How many days until your children go back to school? I’m sure they can tell you exactly how many days because the countdown is on!

This year, turn the back-to-school countdown into a game…it’s a way to savor those last days of summer, and it’s a way to beat the “I’m bored” syndrome! They’ll wake-up each morning looking forward to another activity!

Here’s how…

1. Figure out how many days are left until school starts.
2. Let your children come up with something fun to do each day until school starts! You set the budget!
3. Mark the activities on the calendar.

 
Need some ideas for free fun? Here are some fun and mostly free ideas!

• have a backyard campout
• make a Frozen Lemonade Pie…yummy!
• enjoy a picnic in the park
• meet Dad for lunch at his office
• read a book by the pool…maybe finish a required summer reading book????
• make homemade ice cream
• play in the sprinklers
• have a cookout
• go stargazing
• enjoy a lazy summer day…all day in your pajamas!
• take a trip to the farmers market
• go berry picking and come home to make strawberry jam! Click here for the easy recipe!
• take a walk on the beach or take a hike on a nearby trail
• skip rocks
• watch the sunset
• play croquet
• eat watermelon and have a seed spitting contest!
• catch fireflies

 
Well…that’s probably more ideas than there are days left before school starts, so get started today and enjoy those last lazy days of summer! You just might discover a new back-to-school family tradition!

The countdown is on…school is almost out!

Don’t let the lazy days of summer be filled with hours of television, and don’t blow your budget on summer camps. Take advantage of free summer bowling from AMF! Your kids will love it, and your wallet will too!

AMF’s Summer Unplugged is this summer’s best deal for kids, and adults can get in on the fun too with AMF’s Summer Pass.

Summer Unplugged

• 2 free games of bowling everyday!
• zip, zero, zilch for kids 15 and under!
• free bowling until 8 p.m., 7 days a week through September3.
• shoe rental not included, but they’re worth paying for!
• kids meals $3.29
• visit  Summer Unplugged  to find a participating AMF bowling center and complete a simple registration form.  Your free game coupons will be emailed to you each week.

Summer Pass

• $29.95 for everyone ages 16 or older!
• summer pass gives you 2 games per day for up to 4 people all summer long.
• summer pass games are available 7 days a week until 8 p.m. until September 3.
• she rental not included.

It’s another budget friendly idea for summer fun from The Budget Diet girl! Check out more ideas for budget friendly summer fun!

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I participated in this campaign as a member of One2One Network and am eligible for a prize drawing.  All opinions stated in the post are my own

This offer valid through 3:40pm on Monday July 30th, 2012

 
 
 
 
If you’re staying home for Spring Break, be prepared for the “I’m bored” syndrome with a Frugal Family Fun Jar!

Here’s how:

• Write down frugal family fun activities on strips of paper – it really is possible to have fun on a budget!
• Fold up the strips of paper and put them in a jar.
• Each day let your children choose an activity or two from the frugal family fun jar!
• Enjoy the spontaneity, enjoy new activities and enjoy your family!

Of course, I’ll help you get started with all sorts of ideas for frugal family fun!

• Have a Pizza Taste Test and a Movie – Buy an assortment of frozen pizzas and have a taste test for dinner while you enjoy a movie. Think of all the possibilities beyond pizza taste tests! I’d vote for an ice cream taste test!
• Make Ice Cream Sundaes – Here’s your chance to taste test ice cream!
• Try Minute to Win It Challenges – Host your own Minute to Win It event. The silly challenges use everyday household items, and the possibilities are endless! Check out some Minute to Win It challenges that are easy enough to do at home.
• Watch Family Videos – Pull out the old family videos for some FREE entertainment! My teenagers always get a laugh out of watching themselves as crazy toddlers!
• Host a Cooking School – Stop watching Food Network and start cooking! Your kids will love learning to cook and eating their creations. Add to the fun by letting them choose the recipes.
• Take a Hike – Pack a picnic and take a hike on a nearby nature trail. When our children were little, they loved going to Skidaway Island State Park and walking on the trail with bridges, marsh, fiddler crabs and even a tall tower where we enjoyed our picnic! Go exploring and save money.
• Try a Backyard Campout – Pitch a tent, tell ghost stories, play flashlight tag, catch fireflies and cook s’mores on your grill.
• Organize a Game Night – Put a fun twist on family game night by allowing the winner to choose tomorrow night’s dinner menu.
• Enjoy a Bike Ride – Doesn’t a family bike ride sound like fun? You could even stop for ice cream along the way!
• Visit the Library – Check to see if your library has any special events planned for spring break.
• Tackle a Puzzle – When’s the last time your family sat around a table working on a puzzle?
• Have a Lemonade Stand – Don’t limit your lemonade stand just to summer!
• Plant a Garden – Fruits and Veggies just taste better when you plant them yourself.
• Go on a Factory Tour – FactoryToursUSA.com offers a state by state listing of factory tours, and most tours are free!
• Spend a Morning at The Farmer’s Market – When you get home with all your produce, have a veggie plate for dinner!
• Check out a New Playground – There’s bound to be a playground or park in your area that you’ve been wanting to try!
• Go Berry Picking – Use all those berries to make a pie or how about Strawberry Jam?
• Learn a New Craft – Has your daughter always wanted to learn to knit or has she been begging to make a scrapbook? Now’s your chance to teach her.

