by Kate Johns

Created on: December 18, 2008   Last Updated: January 12, 2009

With the state of the current economy going downhill, nearly everyone is watching their household budget. That's why it is really important to still have some FUN with your family. Cheap family fun is the way to go! You can have a great time with your family for FREE or for next to free. All you have to do, is check out your local area and what is free or super cheap. And you can stay home or very close to home and have tons of family entertainment that is free.

Here are twelve ways to have free or super cheap family fun on a budget.

1. Go outside and have some FUN! Go to a nearby park, or out in your own backyard for some stellar family fun. Play baseball, kick the can, any game that you can think of. Have the entire family ride their bikes at a nearby park. In the winter go sledding at a nearby park for free. Make snowmen, throw snowballs or create a sled in your own backyard for stellar free family fun.

2. Get out the board games! Play board games with your kids that are very easy and require no reading or math skills such as Pretty Pretty Princess. For more of a challenge and a teaching experience, there are other games that teach kids how to add and several like Monopoly that help a child learn to count.

3. Take the family to the zoo for FREE! Many zoos have special times where you can get in for free. We have managed to catch this many times! The times vary from city to city, but usually you can get in for free on an off time, such as a late Sunday afternoon.

4. Have family fun with the entire neighborhood. Get the neighbors together and have everyone who has kids play outside games. Everyone can play baseball, football, or run through a sprinkler. People can swim at each other's homes by taking turns. Kids can ride their bikes and skate at each other's homes. Everyone can bring their grills out and make food for their family. It will be one big family extravaganva of super cheap fun.

5. Gather all those movies you already own and watch them with the kids again. Kids have their favorite movies to watch that they will watch over and over. Rent movies from the library for super cheap prices like a dollar. To top it all off, you can keep library movies for a week, and the late fees are a lot less than those movie rental places.

6. If you live anywhere near a beach go to the beach and have a great day. Take the kids and dig in the sand, create sand castles. Go swimming, try wake boarding, fishing and shell collecting. When it is cold out, build a fire and roast

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>