Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

8 Free and Cheap Things to Do with Kids This Summer

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Summertime is here, and if your kids aren’t already out of school, they will be soon.  Summer is the perfect time to make memories with your kids, but if your plans include the local theme park, shopping at the mall, and meals out, plan to spend a lot of money entertaining the kids.  While you can enjoy summer that way, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the summer without spending a lot of money.

Here are some of our family’s favorite low-cost or free summer activities:

Have a Picnic

Pack some sandwiches, chips and some fruit, and take a drive out of town.  Find a nice, rustic place to have a picnic and spend the afternoon.  Kids will appreciate the adventure and change of scenery.

Go to Summer Movies

Several movie theaters, including Harkins and Regal, offer discounted movies for kids during the summer.  For 10 weeks, my kids and I go to Harkins theaters once a week to see a movie.  The best part?  We buy a pass for each of us for $5 apiece.  Yep, if you see all ten movies throughout the summer, you pay just .50 a movie.  The four of us can see a movie for $2 total every week.  Can’t beat that.

Attend Free Concerts

Many cities offer free evening concerts and movie showings.  Just check out the happenings in your town every weekend.  You may be surprised how many free events you can find.

Enjoy Summer Bowling

There is also a summer bowling program, Kids Bowl Free, that you can sign up for.  While the bowling is free, you do have to pay for shoe rental.

Attend Library Programs

Every week, our local library has at least one free program for kids.  This week, my son will be taking a one hour art class.  Next week, my daughters will be taking a free science class where they will be erupting mini-volcanoes.  While you’re there, don’t forget to check out a few books, DVDs, and CDs.

Camp in the Backyard

If your kids want the adventure of camping but you don’t want to pay the camp site fee, why not camp in the backyard?  Kids get the adventure, and if they get scared during the night, the house is only a few steps away.

Go to the Beach

Is there anything better than visiting the beach on a hot summer day?  Bring your sun screen and a lunch and spend the whole day playing in the water, reading a book, and getting a tan.

Have a Movie Marathon

Feeling nostalgic?  Why not watch the Star Wars movies with your kids or the Back to the Future trilogy?  Watch a movie a night until you finish.  Enjoy popcorn and reminiscing about watching these movies in your own childhood.

Summer can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to if you know where to look to find free and cheap activities to keep the kids entertained.

What are your favorite free or cheap activities to do with the kids during the summer?

 

Simple Ways to Save Even When Money Is Tight

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For the 15 years my husband and I have been married, we’ve always shared just one car.  Actually, most of the time I’ve been the one with the car—first because I had to drive to work while he could easily take the train, and, once I became a stay-at-home mom, because I usually had the kids that I needed to transport while he could commute by public transportation.

While he’s been a good sport about this situation, the time has come to finally buy another car that he can use.

The problem?  We don’t want to take out a car loan because doing so would create a serious strain on our budget.  We want to pay cash instead.

But how do you save money for a car when you feel like there’s absolutely NO wiggle room in your budget?  Here are the strategies we’re using.

Save Cash Back from Credit Cards

Our credit card regularly gives us cash back.  For the first three months of 2016, we’ve earned just shy of $150 in cash back.  If we continue at this pace, we’ll have an extra $600 in cash back thanks to using, and paying off, our credit card each month for as many purchases as we can.

Save Whenever You Receive Discounts on Regular Expenses

This is my favorite way to save because there are so many opportunities to save this way!

For instance, at Christmas, we received a postcard from our car repair shop offering 10% off our next car repair.  I held onto that, and just last week we had a $284 car repair.  We saved $28 thanks to the postcard, and that money went right in our car fund.

We took a vacation recently and stopped by Denny’s on our last day when we had eaten up all the food we had brought with us in the cooler.  Our total was $39, but for some reason, the cashier decided to give us a $6 discount.  I put that money right in our car fund.

