Yahoo Finance I Grew Up With Frugal Parents: 4 Ways They Provided Fun Without Spending Too Much
Providing enriching and entertaining experiences for children doesn’t have to be expensive. With some creativity and strategic planning, frugal parents can come up with plenty of inexpensive or free activities to keep their kids happy and engaged.
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“I grew up the youngest of three boys,” said Evan Porter, blogger at Dad Fixes Everything. “My dad owned restaurants as an entrepreneur (to very mixed results) and then went on to work for the government, so we didn’t have a lot of extra spending money for lavish vacations and things like that. But they did their best to keep things fun for us.”
Melissa Berry, founder of the Pacific Northwest travel site Everyday Spokane, had a similar upbringing.
“My late father, the son of a West Virginia coal miner, was extremely frugal while I was growing up,” she said. “When it came to vacations, he believed in experiencing the United States — cheaply! We spent every summer vacation camping around the United States, from Oregon to California, Florida all the way up to Virginia.”
Here’s how their families kept life fun on a budget.
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Host Fun Nights at Home
Families can transform their living rooms into their favorite places for fun. Schedule weekly game nights at home with classic board games and homemade snacks to share quality time.
“We didn’t go out to eat much, but we had a lot of board game nights at home,” Porter said. “We’d order cheap pizza or my mom would make dinner (lots of casseroles — a good way to feed three boys!) and we’d spend hours playing Monopoly and Scrabble. Sometimes, one of us would have a friend or two over which made it even more fun and special. These nights hardly cost anything at all but they’re one of my main fun memories of growing up.”
Without spending on dining out or entertainment, families can enjoy each other’s company while making treasured memories over classic board games, cards, charades, trivia and more.
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Prioritize Time With Extended Family
Making visiting relatives a priority for vacations saves money and makes those relationships matter. The quality time spent bonding with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles is priceless.
Porter shared that, as a child, his family didn’t go on a lot of trips or vacations.
“I can remember going to an amusement park maybe once or twice,” he said. “We did a lot of trips to visit family, instead. It was easy and cheap for my parents to lug us across the state to go see our cousins, let the kids all run around like crazy for a few hours, whip up a home-cooked meal for the whole crew. Sometimes we’d stay overnight. It was a lot of fun and I was super close to my cousins when I was young, as a result.”
Making time for kids to connect with relatives provides them with a sense of belonging, shared identity and lasting bonds.
Plan Local Getaways
For budget-friendly family trips, skip crowded tourist attractions in favor of lesser-known local gems.
“When we did go away, my parents really picked their spots,” Porter said. “We stayed away from super touristy spots — beaches, resorts, etc. — and things that would be sure to rack up a huge bill, and opted for quieter getaways. Deep Creek, Maryland, was one of our favorite spots. There’s not much there except a lake and a mountain, so we’d rent a big house and cook most of our meals there to save money, then do board games and watch movies. The one thing they’d splurge on was renting a boat or jet ski. That was plenty of entertainment for the week.”
Seeking out natural, quiet locations for getaways allows families to save money while focusing on simple shared activities.
Enjoy Camping on a Budget
For example, state and national parks are a perfect getaway spot for access to the great outdoors, and tent camping can make it really affordable.
“Camping can absolutely be done frugally if you’re willing to forgo some modern amenities, like flush toilets,” Berry said. “Many places, especially in the southwestern part of the U.S., have affordable national and state campgrounds. The best part is, state campgrounds in particular have cheap ‘tent camping’ but also more expensive RV and flush-toilet areas, which you don’t have to pay for to use those amenities! Yes, you can access free showers and flush toilets at many campgrounds if you’re willing to walk from your amenity-less cheaper area.”
These formative experiences are available to families of all means, thanks to affordable public campgrounds. While camping like this requires some sacrifice of modern comforts, it builds family teamwork and memories while experiencing nature up close.
“When you’re tent camping, sometimes things happen — a rip in the tent, a torrential downpour, etc. You have to learn to roll with things and make do — all very valuable skills for a kid to learn and then use as an adult!”
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