Frugal Friday: Stay Home to Save Money
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One of the easiest ways that we save money in our family is to stay home. Now, before you roll your eyes and whine, “Boooooring…,” hear me out.
- Recreational shopping costs money.
- Restaurant meals cost money.
- Fuel for transportation costs money.
- A night at the movies costs money.
‘Nuf said?
I’m not saying that you should never going anyplace. But, if you think through your proposed outing, there may be a way to curb some costs. I loved reader Danni’s comment the other day,
We were very tempted to go out to eat on Saturday, but didn’t want to spend the money. I had half a bag of spinach that needed to be used, so I threw together a spinach and cheese fritatta with toast and fresh fruit on the side. It was very satisfying and we were glad we didn’t eat out.
There are often many quick and frugal solutions to that entertainment or meal that you are craving.
- Stage a garage sale or do a major ebay-motivated dejunking. Then spend that money on your shopping spree.
- Cook your favorite knock-off meals at home. My friend Lynn has some great recipes that mimic restaurant favorites, like Panera’s Broccoli Cheese Soup or Chipotle’s Lime-Cilantro Rice
- Bake your own pizzas on Friday night.
- Check out a movie from the library for free, or better yet, create a slide show of your family photos and set it to music. My kids love this.
- Walk to a local park. Take bubbles or a kite to fly, weather permitting.
- Play a rousing game of Monopoly.
There is no end to fun and good eats — at home.
What do YOU do to save money?
Share your favorite money-saving ideas today. Leave a link to a post that shares some frugal wisdom. (Please no giveaways or deals posts. Teach us how to fish!)
Hi! Happy frugal friday and thanks for sharing your space with us! I am so gonna check out that recipe for panera broccoli cheese soup because my daughter always BEGS me to take her there for lunch so she can get that–now I am totally gonna make some at home and serve up a fancy half sandwich for her! 😉
A great thing to do is make some home made popcorn and then play games. We always have a blast doing this!
I posted a great recipe that turned an old bag of brussel sprouts milling about in my fridge into tender, delicious goodness thus saving money by not throwing them out! Keep it real! Alex@amoderatelife
Great post! I read your frugal tips every Friday and thoroughly enjoy them. This is my first time participating.
We get dvs and books from the library for weekends. Saves us a ton. Also, we ride our bicycles to a park nearby. That helps us unwind.. 🙂
That’s OH-SO true! Staying home not only saves money, but I find that I’m more relaxed too. Thanks for the reminder!
I did a post on this awhile back – I so agree that staying home saves big $$. http://bit.ly/arRUFR
We make some homemade popcorn and have movie marathons at home with our kids with DVD’s we own or RedBox $1 rentals (and some we even get for FREE using the freebie codes). Lat year we bought an old fahioned popcorn maker for a family gift at Target (we even got $20 free gift card to boot when we did). We felt it would get it’s money’s worth of uses and really does! We also play board games, bake desserts together, swim in our pool, and do art projects.
For date nights we rotate at friend’s houses and everyone brings a dish or dessert. It’s actually more fun than going out to eat or go see a movie.
We use Netflix to save money. I use a lot of DVD’s from there for homeschool plus you can watch many movies right on your computer. One thing we really like is they now offer watching many movies with a free disc for your Wii. It costs us less than $10 per month and we use it a lot. For cheap entertainment, many Friday nights we bake a homemade pizza and watch a movie from Netflix.
@Becky,
This sounds just like our house! We requested the disc for our Wii, and I think we’ve used it every day since it arrived! My favorite is to snuggle the whole bunch on the couch in pj’s after the dishes are done, watch a great family movie and eat popcorn. Then, after the little ones are asleep, hubby and I can snuggle together and catch a game (we’re both baseball fans) or at least Sportscenter. Throw in a pizza kit from the freezer and it’s the perfect no-mess, no-stress kind of night.
Great post! I think we are more likely to actually enjoy each other’s company when we stay home. It is hard to have a real conversation when in a crowd.
Besides going to the boys baseball games, we stay home most of the time. I enjoy being home, and am most comfortable, of course.
However, the boys have been begging for a trip to Chicago, so we are having a Garage Sale at the end of the money, hoping to make enough money for a day trip to Chicago.
Thanks again for hosting FF!
~Liz
Every year we create several DVD slide shows with photos and set them to music. We love to watch them over and over again!! We have slide shows of our wedding, baby photos, vacations & a lot more. It is also a fun project to create the slide shows and choose the music & photos.