on the bike I already own)? Check. Go for a hike on a public access trail? Check. Go play Frisbee in the public park or at the local high school? Check.
So much fun can be had outdoors, that it is sad to me people don’t lead more active lives. Save money AND have better health! A win/win in my book!
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The girls do love a bike ride… And the extra effort required to pull that heavy, tag-along bike coupled with the heavy non-pedaling kid means quite the workout for the parent attached to said kid…
We enjoy going for a nice little run or walk. I’m sure when the little guy gets older that will probably become a bike ride.
We also like going to the Art Museum (it’s free here).
I do need to check out the museums around here. We found a children’s museum that the girls love, but it’s $8 per kid. Parents are free, and that is fine for every once in a while.
Our family loves finding new parks to take our bikes and trikes to. Especially ones that are more wooded and natural. My kids love getting outside, even in the cold, but it’s not my favorite so it takes some willpower.
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Yes, I am not such a huge fan of the biting wind. I love snow, though…
My kids are little and we love taking family walks to the park. It’s a little bit of a workout and a little far for the kids so sometimes we pull them in a wagon. Then, when we get there, we let them play and we relax for a while =)
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I am sensing a theme among the answers…
This may sound kooky, but I love rockhounding. It’s a fun activity for adults and families. You can buy rockhounding books for your state (I was just in Colorado and we went to a few sites while we were there). They will give you a description of what you can find, how to recognize the material, whether you need a 4×4 or just a family vehicle to get to the site, etc.
It is so much fun to find little treasures and it’s a free activity not counting gas and the cost of a book (which you might be able to find at a used book store). I’ve also recently discovered a couple of iPhone apps that look interesting. Search under “geology” and see what you find.
Colorado is a gem-rich state…happy hunting!
Ree
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This is really an interesting idea. And my kids love rocks. They don’t even have to be any special kind of rock for the little one to pick up and form an instant attachment to…
Just yesterday we bought a day pass to a community center with a pretty nice indoor water park – it was $15 for the family and while I don’t do it every week, it was fun and I want to make sure they don’t forget how to swim in the winter months.
Also, not that this will help you today, but check out your local high school for theater productions – it’s a good way to expose your younger kids to the arts and teach them how to be a good audience member – and it’s usually cheap (under $10/ticket). I have read that university productions are usually cheaper as well, however, I have not found that to be the case in the Kansas City area- maybe they are $5-7 cheaper than the professional or touring groups, but not much. I also recommend checking out the high school sports games – maybe your kids are playing basketball – it’s a fun way to show them what they can do if they stick with it. Or, if you’re like me, and have a daughter who hates sports, she likes watching the cheerleaders, dancers, and band that plays. If you think outside the box a little that not everything you go to has to be done by professionals and you don’t HAVE to going to watch your own kids, things like this can be fun.
We had dinner last night with a neighbor who was talking about the minor league sports in town. Major league sports are upwards of $50 per ticket, but the minors can be as little at $9. Which is good, because I want to see if they like a sport before dropping big bucks on tickets just to hear them whine “When can we go home?”
We walk around the neighborhood most nights, or head to the beach and walk there for a bit. I’m looking forward to finishing the garage since we’ll get Mr PoP a bike then. I imagine biking will replace walking some days after that.
We also like a lot of the community events that are free around here. This weekend there was a free concert in the park, the weekend before it was a movie in the park. Seems there’s usually something!
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Oh how I wish there were a beach nearby…
This came at just the right time, since we’ve already managed to blow through most of our “entertainment” budget this month! Looking forward to following the responses as we’re always looking for cheap dates! Yesterday the weather was nice, so we made sandwiches and went out to a park for a picnic.
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The girls asked to go on a picnic yesterday, too. But we had some pretty strong winds and after a few minutes outside, they asked to come back in.
We’ve signed up for various blogs and websites that have lists of fun things to do around town, and we pick from those opportunities. Our local parks and recs have a lot of nature trails and playgrounds available for free. We can also use any non-reserved sports field to kick around a ball or hit a few baseballs.
We have all of the Smithsonian museums for free, but taking a potty training toddler downtown on the Metro is a pain in the butt, so we haven’t taken advantage of those since she was in diapers. But a local petting zoo offers season passes, and while the initial cost is not frugal, we go enough that it’s well worth the cost.
