Why does there always seem too much month for our money? Sometimes money can get so tight that for the last week of the month I have to start reverting to tips I used in my student days to make the pennies stretch further. Now I don’t mean eating beans on toast for every meal, or having pasta with, err, more pasta, but trying to find more frugal ways to have fun with my son. So I thought I would share some of my cheap family activities for frugal family fun.

Low Cost Ways to Have Family Fun
Having little spare money does not have to mean boredom for your family. You can still have family fun without having to spend too much. Here are some ways to keep your family entertained without putting a big dent to your budget, and maintaining happy families and health.

Fun Things To Do As A Family
Grow a Green Thumb: Gardening is one of the most productive and yet less-costly ways to entertain oneself. If you have the kids helping, you can double the fun. You can have so much fun growing vegetables and fruits that you can also use to make your own meals. This means more savings for your family, as well as promoting good health and family life.

Watch your Local Sports Team. From football or rugby to cricket or hockey. Kids enjoy watching sports. Support your local sports team by adding yourself and your kid as part of its cheering team.
Look out for local free events, such as village fetes, town shows or festivals to visit. Check our magazine or website for event listings in the area.

Visit your local museum, which is usually free or has cheap admission, especially when they have family-friendly events or exhibitions running.
Turf out the junk in your, cupboards, attic or from the back of your garage and run a garage Sale – get the kids to make some posters that you can put up around the neighbourhood. Great fun, and an inexpensive way to earn some extra money.

Do you own a tent and some camping equipment? Shake off the dust and set up camp in your back garden. Get the camping stove out to cook some bangers and baked beans for tea. Great fun, and a nice break from the TV!

Purchase annual passes for cheap family outings. Do you live near a family attraction? Check out their annual pass or family membership packages. Buy these at a time when you do have a little spare money, or ask for them as a Christmas or Birthday gift. This will always give you an exiting place to go when money is low.

Get on the net for some free fun. With most of us using broadband with monthly payments instead of the old-fashioned pay as you go type connections, making use of the internet is great when looking for family entertainment. Watch some hilarious videos, or watch movie trailer clips to see what’s about to be released at the cinema. There are also loads of online games you can play for free, just do a search for free games and lots of sites will come up. You can even get nostalgic with space invaders and pac-man. My son really enjoys playing on sites that are specifically designed for children, but that also have an educational slant, so kids will learn while they are having fun. These sites are all free to play, and you don’t have to pay for memberships unless you want to.

Belt out some tunes. If you do not have a karaoke microphone, you can borrow from your friends. There is also an online version of karaoke that you can also use as a form of free entertainment.
Have a family day. Whether you play scrabble, monopoly, or another favourite board game, watch DVD’s together, or even getting into the kitchen to bake some cookies or make a cake, setting a regular family day doing these simple and yet fun activities will condition your family to look forward to less-expensive ways of having fun. It’s a great way to bond with your family too.

Here’s to plenty of low-cost family fun!
Don’t forget that we are collecting your favourite family recipes to include in our new cook-book, so email us your favourite recipes for inclusion and we will credit your for the recipe and give you a free copy of the completed book as a thank you!

Stuck for something to do? Don’t forget you can download your free copy of our Mini-Messy Tots Craft Book, full of our favourite crafts that you can do at home with the little ones!

About the Author
Missed your copy of our latest magazine? Visit our website at www.cotswoldfamilylife.co.uk to download our current issue today.
We also have Squidoo lenses here: www.squidoo.com/frugalfamilylife Wishing you the best of Family Life.
Michelle, Joint Editor, Cotswold Family Life

Instead of hiking to the woods and carrying a lot of heavy loads on your back, you better rent a recreational vehicle (RV) camper. The good thing about using an RV camper is that your kids will have comfortable beds to sleep in while you will have a functional kitchen where you can prepare delicious food for the whole family. In fact, some RVs are already equipped with cast iron camp stoves so you need not bring your own stove.

When it comes to safety, for more details visit to www.cooking-groundbeef.com the RV is a better choice. Sleeping inside the RV is a lot safer especially if you have small kids with you. You can always lock the door of the camper at night to keep out unwanted visitors like small animals and insects.

If you prefer to live in a tent instead of the RV, you should buy a small cast iron camp stove for your camping trip. No, you do not need that big Dutch cast iron stove when you go camping in the wilds with your whole family. A small camp stove with two burners will do nicely. You don’t really have to produce some culinary wonders while you are in the wild so a two burner stove should be alright.

When packing your gears, put the camp stove in a separate pack. This way, it will be easier for you to ask someone else to carry the stove in case your back starts giving you the signal to lighten your load a little.

About the Author
www.apples-recipes.com
www.chef-123.com

Scrabble is an educational game board, which helps introduce new words and spelling to young and old. Introduced in 1938, besides having a few variations developed through the years, it has stayed the same and stood the test of time.

Up words, another educational vocabulary and spelling game is well known for not only family fun, but it’s educational use as well. You’ll use tiles, similar to Scrabble, but can stack letters on top of others in order to make new words.

The old standard of Monopoly is owned by almost 75 million people around the world. Monopoly not only helps with math skills, but is a bit of strategic game that the whole family can play no matter how young or old. Besides helping with math, it also has been known to improve reading and comprehension skills, as well as give a chance for team playing, real estate education, as well as money comprehension skills.

Yatze is an old-time favorite of many, as it is a small board game type that only requires a pad designating dice throws, and a pencil for each player. Five dice and a cup to shake them in and math skills begin in proving immediately as you have to add up the dice in each throw. The nice thing about Yatze is that you do not have to have the traditional score sheets, but just need to remember poker hands and you can make your own.

Most of these types of games have been around for a very long time, because not only are they fun but educational as well. You’ll find math skills improve, spelling and vocabulary can improve, as well as money comprehension, team playing, and many other sportsmanship skills. One of the best things about most of these traditional board games is the time spent with family. You’ll be amazed at the conversations that go around the table during a long Monopoly game, or the fun that can be had with Yatze.

Boardgames can be educational and fun and that’s what is so attractive about them. Even simple games like Candyland, and Chutes and Ladders can help a child learn to count, learn sportsmanship, and enjoy time playing with friends and family. Board games have been around for a very long time, and every family usually has one of these games tucked in a closet somewhere.

About the Author

For more information on board games, visit www.thegamecrypt.com

Even just the basic game that comes with the Nintendo console itself has a variety of different sports games available that allows us to get off of the couch and get interactive. A good example of this is the bowling game that comes as a part of the Wii sports package. In order to bowl, you would actually stand up with the controller in your hand and mimic the movements that you would make in order to roll the ball down the lane. If you twist the controller to the right or the left, you will put a spin on the ball, much the same as you would at an actual bowling alley.

About the Author
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