Summer on the Cheap

     One of the benefits of being a blogger is that you come across some really frugal ideas for everything from meals to clothes.  I love finding cheap ideas and especially ones that fit into my life.
     Being that today is the first official day of Summer Vacation in our house, we are all pumped about the months to come.  This summer we have decided that we will make every day a fun and exciting day without spending a lot of money.  The family even got together and made a list of 365 free things to do.  We've decided to see how many we can knock out and how far we can stretch that ever dwindling dollar.  Maybe we can even fit a whole year of fun into seventy-six days.
     Today we visited family, played outside, had fun with a pillow pile, planned a vacation (a free one at that!), planned a party, and visited the dollar store.  Tomorrow we will visit another relative for her birthday, do some window shopping, and hopefully get in some swimming and hiking.  I hope to do four or five things every day.  It will be a hard challenge, but one that I hope will make me a better parent at the end of the day.  Maybe it will even make me a better Auntie and friend!

     Now, I won't lie, in this economy, I'm probably crazy to think that even with all these "free" activities we will be able to do them all.  For one thing, there is gas to consider.  It costs me $5 to go to the next town over and back and $10 for the more exciting areas a few miles beyond that.  It will cost small amounts for each craft we do or snack we make.  All those little bits add up when you live check to check.  So this year I plan to use every trick I have.  With resources like the newspaper with it's coupons, promotioncode.org with it's discount codes, and other online sites that offer community forums with free categories.  I definitely will be on the look out for ways to slim down on our summer fun.  And in a few months, we are going to start all over with Winter!
     What about you?  Are your kids out for the summer?  Do you have big plans?