Blogging Away Debt Our Journeys to a Debt-Free Life

by Hope

Our school year is now officially over, and we are all enjoying a couple of weeks of downtime before our summer school schedule kicks in.  I enjoy these weeks because I don’t have to do lesson plans, work review or help kids stuck on math problems…freeing me up to concentrate on work and my own personal projects that are typically on the back burner.  The kids enjoy these weeks because there’s no schoolwork and no mom after them to get things done on deadline.  One of the best things though about these two weeks is that it gives the kids ample time to get bored. During these two weeks there are very few restrictions on bedtimes and electronics and even fewer plans. Towards the end of this time their electronic games get boring, eating sandwiches gets boring, jumping on the trampoline gets boring, being in the house gets boring….you get the point.

I used to start scheduling things immediately and they rebelled saying they never got a break (especially since we have a school schedule all summer too.)  So the last couple of years, I’ve let these first couple of weeks go and it’s made a huge difference in how they feel what’s the summer schedule kicks in…they are bored and ready for mom to step in again!

Our summer travel and adventures are still a few weeks away so I’m looking for free to very low cost things to get the kids involved and engaged.  Here’s the list I’ve come up with so far:

Beach days – pack the cooler, grab the radio and sand toys and hit the beach.  This takes up a whole day as we are busy in the morning getting ready and when we get home, we’re all exhausted.  Only cost, gas money, but it’s only a 20 minute drive so not to bad.

Craft days – one of my ways to earn extra money is starting an Etsy store.  I’m getting ready to stock with things I’ve made over the years that are literally just gathering dust.  But we’ve got a few crafts that the kids make that people have always been interested in, so we use craft stuff in the house and then if quality is good enough, post it on the shop.  At this point, this costs us nothing as we have TONS of crafty stuff around and it might even make us some money (the kids get a percentage if one of their items sell.)

Park days – we have LOTS of local parks and tourist attractions with Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown Settlement being within walking distance and as residents we get a $10 annual pass to visit all these really cool places have to offer.  Timing is key with these as taking food is a royal pain and if we wander around too long then we end up with food costs.

Gardening – we grow a pretty substantial garden and all the kids pitch in on a regular basis to maintain it with weeding and watering, etc. But there are days when we can do a work day to get more stuff done that’s not the typical stuff.  We always end these with a big meal on the back porch surrounded by our plants and gardens that we have worked so hard on.  I think these are my favorite days.

Movies – when public schools get out, the local theaters will offer free/$1 movies at 10am on a couple mornings a week.  We really enjoy those when they fit in the schedule and sometimes I even spring for popcorn, but most of the time we eat a big breakfast first and take water bottles.

In all the years past, we’ve had Busch Gardens/Water Country passes so spent a good amount of time there, but these year we don’t, so we don’t really have a “pool” to visit and I’m not interested in paying hundreds of dollars to join a local pool at this time.

Do you have any free or really low cost entertainment ideas for kids in the summer months?

Hope

Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.