As the school year winds down for children, everyone looks forward to summer. Summer is a time when things slow down, and families take vacations and do fun activities to explore their world and see sights that they have never seen before. However, with inflation rising across everything from food to clothing and gas prices skyrocketing, a week’s vacation may not be something anyone can afford this year.
But just because you can't take a vacation doesn't mean you need to waste the summer. There are many ways to make use of just a few extra dollars. Here are four small ways to stretch your dollars this summer:
Be Nostalgic
The summer is a great time for kids to learn a little more about their parents. If you are a homeschool parent, this is also a great way to earn extra credit towards history or other school subjects. Plan a trip to share your story with your children. Go back to your hometown (if you don’t live there anymore) and show them where you used to live. Go to your old restaurants or other places where you used to have fun. Show them your old elementary and high schools. Share stories of fond memories of times in elementary school or high school. Let your children recreate your childhood with you.
On the way home, brainstorm ideas for incorporating those fun activities and places into your summer. Plan one trip back to your hometown each month to do some of those activities. Go to a thrift store, buy fancy clothes, and pretend to relive your prom. What were the songs that played as you danced the night away? What type of food did you eat? What did your friends look like, and what did they say? Recreate all those fond memories and let your kids share in them with you in a tangible way.
Do a Theme Night
Get creative and make weekends and evenings fun again. For example, do a movie night. You can either watch a new release or think about your favorite movies from when you were a child. Have your children seen those movies? If not, relive them with your child. It will be good for your children to learn what each decade was like in terms of culture, fads, and cinema. Discuss the different sayings and what they meant. Do any of the slang words you used to say as a kid overlap with things your children say now? Do you find you can barely understand your children because of all the slang they use? Educate each other on slang from your decade compared to theirs. In what ways are they the same? In what ways are they different?
Do a Spa Day
Most mothers and daughters love to relax. There is no better way to relax than having a spa day. But an expensive day at the spa may not be feasible financially for you as a mother or for you as a mother-daughter pair. Create a spa night in your home by buying face masks, special creams and lotions, and pretty nail polish. Do each other's nails and hair.
Wash each other's hair and give each other a scalp massage. Go crazy and buy hair dye and try to dye each other's hair. Your daughter will not only love the time she spends with you, but also will love creating special memories with you through your hair, nails, and skin. It's also great to relax and spend time together, with no obligations to do chores or other work.
Go on to YouTube and watch videos of giving each other foot massages or other types of massage. Having someone rub your shoulders and neck is a great way to relax and relieve tension throughout your body. Be sure to take turns with each other. You may be surprised to learn how much tension you carry throughout your body and how much of that tension and pain you suffer from throughout the week. Because you do the spa day from home, the sky's the limit. Commit to doing it once a week or once a month. Whatever your schedule allows, incorporate more of these fun days into your lives.
Your son or spouse may also enjoy a good pedicure or a foot massage. Don't limit the spa day to girls only. If the men in your life like it, be sure to treat them to one, too. If they don't like their feet being touched or having nail polish on their toes, they can soak their feet in a foot bath. Foot baths are relatively cheap and can be purchased at a local pharmacy. By investing a little money today, you all can have great fun together tomorrow.
Game Night
Everyone loves a good game night. But game night doesn't have to be overusing board games that have collected dust in your closet. There are many great ways to enjoy game night. Engage in a game of charades, or even a common game of Twister. Go to a game store as a family and pick out a new, fun game you'd like to play together. Decide together whether you like strategic games or ones that pass the time. There are also picture card games that let you caption funny pictures. Laugh together as you discover what types of captions your family can come up with for some of the silliest pictures circulating on the Internet.
Game nights are easy to fit into even the busiest schedules. Many games only last 1/2 hour to an hour. Designate one hour per month. By doing so, you will create memories that will last a lifetime. You can also get a simple deck of cards and play games like rummy or poker. You can also challenge each other to build the biggest card house. There are many types of games, and the type you like to play will determine how much fun your family has together.
Create the Seasons
For many, summer may mean being stuck in the house with the air conditioning on as steaming hot temperatures or thunderstorms put a damper on your week. But just because it's summer, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the joys of fall or winter. Crumple up pieces of white paper, create two forts, and have a snowball fight. Buy a cheap snow cone machine and make snow cones for the family. Buy a large bag of sand in a bucket and play with it as if you were playing in the snow. Can you make sand angels with your hands? What can you create by simply incorporating some sand and a little water?
Fall means the changing seasons and falling leaves. Even if the trees are green, stores may already be putting out their fall merchandise in July or August. Purchase a bag of leaves from the dollar store or other home decor store. See what you can create with some simple plastic leaves. The possibilities are endless.
When budgets are tight, summer can feel like a drag. But it doesn't have to be. With some creativity and a little bit of money, you can make it the best summer ever with inexpensive ideas to pass the time and create great memories with your family.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/adamkaz