 
There you have it, 18 frugal family fun ideas to get you started! What ideas can you add to this list?

The holidays are over and there are still at least 7 days between holiday gift bliss and going back to school where you have to entertain your children! If you’re a recovering working mom like me who has no business entertaining your children because you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing, this can be the most frightening time all year. Or, maybe not.

As I’ve had to entertain my kids more and more over the last year, I’ve come to learn a few things that I think can apply to post-holiday entertainment and not send you running for the left over Egg Nog (not that I’m saying you shouldn’t also keep that handy – and make sure you’re drinking the good stuff, not the stuff that you brought out for the kiddos).

Here’s what I’ve learned about post holiday entertainment that can be fun and on a budget:

1) Have a dolly fashion show – Whether your child received a new doll, or has old ones, kids always love dressing up their dolls; this is just a way to take it up a notch and let them show it all off. You can have a child serve as narrator, one can walk the dolls down the aisle, and one can be the judge. Oh, and don’t forget the photographer. After a while you will lose your mind with all the dolly drama, but the kids will be entertained for a long time.

2) Have a tea party with shrunken food (or, if you don’t want to have real food, you can create some from craft items). This idea we got from an American Girl book. Here are a few of the items that we had fun with:
 

Craft foods:

• Chocolate Oreo Cookies – take black and white foam sheets – cut them into circles and glue them together. You can also make a chocolate chip version with brown foam sheets cut in larger circles and the chips out of the black foam (you can also use construction paper, it’s just not as thick).

 

• Milk – take a dixie cup and fill it with cotton balls. Perfect milk for dipping cookies.

 
Real foods:

• Petit Fours – stack two Oreo cookies together and frost them (put a layer of frosting in between); add some sprinkles and you’re ready for a fancy tea.

 

• Miniature Pizzas – cut the pre-made refrigerated French roll into small slices; add pizza sauce and cheese and cook for 5-10 minutes in a 350 oven.

 

• Miniature Watermelon Slices (this one is a bigger pain, so you may want to skip – I put it here because it did turn out cute) – cut limes in half,
  scoop out the inside, put red jello liquid into each half; refrigerate until firm, but not completely hard. When firm, add several miniature chocolate chips as
  the “seeds” (be sure to push them into the jello with a toothpick) then return to refrigerator until completely hardened. When hardened, cut the halfs in half
  and you’ll have watermelon wedges.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3) If your kids build it, they will play in it . . . I’m not sure why I bother with toys anymore. No matter how many toys and presents kids get, they always entertain themselves for far more hours with household leftover items. Give your kids a large cardboard box – maybe one that gifts came in or that you have laying around and see what they come up with. My kids built a two story house and an outhouse. Just for fun we put my 6 month old niece in the outhouse and sent my sister a picture letting her know we had potty trained the baby!

Entertaining kids after the holiday madness doesn’t have to be maddening. Hopefully these ideas will help spark some new ideas for you too. If so, I’d love to hear them.

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written by: Heather Dugdale of http://www.recoveringworkingmom.com/

Heather Dugdale’s blog Recovering Working Mom shares her insights about learning how to be a mom and have family fun, while balancing work and life with kids.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of American Family Insurance for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Need a good laugh?

The folks at  American Family Insurance have put together a great series of family friendly videos that are sure to make your family laugh!  They call these videos Stand Up For Family because they want to remind us about the importance of family!  It’s humor that any family can relate to, featuring today’s hottest comedians.  Even better, it’s all “G-rated” comedy that your entire family can enjoy.

Choose from titles like “Take a Bath”,  ”Momma Talk”, or my personal favorite, “Still Free”.  ”Still Free” will bring back memories of playing outside and playing board games or hide and seek!  It’s a chance to show your children what life was like in the “olden days!”  Our current generation considers family fun anything with a joystick, so gather around you computer and enjoy this and other funny family videos.  Maybe you’ll get your kids to realize there’s more fun beyond the computer, beyond the xbox, beyond the game boy!  

Thanks to AmFam for taking the time to remind us of the importance of family, family traditions and creating family memories!  

