Friday, January 29, 2010

Solving the Winter Time, Cheapskate Blues

Here's some more honesty. I'm not really a cheapskate, but I'd like to be one. Frankly, I'm lousy with the whole money managing thing, but unfortunately, it's largely my responsibility. Since I don't want our family in financial ruin thanks to me, I'm determined to figure things out and overcome my weaknesses. To do this, I came up with a list of cheap/free activities to do with my kids. These winter months can be unbearable, especially when the need to be cheap binds you to your home. But there must be some things you can do outside the home during winter time that don't cost a million dollars? Well, my brainstorming told me there are. Plus, it's so easy to forget the simple but fun things to do at home to brake the monotony, and my brainstorming reminded me of those as well. Here's what I came up with:
  1. Library (my goal is to keep this free by not getting any more late fees!)
  2. Make something using things already in the house
  3. Explore the house, finding lost things; look for specific things, like the sounds different objects make when tapped with a stick, etc.
  4. Go to the FREE zoo (the pet store)
  5. Dance
  6. Sledding (we're so lucky to live right next to an awesome sledding hill!)
  7. Make a fun snack or treat
  8. Play games
  9. Have a friend/cousin over
  10. Visit Grandma/cousins
  11. Have a picnic in the living room
  12. Build a fort
  13. Have a read-a-thon
  14. Write letters to people
  15. Visit Dad at work
  16. Write your own book by taking pictures of things in the house and making a story out of it
  17. Write an "All By Myself" book using your kids as the main characters (i.e. "I can brush my teeth...I can make my bed...etc.)

What are some things you could add to this list? Where else could you go to get out of the house in the winter time without spending a ton of money, hopefully spending none? What else did my itty-bitty brain fail to come up with?

2 comments:

Linsey said...

Okay, so I have been having the same problem as well. So I decided to see what ideas I could find online and I found this website: http://fun.familyeducation.com/games/preschool/33373.html?detoured=1 that had a ton of really basic ideas of things you can do or make with your kids. Some of them were things that I did when I was a kid and had forgotten about them. Everything I found was really simple and inexpensive. You should check it out. I just printed off a ton of them so the next time we are bored out of our minds we can find an idea quick!

Marianne said...

Thanks Linsey!