Over 30 Free and Cheap Ideas and Activities for Your Kids and Family For Loads of Thrifty Summer Fun This Year

Are you starting your Summer Vacation soon?  Well, we wanted to provide a list of ideas to help you, your family and your kids have some fun thrifty quality time the next few months!

We wanted to provide a list of activities that you can do for free or cheap this summer to enjoy the summer months and possibly even giving you more time together as a family!

Here’s a list of ideas and please add any ideas that you have in the comments section below:

1. Free fishing – Enjoy FREE fishing days in the month of June and other summer months all across the country meaning that you do not need a fishing license to fish!   Check out the list Free Fishing Days 2013 HERE to find out what dates are available in your area.
2. National Marina Day for some local water fun on June 8, 2013. Details are on the Discover Boating site HERE.
3. Find free roller skating across the nation – Wow, this brings back memories from our childhoods!  This is a new program and you can check out the list of roller skating rinks that are currently part of the Kids Skate Free program HERE that are participating now.  If there is not one in your area, they have a letter already drafter that you can send to your local rink to ask them to participate.
4. Summer Reading Programs – This is definitely a family favorite as Alex and I remember loving these reading programs at our local library!  They are available all over the country from your local libraries to some national chains. You will want to check the list of Kids Summer Reading Programs 2013 HERE for the full list!
5. Free bowling – There are many bowling great ways to bowl for free across the nation as part of the Kids Bowl Free summer program.  Check out the details and locations on  the Kids Bowl Free site HERE.
6. Free and cheap movies – Many theaters are offering their Summer Movie programs for cheap from the National theaters.  Check out Regal Theaters HERE, and Cinemark Theaters HERE. Plus, since there are hundreds of local theaters across the country, we suggest calling or going to the websites of the local theaters in your area for even more FREE or cheap movies this summer!
7. Free summer movies or concerts in the park for the community – Check in your local newspaper, your local city’s or county’s websites for the calendar of events for the low-down on the community movies and concerts in the park.  Plus you may see other ideas or activities going on in your area too!
8. Free museum entrances – There is a possibility that you have many local museums that are free in your area.  See our previous post on the topic of Free Museum Entrances HERE.
9. Free local attractions or even special summer discounted days – If you have special attractions in your area, check the websites of those attractions or the city, county or state sites calendar of events to easily find any discounted or free days available.
10. Lowes has their build and grow clinics for kids to build a fun activity – You can see their calendar of Lowe’s Build & Grow Clinics HERE.
11. Free or cheap kids crafts – Michaels has free or cheap kids craft projects and classes in-store all summer.  You can visit the Michaels site for the free kids craft project classes schedule.
12. Free kids building workshops – Similar to Lowe’s, Home Depot also has a kids free building workshops. You can see their schedule of projects on the Home Depot Kids Free Workshops site (they will add the kids ones as they become available).
13. Visit a National Park for Free – check the NPS.gov site HERE to see the days you can visit for free this summer!
14. Vacation Bible Schools (VBS) – VBS programs are an easy and fun way to enjoy some summer fun! Many local Christian churches will offer Vacation Bible Schools with different themes.  Call around or ask around on Facebook for the different ones going on in your area!
15. Summer camps from local fitness centers and YMCA – Check the websites of those attractions or the city, county or state sites calendar of events to easily find any discounted or free days available for sports camps or other fun active activities in your area.
16. Local church summer activities – Similar to Vacation Bible Schools, churches will also offer fair/carnival days, or other summer fun type activities.  Call around or visit the websites of the local churches to find out the calendar of events for churches in your area.
17. Join in the Pottery Barn Kids Activities this summer – Most are free and some are a small fee from crafts to exploring science and more!  See the Pottery Barn Kids summer schedule for events!
18. State and county fairs – Many fairs offer completely free admission or days in which there are free or discounted admission.  Our kids (and us!) love the fairs and especially love to see the animals!
19. Watch for free or discount days to local baseball or other sports events – Baseball games in our local area is a very fun and memorable family activity. Check the sports’ team websites for a calendar of events and you can see where to find discounts too!  Local to our area, local businesses (e.g., banks), companies and television stations will offer FREE or deeply discount tickets to the local sports event!
20. Visit the local or community pool on the discounted days or get a summer pass – Many community and local pools will offer a discounted day or a multi-visit pass for cheaper.  Call or visit your community pools sites to find those extra discounts.
21. Save on amusement/theme parks – If you are visiting a theme or amusement park, don’t miss our 25 Ways to Save on Amusement and Theme Park Tickets HERE.
22. Don’t forget movie night – If you or a friend have a projector and a sheet, schedule a outside movie night and invite your friends!  If you want to add a fun dimension to it, if you and your friends chip in you can rent a cotton candy machine; what kid doesn’t love cotton candy? 🙂
23. Schedule with your friends to have fun playdates throughout the summer – If you or your friends have a trampoline, pool and even a swingset it can be a fun way for the kids to get together and play while the adults enjoy some time of relaxing as well.
24. Go on a Staycation – we have done this many times and we encourage you to do the same! You can read about our Staycations HERE.
25. Go to the drive-in Theater – this is typically the most affordable way to see movies that just came out in the theater without paying 2 arms and 2 legs.  For example, our local drive-in only charges for 12 and up and it is only $6 for two movies.  So our whole family can see 2 just released movies for $12! We can also take our own concessions, which saves us even more!
26. Go on a backyard camping trip –Just like the real thing with tent and all!
27. Go on local hikes to explore the sites and nature in your own backyard – You can find a list of family friendly trails close to where you live on Local Hikes site HERE.
28. Make some extra income as a family or for your kids to earn too – Our girls are doing this this summer! They have started a scrapbooking business and will be selling at local craft and farmer’s markets.  Be sure to check out our Over 100 Ways to Earn Extra Income to help you get some ideas!
29. Go Geocaching– this is one of the most popular family summer activities.  We actually plan to try this out this year! See the details of all of the free fun on the Geocaching official site HERE.
30. If you have a membership to a local museum or attraction, visit the reciprocal attractions – For example, we have a membership to our local zoo.  Our membership gets us free admittance on certain days to other local attractions.  Check out what is included on yours and make plans to visit those other places too!  It can be challenging to do this during the busy school year, so summer is a perfect time!
31. Have some giant box fun – Go to Furniture and Appliance stores and ask for the big boxes that they will be throwing away.  Take them home and let your kids create their own playhouses with them! My parents did this when we were kids and it was some of the most fun and memorable summer activities we had!
32. Take the time to read out loud to all of your kids – We feel that this is a super important and beneficial activity that you can do this summer.  Several times per week, sit down with all of the kids and read out loud for 30 minutes! This encourages learning, a love of reading, quality time together and learning to just sit and pay attention 🙂

Also, consider summertime a great time to educate your children on the topic of finances.  Here’s some ideas:

• Complete the family financial focus worksheet and budgeting.
• Implement a Summer Be Intentional Challenges with your family so that you can make the most of your summer and start of the new school year with harmony, efficiency and happiness!
• It can be a good time to get them involved with couponing too!  They can learn everything from cutting and counting (for the younger kids) and organizing in groups and categories (for the older kids).  There are so many more skills even such as addition/subtraction practice and the challenge of getting as much as they can with the family’s grocery budget on items your family would eat (obviously for the older kids on this one!) while at the same time build those life application skills from preschoolers all the way through high school! Plus you will enjoy the help from coupon cutting to grocery shopping trip planning and implementing!

If you like this idea, please “Pin” it to Pinterest so that you don’t forget about it and can find it easily when you need it!

What ideas do you have for your family and kids?