Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Its tough in this economy to get out as a family let alone alone time with my husband. He works full time and I work full time seasonally and part time but our finances are beyond tight belt buckling.
So, here are some of the things we do as a family and one on one to get out have fun and do things less expensive.
We look for outings that are free first like the blog below the Freedom Trail that we did as a family and go to free concerts/movies hosted at park, librariess & schools.
At time when my husband and I may receive gifts from each other, friends and family we ask for gift cards to restaurants, movies and museums/events. We keep this in a bin all year round and use them here and there to spread out thru the year for treats.
On vacation we always use the local free papers with event ideas and discount coupons, as we also do year round at home.
Use town and regional websites to find events: for us its our town's, boston.com, etc.
Pick days of the week to do things that are not as busy: lots of museums host free afternoons and evenings on weekdays.
When we can we try to have lunch dates if my husband can get an extra school day off here and there: it saves on menu costs, childcare and often able to combine a large portion of the day together when the kids are at school.
Host people in your home we do this with game and movie nights, sometimes with themes. We all bring pot luck, hang out together and again no additional costs for the outing or babysitter fees.
Shop one a weekday Wed/Thurs when stores even grocers put additional goods on sale and clearance.
Recycle: weird to think it saves money but use your own bags at the food market (overtime stores will be charging for bags-some state already do), buy second hand as much as possible ( we hit rummage sales and often get things new with tags), hand me downs are good, and make sure you pass yours out as well whether its to a friend/neighbor or to a charity that may resell it all helps the cycle use of goods and help others.
Don't stop giving back if financially you can not give to causes...guess what your time often is worth more, be involved and doing at as family is often very fun and emotionaly gratifying.
Join road organization like AAA beyond the roadcare benefits the discounts are great and pay for the membership multiple times over for us. We recently found out even at Reebock outlets they gave an additonal 40% off even clearance items with this membership and got a pair of great sneakers for under $10 that were on sale. We have even put trips on lay a way thru their travel agency service.
Any where you go from restaurants, hotels, travel to stores ask if there is sales, specials, free upgrades - often there is and worse case they say no. If you don't ask you never know what better experience, additional perks could be given or create an additional value added financially and eddyfing return.
Personnal example: This past Monday was my husband's birthday, he took the day off. We sent the kids off to school went for a nice walk together then had a great lunch at a very fancy restaurant with a $50 gift card that included out tip that if we went there for dinner on a weekend would have cost us about triple plus childcare. Then still was able to have a bit of time alone before the kids came home from school.
I know this rambled but we are feeling the tough times of this economy and wanted to share some of little things we try to do to help muttle thru. We have always been a paycheck to paycheck if not always a bit behind not making ends meet but still try to mix fun positive times together.
Member Comments About This Blog Post:
That's awesome. Thanks for the picture. I love the way the little crescent moon is on the left. Do you have more pics? Put them on Flickr!
, there poof a salad!
for sharing. I like it. Although your DH's is a little better hahaha! I know you will reach your goal IF YOU START TO EAT MORE FRUITS & VEGGIES & DRINK YOUR WATER. Sorry, I needed to yell because sometimes people don't hear me.
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