Happy Friday: Spring Break Family Budget
Sent from reader, Jamie:
This year we decided to stay home for Spring Break. We decided to let the kids help us plan what to do. We got a poster board and let every member of the family write 2 things they wanted to do on it. We then had our 5, 6, and 8 year olds help us calculate out the price per adult and child and the total cost. It was amazing to hear their comments as they realized how much some things cost. We gave them a budget of $150 which covered even the most expensive activity. We then let each person in the family vote for their top 3 choices. We told them we would for sure get to do their first choice and then would go down the list in the order of which activity received the most votes, and do as many of them as we could until our money ran out. They loved having a say in what we did and learned a little about budgeting in the process.
HAPPY FRIDAY! 😀
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I love this idea, super cute and educational 🙂 !!
Oh, to live in a big city where all this is available!! Looks like so much fun! Jealous:)
Agree, Jill!
Our closest big city is 2 1/2 hours away. I’m so jealous! Nevertheless, I LOVE this idea!
What a creative idea! Love the chart!
I would have been frugal and picked hiking, icees and the monument
Great idea! Entertainment is so expensive, the price to do things is just outrageous.
Great idea, now all they need is some coupons to lower some of those prices!
That’s exactly what I was thinking!!
Yes that or does your library have free or discounted passes???!!! So proud of your kids!
I love this. My son is grown and had I did a little more of this it would have been better for him and I.
What a cute idea! Want to do this… And put my entertainment & local coupon book to good use!! 🙂 Thanks for sharing
Such a great idea! I might suggest this to my sister who is a teacher and needs something like this during summer break. Last year I took her two boys on an outing at least once a month. It was fun finding inexpensive things to do with them while making great memories. But, I have to mention that I was floored that it costs $30 per adult for the Phoenix Zoo.
This is awesome! What a great way to let the kids be involved in the decision making process. Very clever solution.
I am from the “old school”and have to say why do you feel you have to DO something on Spring Break? It is a great time to enjoy your family at home.
I’m not sure that makes someone old school. We always did something on spring break and Christmas break together as a family. Some of the best memories of my life were in those trips. There’s nothing wrong with everyone doing things differently. What matters is that they are enjoying family time. Going to Disney or a free hike in the park it doesn’t matter.
Yes! We were big on spring break at our house too! My dad would hitch up our old pop up camper, and he would get out his map and we would pick a place we’d never been. Then he would find all the back roads, dirt roads, and scenic roads, to get us there!! We ended up an ALOT of random(even questionable) places!! Ha! But it was so much fun! Best memories of my life!
That sounds really fun!
Those sound like awesome times!
Don’t be negative. Everyone is different. Great job getting the kids involved and teaching them how to budget money.
It’s also hard to keep kids entertained at home for very long. Ours is 10 days and I would need to hire an activity coordinator or something to keep them busy!
I agree with you. We stay home, my kids are happy and easily pleased because they are not spoiled. They just saw their first movie in the theater and they are 3, 7, 8. I think I will take them once a year. Picnics (even in the living room or under a homemade tent), parks, sledding, bubbles, sand/water play, beads, legos and imaginative play, encourage children to entertain themselves with having to spend hard-earned money. 🙂 Everyone has their own child rearing style but I vote for simple pleasures are the best.
And people who do take their kids places also do not have spoiled kids! Wow. This post was about a family who sets a budget and together they pick what they want to do.
Kelly this is exactly what I mean. My kids mostly just wanted to sleep in and play with the neighborhood kids.
And that is great if that’s what you and your family want to do. But this was a post about how one family decided how they were going to do spring break and they shared it with collin. It may not be your thing but there is no need to be negative about it.
Was not being negative, mean or nasty. Just responding to the question of Spring Break. It’s the other side of the topic and I think there are a lot of people who do stay home w/their kids. Nothing wrong with it as there is nothing wrong w/planning activities. I don’t want to start another round of postings just wanted to have my say. And now I have said my peace. God Bless.
Who would want to do something fun with their kids when you could let them sleep in and play with the neighbors right?
