Making Family Life Fun on a Budget

For most of our married life our budget has been a challenge, but that hasn't changed our desire to want to create fun, family experiences for our children. What it does mean is that it has challenged us to look for fun in unconventional places or find creative ways to fund activities.

Discounts and Coupons

The first thing that everyone thinks of when they think of ways to budget items is to get them at a discount or to purchase them with a coupon. Fun activities are no different. Several summers ago, a local bowling alley was running a buy one game get one free coupon. They also had a day where they had a discount for free bowling shoes. That summer we took advantage of both deals on a couple of times in June and again a couple of times in July. By doing that only half of us had to pay for a game of bowling and we were all able to rent shoes for free, cutting down the cost of bowling to less than half of what it would have been for our family on a normal day of the week without the discount or the coupon.

Free Activities

Another family favorite has been events that are free. Sure my kids loved going to Disney for Christmas one year. They had a blast, even if Daddy didn't find it as thrilling. But they also really love the thrill of a treasure hunt, which has made homemade scavenger hunts and geocaching such a delight. We also frequent both nature parks and neighborhood parks because sometimes even doing every day, normal things in a different place can be enormously entertaining.

Earning Free Events

Each summer our local library offers free prizes for reading a certain number of books or pages depending on the child's age. This has been true everywhere we have lived. Sometimes the kids have earned free ice cream, which is always a great summer treat, to go to town and get ice cream at a special shop. Other times it has been free tickets to the Rays game or passes to a local bounce house. In these cases even if we have to pay for our own ticket or ice cream it is a drastic discount to get all the kids in for free. The best part is that many of these free items don't expire until the end of the year, so we can stretch the fun out not just in the summer but through the fall as well.

Doing Some Research

I can't recommend doing research on a particular activity or area before going. For example, there is a local park near the Ray's stadium. It requires about an extra 1/4 of a mile walk, but parking there is free. This means we are saving $20 on paying to park. Additionally, some of the zoos or parks we have visited allow outside food and drink. Picnicking saves a ton of money when compared to the prices for restaurants and food stands inside the parks. This is often how we find out about those places that do discounts on various days of the week.

Plan for the Off Season

I find that businesses are more likely to offer good deals when it isn't the peak of their busy season. For that reason, we don't do activities like putt-putt golf in the summer time, but look for special rates or deals when school is in session in the spring or the fall. I find that all sorts of children's activities are priced more affordably during the week when kids are in school, or at the time of the year that fewer people use their services.

Spending Time Together at Home

My final way to have fun on a budget is to do things together at home. We enjoy movie night, family game nights, and try to do things together as a family. Walks around the block or afternoons at home in the pool together don't cost anything but my time. Sometimes that is the trickiest thing of all to budget and manage. A couple of years ago we made an effort, by tracking it in my planner, to have two family movie night a month and two family game nights. We didn't make it work out every single week to do one or the other, but the very fact that we put them on the schedule and took turns letting the kids pick the games meant that it happened far more often than it would have otherwise. We have made some lasting memories doing just those very basic things together.

You don't have to spend massive amounts of money to create lasting family memories. Some of my favorite memories growing up revolve around playing games together or watching the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday evenings with a bowl of popcorn. Our children love to ask each other at supper what their favorite part of the day was, and it's frequently small things that we do together. I hope some of these tips to make family life fun on a budget resonant with you and inspire you to look for things outside of the box to enjoy time with your family.