9 Frugal & Fun Weekend Activities

While our week is usually super busy, my husband and I try to keep weekends relatively activity free so we can focus on spending time with our kids, doing stuff around the house, and catching up on rest.

I’d much rather sleep in, be lazy, have a late brunch, and play games; the kids would rather go-go-go. So sometimes I suck it up and make the best of it, and we head off on adventures or stay home and do something fun together.

9 Frugal & Fun Weekend Activities for Families

1. Free Museum Days: Many museums and some attractions offer free days once a month or more. I keep a list in my computer so we can make a frugal and fun outing when the mood strikes. Packing a lunch or snacks means not having to pay for pricey food, though the kids may want a souvenir from the gift shop.
2. Park It: Visit a park for a fun and free outing, get outside, get some exercise pushing swings, chasing toddlers or even hiking. Bored by the same old parks? Try going to a new park each weekend. Most areas have some hidden gems that may not be closeby.
3. Festival Fun: Street festivals, block parties and fairs offer great sites to see, and stuff to do for not much money. Limit the kids to $3-5 to spend on trinkets or games.
4. Picnic: Is there anything better than hosting a picnic outside? Possibly. My kids love indoor picnics and they can be a ton of fun on a rainy or chilly day.
5. Geocaching: Geocaching is a fun and free activity for the family. It’s like a scavenger hunt using clues left by other people and using a GPS device as a guide. Caches are usually placed in parks and the end of the cache is a box filled with trinkets (for the kids). You can take a trinket and leave one, and sign your name in a book to let the other geocachers know where you are from. It’s a fun way to spend a day exploring.
6. Camping In: I’m not a big fan of camping outdoors, but I love to camp inside. We make a giant tent in the living room and the kids bring down all their pillows, blankets, and stuffed friends to camp with us.
7. Membership Pays: We have several memberships that we bought at deep discounts (one through Living Social) and with our family we can usually pay for the membership in one or two visits. Packing a lunch can make it even cheaper.
8. Clean Up: It’s not exactly ‘fun’ but occasionally it needs doing. When the kids need to clean up their rooms I often incentivize them to clean up by offering a special treat afterwards. A movie in the afternoon, a trip to the swimming pool, etc.
9. Cooking and Baking: I don’t know what it is about kids and cooking (or baking) but every kid I know goes through a phase of loving the kitchen. Encourage them to learn  the basics (a great life skill) through regular cooking and baking. Not surprisingly the kids churn out much more creative food than I make. Pickle and beef tortilla anyone?

What are some fun & frugal things you do on the weekend?

 Kelly

About Kelly

Kelly Whalen is the founder and editor of the Centsible Life. She started the blog in 2008 as her family faced a mountain of debt and the fixer upper they purchased became a FIXER UPPER. The website was born out of her desire to share what was working (and what was not) on her family's journey to financial security. Kelly lives in Minneapolis with her family.

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