What a cute idea!
For those that prefer to stay at home, you could always add some at home activities. The cost of a new craft kit or game would appeal to some kids a lot.
Thanks for sharing! What a great idea for us Hipsters! Much appreciated!
Not sure if this is available in all areas but check to see if your local public library offers free passes to some museums & zoos.
I love this idea! And I’m a little taken aback by the comments; these ideas ARE frugal compared to say, a trip cross-country to visit the Mouse (not that I’m bashing that either – I love the Mouse!). Experiences are fabulous ways to educate children and expose them to things they don’t see or do on a daily basis, and Spring Break is a wonderful time to schedule them. Kudos to you!
Absolutely!!!!
Great idea! Thanks for sharing 😃
Wow, this is SUCH a great idea!
You only have so many spring breaks with your kids. Whether it be at home or on a faraway vacation —enjoy each memory. Great idea and a tradition that can easily be carried on to the next generation. Thanks for sharing!
Amen!
Unfortunately spring break in my neck of the woods is nonexistent. Kids get the Friday before and the Monday after Easter off of school. That’s our spring break.
Our spring break always turns into makeup snow days. We get off Good Friday and that’s it. But that chart is a lot like how we spend our summers. There are enough cheap and free things to do around here that we can budget in some more expensive outings without breaking the bank. As the kids get older, it’s easier to go further away and do more adventurous things, but before we know it, this chapter of our lives will be over.
I hope you guys have fun we are driving home from Disney World we were planning to do our favorite things hiking, biking and going to the zoo. But we had a freak snow ice storm (after a winter full of 70 ° had to get out of there lol. But I was still able to do 4 days of WDW and 3 at universal for way less than $1500 including all gas for the 3200 mile round trip, hotels, park hoper tickets, food, parking, stroller rental, and souvenirs. Which is pretty frugal for just the tickets alone for a family of 4 and way less money than I saved couponing this year.
I am surprised at the negativity also I spend all day everyday with my kids and almost as much time with my husband while there are a lot of things to do inside your home it is nice to be outside. I would not chose to spend 10 straight days locked inside I can hardly stand 1day.
And for anyone planning to go to Orlando for SB don’t forget to check out Victoria Secret outlet! Great deals I got sports bras for $12.99, lingerie sets for less than $15, bras for as low as $12.99 but up to $19.99 regularly one of my more expensive ones was $56!! They also give the $10 secret rewards cards with purchase of $10 .
Please tell me your secret!
I’d love to know your secrets got a deal like that!
What a great idea!!
What a wonderful teaching tool, great parenting!!
Love it!
Wow, $30 for an adult at the zoo! Yikes! My family zoo membership is only $90/yr! I’m sure that your kids had fun and will go back to school telling all their friends about the cool stuff they did. It would be great if you let them keep the extra money for a rainy day activity. If there’s $5 left, then you get a new board game sometime this spring, etc.
Love this. I do this task myself without the kids. I also make a summer calendar and behavior makes them lose activities. Food is always the bank breaker lol. I pack drinks and snacks to save. Its Spring Break and I refuse to incarcerate myself with three kids in the house. I am all about getting out. It also gives the kids fun stories to tell in the classroom.
Yes, and I think spring break is more important in areas where families have been stuck inside because of bad weather all winter. I know anytime we tried to do anything, it would snow and the roads would be bad. Now that the weather is changing, even if it is raining, we want to go do something outside of the house, just because we can! Finally!
So great! Have a wonderful spring break!!!
Check out family passes for zoos and museums. Many zoos have a program that you can use your pass at other zoos. Our science museum has a reciprocal program where our pass is good at hundreds of other museums around the country. If you have one near that is check out the price of passes for the other museums. They may be cheaper. Our pass is good at a place near my mom, but their passes are twice the cost.
I was glad to see you mentioned this. My husband and I have used our science museum pass (Association of Science-Technology Centers) at many other locations. The list of reciprocal locations is always included in our vacation planning.
