My wife and I have now been married for over 30 years. We aren’t poor, but we have never made a lot of money by American standards. I have worked as a teacher for the past 23 years, and my wife has been homeschooling our children for the past 21 years, so we haven’t exactly had a lot of money left over at the end of each month. The two of us have learned over the years how to be frugal, but sometimes we have fallen into the trap of thinking that because we don’t have a lot of money, we can’t do much that’s fun with friends and family. But that’s simply not true!
Free Activities are Often Best!
There are a lot of fun things to do that involve spending money: going out to eat, axe throwing, seeing a movie in the theater, bowling, miniature golf, etc. However, much of the fun involved in these activities is the social interactions with friends and family while you are doing them. So, if you are like us, you can spend some extra entertainment money every once in a while, but you would love to socialize more with friends and family consider some of these activities: playing board games with a group at home, going for a hike, inviting friends over for dinner, or playing a more active game (like ping pong, pool, darts, etc. if you have the proper equipment).
Dates with Your Spouse
Once again, spending money can often add some extra excitement to a date with your spouse, but in reality it is the time you are spending together that is the most important. My wife and I will go out to eat for special occasions (because she really likes a break from cooking), but typically instead of spending more money after eating out, we will engage in free activities, such as: walking in a beautiful botanical garden, window shopping at the mall, walking around the prettiest parts of our downtown, or sitting down and talking somewhere nice.
Fun for the Whole Family!
When you involve the whole family, there are lots of free and cheap activities that are lots of fun and healthy. Part of having success with free and cheap activities is to condition your kids to enjoy them. If your kids get used to going to the movies every weekend, to Disney World each year on vacation, and eating out multiple times a week, it will be more difficult (initially) to please them with simpler less expensive activities. But if you spend time together playing board games, card games, ping pong, pool, cornhole, going on hikes, etc., pretty soon the family gets used to it. In fact they often prefer these activities to some of the more expensive ones!
Less Expensive Vacations
We never took our kids to Disney World! We have five kids, so you know how expensive it would have been to do that. We did take some epic road trips over the years: one to the Grand Canyon and surrounding area, one to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, and one truly epic trip to Crater Lake Oregon (all of these from our home in North Carolina). Now I’m not going to lie – I would have loved to fly to some of these locations. If you have the money to do it, then by all means, do so. But don’t skip activities in life because you don’t think you have the money. Find cheaper ways to do it. Our kids continue to talk about these vacations to this day. And our younger two are ready for the next big road trip next year!
Smaller Scale Vacations
But big vacations aside, some of the most fun we’ve had on any of our vacations are simply getting out of our normal routine, spending more time with family, and doing free activities like hiking, playing games, or gazing at the stars. These can be done on simple trips to the mountains, or the beach, or simply a special staycation week at home.
Resolve to Be Sociable!
If you want to keep your life in balance, you need to spend time socializing with other people. That can be friends, immediate family, extended family, spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, or anyone else. Don’t constantly stay at home wondering what to do. Be proactive! Invite someone over for dinner. Don’t let money get in the way. Do something that is absolutely free or super inexpensive. Just get out there and do it!