When our children were very young our budget was especially tight. We learned how to make do without a lot of extras and to find free or inexpensive entertainment options, and we came to appreciate the value and meaning in simple things like time spent with family. With a little creativity and imagination, you can keep busy. Below are some of our favorite ideas.
101 Free or Inexpensive Entertainment Ideas for Kids and Families:
- Visit a playground
- Go for a hike at a park or nature reserve
- Go for a walk in the neighborhood
- Go for a jog or run
- Do yoga
- Do a fitness DVD (rent one from your library)
- Check out books from the library
- Rent a movie from the library and pop some popcorn
- Play a video game you own, or see if your library has some
- Play board games or card games (see if your library has any to check out)
- Go to story time at the library
- Attend a craft time, music performance, puppet show, author event, or other activity at the library
- Look for events at your community center (photo opportunity with Santa, indoor trick-or-treating, etc.)
- Look for events hosted by your city (outdoor concerts, fall festivals, Easter egg hunts, etc.)
- Walk around a mall or outlet shopping center and just have fun looking without buying anything
- Browse at a thrift store (you can set a small budget and allow children to buy something, or not)
- Look for museums or other venues that have free admission (or find out if they have free admission during certain days/times)
- Cook a meal at home
- Make cookies or another treat at home
- Watch cartoons together
- Read a book together
- Ride bikes in the neighborhood or on a trail
- Pack a picnic lunch and go to a park
- Play soccer or catch in the yard
- Play tag in the yard
- Draw with sidewalk chalk
- Play hopscotch
- Blow bubbles
- Jump rope
- Learn how to hula hoop
- Color or draw together
- Paint together (with brushes or with finger paint)
- Rearrange the furniture in a child’s room or in the play room
- Make a blanket fort
- Make a fort or castle out of a large cardboard box
- Make a doll house out of a box
- Make a fort outdoors using sticks, scrap wood, and whatever you can find
- Plant and tend a garden
- Make homemade Popsicles
- Make a toy-filled ice block
- Write a letter to a relative or friend
- Have a tea party
- Play charades
- Make a no-sew play tent
- Fly a kite
- Make homemade play dough or salt dough
- Hunt for insects in the yard and collect them in a bug bottle (release them in the area where you found them later)
- Visit a splash park
- Play in the sprinkler in the yard
- Get out the Slip and Slide
- Set up a kiddie pool
- Wash the car
- Wash the dog
- Make s’mores at a fire pit in the back yard
- Set up a tent and camp in the back yard
- Go stargazing
- Catch fireflies at night
- Place sleeping bags in the living room and do an indoor campout
- Make some water balloons
- Play Frisbee
- Play tug of war
- Go out in the rain and stomp in puddles (umbrellas are optional)
- Make paper airplanes
- Make paper snowflakes
- Learn how to make origami
- Learn how to crochet or knit
- Build something with Legos
- Clean out the house and have a garage sale
- Go shop or just browse at garage sales
- Learn how to juggle
- Watch old home videos
- Look at old family pictures
- Start writing a blog
- Write poetry
- Write stories together
- Tell stories to each other
- Learn a foreign language (I like the free website/app Duolingo)
- Make a time capsule
- Pick up trash in your neighborhood or at a park
- Attend free concerts at local churches
- Attend an Easter egg hunt or trunk or treat at a local church or community center
- Attend free band or choral concerts or inexpensive plays and musicals at colleges or high schools
- Look for free family activities through your school district (fall festivals, carnivals, living history museums, art shows, etc.)
- Go sledding
- Build a snowman
- Build a snow fort
- Attend a kids’ workshop at Home Depot
- Listen to music together (my family likes Pandora)
- Learn sign language
- Find a movie theater showing free or discounted movies (often during the summer months)
- Set up a bird feeder and watch the birds
- Create a scavenger hunt around the house or yard
- Make an obstacle course in the yard
- Make easy freezer jam
- Climb a tree
- Play checkers or chess
- Do a jigsaw puzzle together (you can buy them cheap at thrift stores or yard sales, or possibly check them out from your library)
- Do crossword or word search puzzles
- Visit a farmers market
- Volunteer (at a homeless shelter, food pantry, soup kitchen, church outreach event, school, etc.)
- Invite friends or neighbors over for dinner
What are your favorite inexpensive ways to have fun with your family?