Are all those who “celebrate” Spring Break and plan all these activities stay at home parents? I get 15 PTO days per year and by the time I take days off for daughter sick, me sick, her school activities (award days and such), an extra one or two at Christmas and daughter’s birthday off there’s no way I would have 5 extra to take a week off for Spring Break (and pretty much the same for the hubs…) and we just have one child, I’m sure it’d be harder with more…
My partner works full time and I work part time. We use our vacation time for this stuff.
That’s tough. The hospital that I work for gives us 24 PTO days when we start and 28 after we’ve been there 5 years. That helps. With 15 days, it would be hard for us to take any vacation time and still allow us to be sick. I imagine a lot of the people that take off work, get more vacation time than others.
Yes true and just because parents don’t have daily activities or a vacation planned for spring break doesn’t make them any less of a parent. Lots of kids have way to many expectations I know a local free activity is closing and people posted a lot of negative comments saying their kids didn’t like it cause it was boring or lame so they didn’t care. We felt the total opposite but oh well.
I have 4 kids so doing activities in the community can get very expensive. We homeschool so we don’t take a traditional spring break. We will normally break it up into several long weekends.
One thing we did this year… Each of our children saved a $20 gift card to Target they recieved at Christmas for a rainy weekend/spring break. They did need anything else at Christmas.
This week we went and got new toys. Everyone got a new toy/ game to play with during this rainy time of year. It was great for them to see how far $20 would go and to see what they could get if they joined forces.
Can I say I LOVE that you put goofy golf on there. No one ever says that except for in Arizona. It is always miniature golf anywhere else I have ever lived. Ahhh to be in Arizona again….
I saw that they have bowling listed, wonder if they know about the Kids Bowl Free program. Registration at some bowling alleys is already open, though ours doesn’t start until April 28, might be worth looking into. Last year we all bought new bowling shoes on ebay, which are still good this year, so we don’t have to worry about the cost of renting each time.
Here is the web site https://www.kidsbowlfree.com/
I love this! It’s always fun when you can get the kids involved in the planning while teaching them about the value of money. We live in the Phoenix area, too, so thanks for the great ideas! Have you ever heard of the Pogo Pass (pogopass.com)? We got ours for $40 each on Black Friday, and they often go on sale for that price. It includes 2 visits to the zoo and tons of other fun venues. I, like the other commenters, was also shocked at the zoo prices, and the library doesn’t give out passes anymore.
There are living social/groupon deals for both Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium and the Phoenix zoo right now. I know the wild life world zoo sends coupons out in mailers all the time. I think dairy queen has discount passes for SeaLife Aquarium if not they are in the coupon magazine that is mailed out. Butterfly wonderland is worth getting a membership, my MIL got a grandparent one that is good for 2 adults and 2 kids, get a culture pass from the library it has the following venues:
Arizona Museum of Natural History: Free admission for 2, Regular price is $20.
Arizona Museum for Youth: Free admission for 2, Regular price is $14, little ones under age 1 are free.
Arizona Science Center: Free admission for 4! Regular price is $48!
Cave Creek Museum: Free admission for 4! Regular price is $20. Always free for children under 12.
Children’s Museum of Phoenix: Free admission for 2. Regular price is $22, children under age 1 are free. Always free on First Friday Nights from 6pm to 10pm.
Desert Botanical Garden: Free admission for 4! Regular price is $60!
Heard Museum Downtown Phoenix: Free admission for 4! Regular price is $60! Always free for children under age 6.
Heard Museum North Scottsdale: Free admission for 4! Regular price is $20. Always free for children under age 6.
Mesa Contemporary Arts: Free admission for 4! Regular price is $14. Always free every Thursday!
Phoenix Art Museum: Free admission for 4! Regular price is $40. Always free every Wednesday from 3pm to 9pm, as well as on First Friday Nights from 6pm to 10pm.
Phoenix Zoo: Free admission for 2, Regular price is $36!
Pueblo Grande Museum: Free admission for 4! Regular price is $24, always free for children ages 5 and under.
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art: Free Admission for 4! Regular price is $28. Always free for kids under age 15, also always free every Thursday!