Thursday, January 24, 2008

Frugal Friday - 1-24-08


Family Entertaiment can be expensive when you have a larger family. Just going to see a first run movie in the evening right now would cost our family of six 54.00! That is just the movie tickets folks! We rarely go and never go at night unless it is the dollar theatre. The matinee however now costs around 6.00 per person.

Several things I have done is to make a run to the dollar store before the movie matinee. I buy everyones favorite candy. Since we never have this type of thing at home it adds to the festivities. I just put this candy in my purse and pass it out once we get in the movie.
When I was a single mom, I would even put two Solo cups in my purse along with a baggy of crushed ice and a can of soda.

We also have a local video store that has free rentals of children's movies, which came in handy when they were younger, but they also have free rental days as well for other movies.
There are many things that you can do as a family and enjoy each others time. Go to the local park when the weather is nice and pack a picnic lunch. Be sure and bring the frisbees and footballs to toss around.

We currently have so many sporting events to go to with our boys playing football/basketball that we have a lot of entertainment opportunities. Our local university also has great events that we can usually attend for free.

Check your local paper to see listings of what is taking place in your city. There are always things that either are a nominal fee or free.

Also, if you have teenagers, like we do, that love going to the movies with friends, purchase a gift card to the movies for a birthday gift or stocking stuffer at Christmas.
For more Frugal Friday ideas go to Biblical Womanhood.

6 comments:

Edi said...

I liked your story of the solo cups, bag of crushed ice and soda in your purse!!!

We live in a pretty big city - so we have access to dvds / vhs and cds from all the surrounding libraries.

All dvds/vhs are free to check out for 1 week.

Now you are not going to get the most recent movies, and when the new movies come to the library - there may be a long waiting list - but they are FREE.

I know some people don't read much - so they may not even know what all their library has to offer.

Anonymous said...

Great ideas! Our local public libraries also often have really new movies (and often a better selection of family friendly movies than the video stores) that are, of course, free unless they're overdue.
Thanks for the ideas!

Nikki said...

I love all your tips. I often forget that there are free programs and concerts in town. I'll have to check it out for this weekend. Thanks!

Martha A. said...

I had never even been to a movie theater until this past year when someone offered to take me for the experience.

Some other fun things to check out for entertainment is local activities, there is often a community column in the paper. Here for example there is a Mexican dinner being held for a fundraiser for a mission trip for donations, a fun way to spend some money and help people in the mean time! The Community college has plays they offer which are much cheaper than other places for plays, we love the park when the weather is nice, take a picnic and a ball and it is so much fun!
You would get amazed at all the free things advertised though, we find all kinds of stuff! We went Ice skating last Sat! That was not free, but it could have been since we have our own skates!

Anonymous said...

Hi Vickie,
I just jumped over to your blog site and I enjoyed your profile and the frugal tips...good stuff. Have a blessed day! Pam :)

Jeanette said...

I think the movie gift card for a birthday or Christmas is a wonderful idea.
I am lucky to live in an area with an amazing library. They have brand new movies and several copies of them. So you can usually find a copy on the self. And the selection of older movies is great, sometimes better than the video store. So I have dropped our video membership and use the library. I realize not everyone lives somewhere with such a great selection of DVDs at the library but if you do you should take advantage of it.