This Thanksgiving, take time to laugh and be thankful for family!

You’ve been busy volunteering at the school all day, and your daughter has dance tonight…so, maybe you’ll just drive-thru Chick-Fil-A and pick up dinner tonight.

Many of us repeat this scenario over and over, week after week…so, let’s REWIND it, and come up with a better solution. Have you ever considered letting your kids do the cooking? Here’s how it would work…

1. Each child (that is old enough) will be in charge of preparing dinner & cleaning up one night each week.
2. They must have their ingredient list to you before you go grocery shopping since a last minute trip to the grocery store would really defeat the purpose of this project!

Now, here is your one and only rule…give them free reign in the kitchen, don’t hover & don’t tell them what to cook!

For many of us, it’s summer, and it’s an ideal time to teach your kids some basic cooking skills, so soon YOUR KIDS CAN DO THE COOKING! You may want to introduce them to The Budget Diet’s frugalicious and fast recipes or easy pizza recipes.

Your kids will love to do the cooking because they will get to eat their favorites!

You’ll love for your kids to do the cooking because you’ll have a couple nights off from kitchen duty!

Your wallet will love for your kids to do the cooking because just 2 nights a week of fast food costs at least $40! Don’t you have something you’d rather spend $40 on???

Now, go enjoy whatever your children cook this week…even if it’s macaroni & cheese from a box! If they need a little inspiration, give them their first cookbook!

If you’d like to share a great idea that helps you delegate “kitchen duty”…please leave a reply below. Thanks!

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Image courtesy of Ohmmy3D / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The average cost for a family of four to go to the movies and enjoy popcorn is $80.

If you want to take your family to a sporting event, plan on shelling out at least $200.

A concert…forget it!

Give your wallet a break this weekend, and enjoy frugal family fun!

10 Ideas for a Family Fun Night

1. Pizza Taste Test and a Movie – Buy an assortment of frozen pizzas and have a taste test for dinner while you enjoy a movie. The added bonus is that after a few weeks of taste testing pizzas, you’ll know which frozen pizza is your favorite! Think of all the possibilities beyond pizza taste tests!
2. Sundaes on Saturday – Start a tradition of serving ice cream sundaes on Saturday, complete with all the fun and festive toppings!
3. Minute to Win It – Host your own Minute to Win It event. The silly challenges use everyday household items, and the possibilities are endless! Check out some Minute to Win It challenges that are easy enough to do at home.
4. High School Football Games or High School Musicals – If you’re not taking advantage of the cheap entertainment at your local high school, this is a great week to start! You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the reasonable ticket prices for both sporting events and theatrical productions. We’ve seen amazing high school productions of Godspell, Grease and High School Musical.
5. Family Videos – Pull out the old family videos for some FREE entertainment! My teenagers always get a laugh out of watching themselves as crazy toddlers!
6. Cooking School – Stop watching Food Network and start cooking! Your kids will love learning to cook and eating their creations. Add to the fun by letting them choose the recipes.
7. Take a Hike – Pack a picnic and take a hike on a nearby nature trail. When our children were little, they loved going to Skidaway Island State Park and walking on the trail with bridges, marsh, fiddler crabs and even a tall tower where we enjoyed our picnic! Go exploring and save money.
8. Backyard Campout – Pitch a tent, tell ghost stories, play flashlight tag, catch fireflies and cook s’mores on your grill.
9. Game Night – Put a twist on family game night by making it a regular event. The winner gets to choose next week’s game and dinner menu.
10. Bike Ride – Doesn’t a family bike ride sound like fun? You could even stop for ice cream along the way!

 
There you have it, 10 ideas for frugal family fun! What will your family be doing this weekend?

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Image courtesy of: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Does your family have any back-to-school traditions?

Maybe shopping for a new first day of school outfit or making a special treat for the first day of school lunch?

Think of family traditions as inexpensive little ways to create lasting family memories…no matter how silly the tradition, it will be remembered for a lifetime!

If you don’t have any back-to-school traditions, here are some ideas from Budget Diet readers to inspire you:

1. making a special breakfast on the first day of school

 

2. hosting an ice cream sundae party the week before school starts…it’s a chance for friends to get together and see who’s in their class this year

 

3. going out for ice cream after the first day of school

 

4. taking a picture by the front door, so we can see how much they’ve grown each year

 

5. writing a note and putting it in their lunch box

 

6. inviting classmates to a pool party before school starts

 

7. attending a mother/daughter back-to-school fashion show

 

8. baking cookies for my teacher

 

Family traditions are cheaper than any toy that your children might be begging for, and that tradition will still be remembered when that toy is long forgotten!

Please let me know your back-to-school traditons!

Have you checked The Budget Diet’s freebies page today?

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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net