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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Stockpiling Sunday

I see I am going to rename Sundays Saving Money Sunday. ( Which will also include stockpiling)

Money saving Ideas-Entertainment

Obviously we do not go out of the house for Entertainment much or rarely I should say. A Mc Donald's trip for my family going cheap is $25. We took a trip to Oklahoma 2 years ago to the Aquarium and it was $100 for us just to get in. We do alot of things that cost nothing or very very little which narrows our list quite a bit. We are very lucky to have in our small town a cute little zoo it is a great walk through it and it takes about an hour and half to walk through slowly. It also has a huge play area with lots of fun equipment for the kids. The little ones never seem to tire of it, so during the spring summer and early fall we take them about 3 or more days a week. We always pack our lunches. We have a swimming center which is huge but I did the math last year and if we went a few times a week it would cost as much as a large swimming pool bought for the backyard. So we bought that and will put it up on June 1st. There is also a huge huge park with lots of jungle gyms and park equipment, it also has a merry go round that they open up on the Weekends and weeknights during the summer and it only costs $.05 a ride. It also has a train that circles the park area which has the same hours and it only costs $.50 a ride. The park also has a huge area where they have several fun things a month that go on, and an amphitheater. We have a huge 4 state rodeo and fair that comes each August to the next town over but it is very very expensive so we have not gone in years. Our little town is famous for Neewollah each year, it lasts I think 7 days and has lots of free things in addition to rides that are quite expensive. We usually save up a small amount for the boys to play some games and for the teen to go with friends on the rides on night. Neewollah is Halloween spelled backwards. We use the public library allllllooootttt. With my oldest daughter working there we never miss any program that the boys would be interested in and their dad takes them at least 1x a week to check out books and a video and to play a bit. My teen in on the teen committee and spends quite a bit of time there. The teen also goes 3x a week to some sort of youth group. There are endless VBS each summer living here in the bible belt. Just goes to show with a little checking of your local city pages you can find tons of free or very cheap things to do for most every holiday too. We have decided to let the(Twins) boys join T-ball this year which is not cheap at all. But the benefits for them with their ADHD to get out and run and play on a team seems worth it.

For at home things we own every game known to man I think which we play alot. We also swear by Netflix. We have a Wii and my oldest son has an xbox. With the Wii hooked up to the main T.V. we can watch movies whenever my kids can watch YouTube videos ( supervised) or the teen can browse the Internet. The YouTube on the Wii works well when I need just a few minutes to do something I can put the 5 month old and the 3 year old to watch a quickie 10 minute show of Baby Einstein.

So there is our idea of entertainment. As far as eating out, We have ethnic nights at home. I have learned from the Top Secret Recipe websites to make favorites from restaurants right here at home that taste just like going out. We frequent Braum's Ice Cream store many times during the summer for a cold treat and we frequent Sonic Many times a week for 1/2 price happy hour where most drinks are half price, I can get all of us a drink for under $3. It pays to sign up for Sonic emails since during the summer they have specials that go on, like bogo malts and shakes. They will have little one day specials for .50 cent corn dogs all day or .50 cent sundaes etc.

Start checking your city pages today for fun things to do this summer it will be here before you know it. Happy Sunday to you all, Michelle

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kuddos to you Michelle. Great ideas, you certainly do your homework. I love local events, libraries, etc and it seems so many people miss out on great, inexpensive or freebies right in their own neighborhood. Wonderful post.

-jayce

frugalredneck said...

Thanks a bunch Jayce, I don't know what I would do sometimes with all the great things available!!! Michelle