Face it, we are all pretty much spoiled. Talk of saving money is something we just don’t like to hear. Even though we know we should. Saving money can be both entertaining and just plain fun! So how can you keep the family entertained with a tight economy on everyones mind?

Here are a few ways. And yes, I do them all myself.

1. Outdoor projects: Gardening

Putting in new flower beds at your home and sprucing your landscaping up doesn’t have to cost a fortune. I cover my plants in the winter and manage to save the majority of the. This year, I planted lots of new flowers. Unfortunately the hail storm did a number on quite a few of them. They are now coming back and looking good. I also planted more. I have really a lot of landscaping in both the front and back yards. You might again, think… well it cost money to buy plants. Yes but I was able to do what I have on around 150.00 this year. In about a month everyting should be in strong and the pleasure it gives is much more than the money I spent. It was a lot of work and I maintain the beds as a form of therapy. It just makes me feel good. Now if you really want to save, in the winter start planting seeds in treys. You can spend very very little and have tons of plants come summer. All for a few dollars. Plus the gratification to know you were able to accomplish this is a huge reward. I dug up 2 crepe mrytle (probably spelled ths wrong) plants out of my flower bed that grew in wild. I did this about 2 years ago. I put them in my side yard and now they are around 8-10 feet tall. They are healthy and beautiful. To my surprise, one of them has white flowers. I don’t have one with white flowers! Mine are pink and sorta purple colored.

We also have tried planting pecans that the squirrels bury. We get them every year and I am not sure where the pecans come from. Anyway, last year I found one and put it in a pot. It survived the winter and now is  about a foot tall and thriving. I plan on putting it in the yard soon. I love the idea of knowing this tree cost me nothing and will hopefully give the squirrels a huge rate of return plus my family.

2. Movies – Netflix

We were members of Hollywood Video for probably 3 or 4 years. Well this year they got the bright idea to change the plans which means we had to pay more and are limited on how many movies we can rent. Well it took me one week in their new trial program to know it was a loser and we canceled. I signed up for Netflix and we love it so far. It got off to a rocky start with our first movie being lost. Another was cracked. This is common I hear. Really the movies you receive aren’t the best part of their service. I have my laptop hooked up to my tv. Netflix has unlimited streaming of movies. Not all are online. I have read there are 16,000 tv episodes and movies online. So if you can’t find something to wach you are too picky. So for 13.99 a month, you can get new releases via the mail plus unlimited streaming movies via the internet. This is the best entertainment value ever!

3. Books – So think books are too expensive? How about the library? How about online books? If you go to google.books.com, you can find something interesting to read. They have thousands of non-copyrighted books (mostly older) on file. All free!

I am a huge fan of the local library. To me it is amazing the amount of people who tell me they have never been, or ask where a local library is. That is just one thing your taxes are paying for so use it and enjoy it. They have story time for the kids and all sorts of activities. I have written about the enjoyment my family gets from the library before. Also one other thing about the library. By joining texshare at the Library, you can go to any library and check out. Also if there is a certain book you want, you can get the library to do an interlibrary loan for you. You just pay the postage which I think is 2 dollars. So that 20.00 book you have been wanting to read can be available to you for only 2 dollars. Now that is a deal. Plus you can add books to a want list at the library. I do that often and in most cases, they order then for me. So take advantage of what your taxes are providing for you.

4. Parks – Head out to a park, fly a kite, run, swim. You can do all sorts of things. In most cases they are free to only costing a few dollars. (for things such as swimming)

5. Movies – Think movies are too expensive? If you go at certain times you can save a lot of money. Plus there are movies at the Cedar Park Milburn Park. It is free. This is a great family activity. Sitting under the stars and watching a movie. It doesn’t get any better than that.

These are just a few things. So when the thought crosses your mind that you don’t have any extra money and are feeling bad as you can’t do anything. Think again! There is more to do than you can possibly ever do. Explore options and enjoy yourselves!