Our grocery store gives fuel rewards points for shopping.  For every $100 spent in groceries, you get 10 cents off your next gallon of gas.  If you buy a gift card, your reward points are for double that amount.  I send any of those savings to our car fund.  Just today I put 19 gallons in my tank, and I got 20 cents off per gallon.  I put that $3.80 into our car fund.

Save Change or a Specific Bill

I don’t use this strategy anymore because we typically use credit cards for our purchases, but when I was using cash a lot, I never spent the change and earmarked it all for a specific fund.  One time, I went several months saving all of the $5 bills I got and used them to pay down debt.

To be sure, none of these savings strategies is growing our car fund at an impressive rate.  However, we ARE saving something using ways we save in our everyday lives.  We’re consciously, physically setting aside our savings, which is a great way to save when your budget is tight and you feel like you have no wiggle room.

Do you save like this?  If so, what are your favorite strategies?

 

Frugal Sack Lunch Ideas for Kids

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When we send our kids to school, we want them to receive the best education.  Having a healthy lunch to eat is a big part of that. But, if you choose to buy convenience packages of snacks and desserts as well as lunch meat, sack lunches can quickly become an expensive endeavor over the course of a year. Especially if you’ve got a hungry teenager. If you’re looking to curb costs, consider some of these frugal sack lunch ideas.  Mix and match to make tasty, healthy, low cost lunches for your kids all day long.

Protein

  • Hard boiled egg(s)
  • Peanut butter (Use it on celery sticks, as a dip for veggies, or on a sandwich.)
  • Cheese (Make a cheese sandwich, or serve separately.)
  • Hummus (Use as a dip for veggies and crackers.)
  • Yogurt (Try yogurt covered frozen blueberries for a less messy option.)
  • Leftovers (Use leftover meat from dinners to supply protein like chicken, beef, etc.)
Frugal sack lunches
Good food = good students

Fruit

  • Apple slices (Slice your own apples and dip them in a bowl with water and a bit of salt.  They won’t brown and you’ll save a lot of money compared to buying already sliced apples.)
  • Clementines (These can be put in whole or peeled and separated for younger kids.  Their small size makes them a perfect lunch box fit.)
  • Grapes
  • Dehydrated fruit such as berries, cherries, etc.  (A little goes a long way here, so you’ll only need a few.)

Veggies

  • Carrot sticks (Don’t buy baby carrots at the store; buy carrots in bulk and peel and cut them yourself.)
  • Celery (Serve plain or with hummus or a nut butter.)
  • Cucumbers

Grains

  • Tortilla chips.  (These are an excellent frugal option, and they can be more filling than regular chips.)
  • Homemade granola bars.  (Make them yourself and fill them will healthful ingredients like nut butters, oats, and dried fruit.)
  • Muffins.  (Muffins can be a sugar trap, so focus on the healthier recipes that are naturally sweetened with fruits.)

Where to Buy Your Ingredients

We’ve found that the best place to buy lunch ingredients is at big warehouse clubs like Sam’s or Costco.  For instance, at Costco, you can buy a 10 lb. bag of organic carrots for $5!  Or, you can buy a big bag of potato chips for less than $4, which is much less than you’d pay at the grocery store.  You just need to take the time to bag these items in individual portion sizes.

Save Time By Preparing Ahead

If you look at the suggestions above and think there’s no way you’d have time to prepare a lunch from scratch every day, especially if you have multiple kids, you’re probably right.  Most of us don’t have that kind of time early in the morning.

Instead, prep all of the lunch ingredients for the week on the weekend.  Have them all packed and ready to go in the pantry and the refrigerator so you or your kids just simply have to grab them and pack them in the early morning rush.  Or, to be safe, prep on the weekend and prepare the lunches every night so you just need to grab them from the refrigerator in the morning.

Feeding your kids a brown bag lunch can be affordable. . .if you choose the right ingredients, and use these frugal sack lunch ideas.

How do you save money on your kids’ sack lunches?