If you have a family, there is no way out of spending money on things you do not want to do. Aside from doctor visits and education costs, kids are going to want you to spend your hard earned cash on all sorts of entertainment ventures, junk food, and toys they are going to get bored with after a couple of hours. While your kid’s attention span may be on par with a fruit fly, your money supply doesn’t have to get sucked into an electric buzzer. It is easy to find things around your city that are free and will distract your kids until the next episode of SpongeBob Squarepants comes on.
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Entertainment
While traveling in Los Angeles, my husband and I decided to stop and spend a day at Universal Studios. We knew it would be pricy, but we thought it would be worth the time and money we would spend. We opted for the $74 day pass, although the lady at the booth sure tried her hardest to get us to buy the $119 pass so that we wouldn’t have to wait in line. I am glad we didn’t go for that, though, as we went on a Thursday and hardly had to wait at all to see any of the attractions.
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As I mentioned in a previous post, my husband and I are traveling right now, and have been for about the last month and a half. So far we have driven approximately 12,000 kilometers, and our focus has been to visit various national parks in the southwestern U.S. Due to nasty weather conditions, we have had to skip some of the parks and have opted to drive the coastline up through California instead. We have stayed in a hotel/motel 3 times so far on our journey, but most nights we stay in various campgrounds or RV Parks. We have also spent a few nights sleeping in our car in Walmart parking lots. We did discover (at 1:30 in the morning), however, that not all Walmarts allow for overnight parking.
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If you are a movie lover, an affordable way to watch as many movies as you want, is to use a company called Netflix. For just $7.99 a month, you can watch an unlimited number of movies, documentaries, and TV shows, and your first month is free.
My husband recently signed us up and now when we have some spare time we can sign in and watch a movie to relax. Netflix is great because it offers easy access to a movie with the click of a button and it’s both legal and a really inexpensive entertainment option.
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If you want to go on a family vacation such as taking a trip to Disneyland, a great way to save enough money is to do it as a family. Get the kids involved by encouraging them to think of creative ways they can contribute. Open up a savings account specifically for the trip and then as the funds come in, put them into this account. Give your family frequent updates on how much has been saved so everyone is aware of how far you’ve come and how far you still have to go in order to achieve your goal.
Make it a team effort to come up with the money. It will be fun! Your kids can do odd jobs around the neighborhood to earn extra cash. Perhaps they are old enough to babysit or can pitch in and help with recycling. Collecting cans and getting a refund is a simple way to earn some cash. A lemonade stand is also a fun idea.
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One way my husband and I save a lot of money on food each week is by preparing and bringing our own lunches to work rather than paying for cafeteria food. What I usually do is make a big stir-fry, lasagna, pasta, or a big pot of soup or chili on the weekend and then I put portions into containers and freeze them so that they can be used for the week ahead.
In the past I just used leftovers from various meals I made throughout the week. I found, however, that by doing so I often ended up having to cook twice in one evening because I seldom prepared enough to cover both our lunches plus our supper. By preparing a lot of food on the weekend, if I don’t have enough leftovers I don’t have to cook a second time that evening. And if I do end up with some leftovers, all the better, I can still use them for our lunches the next day.
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When you want to treat yourself and your family but do not want to spend the money to eat out all the time, a great way to enjoy a meal without spending a lot of money is to make a special restaurant-like meal at home.
One that works great at our home is replicating an all -you -can eat buffet where you get to make your own stir-fry. We use our trusty Toastmaster griddle and I slice up all sorts of veggies such as onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc. I then slice beef very thinly and sometimes I also slice up chicken breasts.
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