101 Free or Cheap Entertainment Ideas for Families

When our children were very young our budget was especially tight. We learned how to make do without a lot of extras and to find free or inexpensive entertainment options, and we came to appreciate the value and meaning in simple things like time spent with family. With a little creativity and imagination, you can keep busy. Below are some of our favorite ideas.

101 Free or Inexpensive Entertainment Ideas for Kids and Families:

Visit a playground
Go for a hike at a park or nature reserve
Go for a walk in the neighborhood
Go for a jog or run
Do yoga
Do a fitness DVD (rent one from your library)
Check out books from the library
Rent a movie from the library and pop some popcorn
Play a video game you own, or see if your library has some
Play board games or card games (see if your library has any to check out)
Go to story time at the library
Attend a craft time, music performance, puppet show, author event, or other activity at the library
Look for events at your community center (photo opportunity with Santa, indoor trick-or-treating, etc.)
Look for events hosted by your city (outdoor concerts, fall festivals, Easter egg hunts, etc.)
Walk around a mall or outlet shopping center and just have fun looking without buying anything
Browse at a thrift store (you can set a small budget and allow children to buy something, or not)
Look for museums or other venues that have free admission (or find out if they have free admission during certain days/times)
Cook a meal at home
Make cookies or another treat at home
Watch cartoons together
Read a book together
Ride bikes in the neighborhood or on a trail
Pack a picnic lunch and go to a park
Play soccer or catch in the yard
Play tag in the yard
Draw with sidewalk chalk
Play hopscotch
Blow bubbles
Jump rope
Learn how to hula hoop
Color or draw together
Paint together (with brushes or with finger paint)
Rearrange the furniture in a child’s room or in the play room
Make a blanket fort
Make a fort or castle out of a large cardboard box
Make a doll house out of a box
Make a fort outdoors using sticks, scrap wood, and whatever you can find
Plant and tend a garden
Make homemade Popsicles
Make a toy-filled ice block
Write a letter to a relative or friend
Have a tea party
Play charades
Make a no-sew play tent
Fly a kite
Make homemade play dough or salt dough
Hunt for insects in the yard and collect them in a bug bottle (release them in the area where you found them later)
Visit a splash park
Play in the sprinkler in the yard
Get out the Slip and Slide
Set up a kiddie pool
Wash the car
Wash the dog
Make s’mores at a fire pit in the back yard
Set up a tent and camp in the back yard
Go stargazing
Catch fireflies at night
Place sleeping bags in the living room and do an indoor campout
Make some water balloons
Play Frisbee
Play tug of war
Go out in the rain and stomp in puddles (umbrellas are optional)
Make paper airplanes
Make paper snowflakes
Learn how to make origami
Learn how to crochet or knit
Build something with Legos
Clean out the house and have a garage sale
Go shop or just browse at garage sales
Learn how to juggle
Watch old home videos
Look at old family pictures
Start writing a blog
Write poetry
Write stories together
Tell stories to each other
Learn a foreign language (I like the free website/app Duolingo)
Make a time capsule
Pick up trash in your neighborhood or at a park
Attend free concerts at local churches
Attend an Easter egg hunt or trunk or treat at a local church or community center
Attend free band or choral concerts or inexpensive plays and musicals at colleges or high schools
Look for free family activities through your school district (fall festivals, carnivals, living history museums, art shows, etc.)
Go sledding
Build a snowman
Build a snow fort
Attend a kids’ workshop at Home Depot
Listen to music together (my family likes Pandora)
Learn sign language
Find a movie theater showing free or discounted movies (often during the summer months)
Set up a bird feeder and watch the birds
Create a scavenger hunt around the house or yard
Make an obstacle course in the yard
Make easy freezer jam
Climb a tree
Play checkers or chess
Do a jigsaw puzzle together (you can buy them cheap at thrift stores or yard sales, or possibly check them out from your library)
Do crossword or word search puzzles
Visit a farmers market
Volunteer (at a homeless shelter, food pantry, soup kitchen, church outreach event, school, etc.)
Invite friends or neighbors over for dinner