Frugal Friday: More than 100 Frugal Summer Family Activities

When I was growing up summer meant visiting family, exploring the outdoors, playing in the water, reading books, and plenty of free time to let our imaginations take us places we'd never imagined before. Summer for me meant freedom to live as a child in a child's world. And I treasure those memories that I have from my summers.

Now that I'm creating my own family, I've realized that it doesn't have to cost money to make memories. In fact, some of the best memories don't cost a cent. Over-scheduling our children's (or our time) away from home and family means robbing our children of precious memories that can't be made elsewhere. With so many responsibilities and obligations, I've found that family time (and even free time) often needs to be scheduled in order to happen. Here are some frugal ideas that hopefully will get you started to brainstorm how you can make your own family memories this summer!

Paint the sidewalk with ice cubes
Go camping in your backyard
Bubble Dancing
Make Homemade Ice cream in a bag
Make a Homemade Hot air balloon
Go to the parade
Explore the artist in you with some corn syrup paintings
Dejunk the house and host a garage sale or donate it!
Have a bike wash
Make Balloon Rockets
Feed the ducks at a local pond
Make a secret hideout in your backyard
Go summer sledding - find some cardboard boxes and a big, grassy hill and sled away!
Create Water Bottle Bubbles
Make a Super Slip and Slide
Have each person design and make a boat out of things around the house. Then, take them to a river/stream and race them.
Make some easy homemade sponge bombs and have a water war!
Run through the sprinklers while you're watering the lawn
Shop at a yard sale and see who can find the best item for under $1 or $5
Host the Olympics in your backyard
Make your own rainbow
Sleep out under the stars
Have a no-media day (or week or month!)
Make a family tree
Set up a bike obstacle course and have a bike rodeo
Play Hopscotch
Write a story and illustrate it together
Sip lemonade on the patio or out under a shady tree
Have a backwards dinner (eat dessert first...)
Go to the library and check out as many books as you can and have a read-a-thon
Find a long rope lying around the house and play jump rope
Go on a picnic
Have a water balloon toss
Make watermelon slushies
Climb a tree
Go cloud watching and see what shapes you can discover
Make mud pies
Have a tasting party. Make different foods, blindfold people and try to guess what foods they are!
Make a homemade sprinkler
Make Water Balloon Yo-yos
Construct something with marshmallows and toothpicks
Finger paint with pudding
Go to your public library for a story time or have your own at home
Wash the Car (and "accidentally" squirt someone...)
Have a paper airplane race
Go clean up a local park or public place
Go caterpillar hunting
Have a backyard BBQ
Make Ice Cube Boats
Make puppets and put on a show!
Make Ice Cream sundaes
Build an outdoor obstacle course with wading pools, jump ropes, cardboard boxes, sprinklers, etc.
Plant a garden
Build a Fairy House
Have an explosion!
Build a sand castle
Make Robots out of recylables
Make Homemade Pretzels
Go to a farmer's market
Collect Grasshoppers
Draw Monster Pictures on paper and squirt them with water until they fade away
Make a big pot of witches brew out of water, pinecones, weeds, or anything else you can find in the backyard...
Host a neighborhood block party
Have a marshmallow roast
Hike to a local waterfall and take a free shower!
Play shadow tag - try to run away before the "it" steps on your shadow.
Find a good spot to watch a sunset or sunrise
Make pirate ships - Aargh mateys!
Have a watermelon seed-spitting contest
Make a nature collage out of things you find in nature.
Perform a skit for a neighbor or friend
Watch the fireworks on the 4th of July
Make microwave popcorn and take it to a park to enjoy.
Get out and get some frugal exercise!
Pick flowers from your yard and drop them off on someone's door anonymously
Play flashlight tag
Be a tourist in your own town
Invite your friends over for a Beach Party
Find a construction project to watch from a distance
Create a racetrack on the driveway
Press some flowers in a book between wax paper for dried flowers
Throw a birthday party for your pets or stuffed animals or an un-birthday party for your kids
Go to the pet store and look at all the animals
Start a collection - rocks, shells, bugs, leaves, anything!
Go for a bus ride on the local bus around town - see if you can make it where you need to
Go Berry Picking - there's lots of u-pick places where you pay for your berries by the pound.
Visit a cemetery and put flowers from your garden on someone's grave
Have a family game night with prizes!
ABC Hunt- Write all 26 letters on your driveway and find items to place next to each letter.
Do a kid fun run
Make Rootbeer Floats
Make Tin Foil Dinners and cook them in the oven.
Go to a new playground
Read a chapter book together
Have a 3-legged race
Look at something through a magnifying glass
Practice drawing with your toes
Make sand faces
Play red light green light
Put on an outside dance