Each day we will be posting our readers “Thrifty Tips for Entertaining the kids”. At the end of the month,
one of you will win a $25.00 Gift Card For all the details click here.
Fun thing to do with kids… Make a seashell paperweight. You need Plaster of Paris, Seashells, Recycled margarine tub, Mixing stick, Poster paint, Paintbrush & Newspaper. Cover table w/ newspaper. Use stick to mix 1 cup Plaster of Paris w/ water until the consistency of paste. Pour into marg. tub. Press shells in plaster & allow to harden completely. Carefully remove plaster paperweight from tub. Decorate w/ poster paints or leave natural.
My sons and I have planned lots of free and cheap activities for this summer. They will be attending VBS at our church and we are participating in our local library’s summer reading programs. We will also check out our local zoo’s DVD from the library which comes with 4 free zoo tickets as well. Finally, we will tap out the library’s resources by checking out a state parks pass to visit a local park and have a picnic. Although our local theaters have free or $1 movies, they just don’t fit into our schedules. Instead, I have used the dvr to record several different movies we haven’t seen and we will watch them and eat popcorn and cheap candy at home. Or, our theater has $1 popcorn on Tuesdays, so I may just stop by on my way home from work and treat them! We also plan on making our on bubbles and bath crayons as well.
The YMCA has an application for assistance with the cost of membership for people with low-income. They go by a sliding scale. They have plenty of opportunities for kids to get some exercise (and the parents too 
). Look out for specials on Groupon and Citismart…just got my daughter some horseback riding lessons for a great deal
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Thrifty summers is what we are all about here. With kids in private school, summer is our time to take advantage of all the fun free things around town and around our state. Living in FL and right on the coast – pool and beach days are almost part of everyday or at least a huge part of the week. We discovered http://www.kidsbowlfree.com a few years back for FREE bowling all summer and then some. We bought a pair of bowling shoes last summer (a size too big) and now we don’t have the extra cost of the shoes fee. I set up a summer calendar-FREE @ this sitehttp://anythingbutperfect.com/2011/05/free-printable-summer-2011-calendars/ and jot down all the library days, bowling days, pool, playdates, sleepovers, VBS, etc… this keeps us somewhat organized and I try to plan the same thing each week with some specials – just like summer camp only at Camp MOM