Geocaching can be family friendly, and is probably much prettier in Colorado than here!
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I have heard of Geocaching many times, and I think the girls are finally old enough to participate. Thanks for the reminder.
Yay for your airbnb savings!
My favorite outdoors activity is geocaching! All you need is the app (the basic one is free), and you can turn it in to a full on treasure hunt in your neighborhood!
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I am going to download the app and take pictures of the things we “find” during our geocaching and share with the class.
We try to take advantage of free events in the area, whether it’s a boat parade during the holidays (they hang lights all over them), free museum days, or cultural events. Most of the time for the cultural events, it tends to be mostly vendors selling the same stuff, but there’s usually cool dance performances or live music playing, and the people watching is amazing! We often see a couple in the distance and pretend to dub what they’re saying based on their expressions or gestures. 🙂
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I love it. We were driving home from the gym tonight and the littlest one exclaimed “Oh, those are the most beautiful Christmas lights!” It was one string, wrapped across half of one house, but she was so excited to see it. Maybe incorporate the light-viewing with a walk every night…
Bowling can actually be a great deal if you find a “less-hip” bowling alley, and even cheaper if you search Groupon or other daily deal sites for a bowling deal in your area. With a Groupon deal to bowl when my husband and I were with two friends, we got in two games of bowling with shoe rentals for the four of us for $30 total. For a fun and athletic activity that’s a bit out of the ordinary, it’s a pretty good deal.
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I like bowling, but Mr. 1500 HATES it. I think the girls would have fun, though. Thanks for the tip. I forgot about bowling…
Walking, biking, hiking, flying a kite or a picnic in the park are always fun. If the weather isn’t nice try going to a museum, art gallery or other public venue. The library often has events going on for kids. Check out local festivals, farmer’s markets, and live music or entertainment. We just had the Santa Claus parade here this weekend, that’s a fun free event 🙂
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You are so right. I usually find out about these events in the paper the day after they take place. Sigh.
When my kids were little we enjoyed going swimming at the indoor pool, especially in the winter it kind of felt like a little bit of summer. If your pool allows it you can take some pool noodles or a floaty ball for even more fun.
Sledding is another fun winter activity.
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We bought a membership to the local rec center that includes 5 pools (3 are outdoors) and the health club, all for less money than our old HOA cost for a dinky pool only open Memorial Day to Labor Day, and garbage pickup. So happy to swim in the middle of winter!
FYI, to answer your question on which EV I test drove on Twitter, it was the Smart Car EV! It was sweet! $25,000, but $10,000 back from Fed and State rebate. 71 mile range, not great, but great city car!
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Our library puts on some pretty cool activities (just recently they opened a Steampunk exhibit) that we like to check out. Kickball and ultimate frisbee are cheap, but not quite free ways to get exercise and compete. And the First Friday art walk is a cool way to spend a date night, too. Lots of cheap stuff around if you look.
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Taking the dog out for a walk!!! We live near a wonderful park that few people know about! It’s easy to walk around for 3 hours and enjoy the beautiful weather and experience nature first hand. It also gives the bf and I some time to talk about life and the future! And we also get to see where our tax dollars go!
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We are very lucky to have a few local places nearby that are free (property taxes pays for those). Most of them are part of the nearby park districts. So there is the zoo, fairly small, but enough for a nice afternoon walk, even though we do not have kids. It is always good fun. In the summer, I love farmers markets. Not only are you were able to have local produce, but you can find more local businesses to shop at later. Local festivals and fairs are always fun to go to. Some cost under $10 per person, some are free. Museums have free days or reduced tickets for residents. We sometimes take advantage of that. Always make sure you check your local park districts and/or library events – you will never know what you might find.
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Hiking is a general favorite of ours. We live so close to many great little nature preserves that practically no one knows or cares about. One of our favorites is only about a mile from our house. Beautiful old farmland that has been populated with forest in the past 70 years and the bonus is a gorgeous waterfall! We scoot over there a couple times a months.
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Along with the running theme…
I like to make a nature scavenger hunt for my kids. Find a gray rock, a brown leaf, a bug…this can be difficult or easy depending on the child(ren)’s age. Also, we love doing the classic cloud shape game (regardless of the weather)–staring up at the sky and imagining dinosaurs, mountains, or dogs is too fun!
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