Fun Frugal Free Spring Break Plan
Make spring break at home fun and free!
Here are our best tips for a Fun Frugal Free Spring Break Plan wherever you live. There are a ton of free resources to enjoy this beautiful time of year.
Even when you can’t travel anywhere and have to do a stay-cation you can still make it fun for the kiddos and you.
With a well thought Spring Break Plan, even with kids at home 24/7 you can keep your sanity!
Totally free ideas for spring break!
Here are practical and free ideas that will help you plan Spring break at home and around your hometown without spending a dime.
Free Day Trips
When you can’t travel, consider taking the family on a day trip in and around where you live. Almost every State offers free entrance to state parks or just have to pay for parkinge. There are lots of locations that don’t charge an entry fee.
Free-entry parks & recreation ideas:
A nature preserve -great for exploring wild life. Most will include map with trail and species to look for. Bring extra paper and pens so kids can write down what they find or download our free printable Bug Hunt. Each State has their own directory of preserves. Here is one for the entire U.S.: Preserve/nature centers
National Forest & Parks most don’t charge a fee. If they do, you can find a Culture Pass at your local library. Find a National Park near you.
The Beach– beautiful and free if you are fortunate enough to live close by (wish we were).
What to pack
Just make sure to pre-pack lunch and snacks and lots of water. Buying snacks at touristic places can get quite expensive.These are some of the best lunch containers I’ve found. (aff) Click on each image to find more info:
- These little ones are excellent for dips: LunchBots Tiny Leak Proof Dips Containers
- For cereals or crackers these work great: Munchkin Snack Catcher
- The Trekker Water Bottles are great because they do not leak!
Free Around Town:
Free Museums:
Interactive museum on a free day or use a local pass (available at your local library) like a transportation museum, music museum, children’s museum. Here is a list of the 12 best.
Art Museum: most offer a free day or at least an afternoon pass. If not, you can use a Bank of America card on the first full weekend of the month for free admission. See: https://museums.bankofamerica.com/
The zoo – free with a library pass
Local festivals
There might be some going on in your area: most of them will have a free entrance. Just make sure you pre-pack snacks or lunch before heading out. Otherwise, by the time the kids get hungry you might end up spending a lot on junk food.
Best pre-pack lunch containers and spilled proof drink (aff): the stainless steel containers last forever and are so much better than plastic!
Free kids activities: craft stores as well as Home Depot and Lowe’s all have free activities for kids.
Minor league baseball teams a few free seats otherwise, they are available for cheap.
Farmers markets usually no entry fee and fun to go around and learn what grows around your town.
Free Fun at the park:
Here are some practical ideas to make going to the park an adventure… with a little planning kids will have a blast!
- Try a new park! Take the kids to a park you haven’t been before. A different setting always encourages fun and exploration. It makes it an adventure and kids make new ‘discoveries’!
- Schedule a play date with friends and bring a picnic with you. I love this picnic blanket -it zips up and makes it so easy to carry and clean! This collapsible basket is great! Doesn’t take any space when not in use.
- Bring outdoor and sand toys for digging and building.
- Plan activities for kids to do while at the park. A perfect activity is an outdoor scavanger hunt. Take this free printable with you: Bug Hunt Printable
- Try a new sport with your kids: tennis, basketball, badminton, etc. You can find lots of these items at thrift stores.
Free Fun At Home:
Set a loose schedule ahead of time of different activities you can do each day. It gives the kids something to look forward to and you too!
Set a ‘morning trip’ to u park museum, etc. and after lunch plan an activity for the kids: painting, crafting, reading, storytime.
- Camping at Home: whether on the backyard or the basement (if it is still too cold outside) kids will have a blast putting tents up, sleeping in sleeping bags, and roasting marshmallows on the fire.
- Rent movies from your local library. Some have learning games for rent too.
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Afternoon library fun trips. Go with a plan: find books on a specific subject like trains, bugs, nature, etc. Take paper with you and have them draw from a book.
- Crafts and art day: see these Pins for fun and creative kids crafts. You’ll find lots of ideas there.
Let us know what other ideas you have to make it a Fun Frugal and Free Spring Break Plan!
MORE RESOURCES TO SAVE MONEY
One resource we use all the time discounted entrance to fun places. Get great deals to do fun things with the kids. Some fun deals going on right now:
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Thanks for sharing this awesome post at Totally Terrific Tuesday Link Party. If you haven’t linked up this week, be sure to stop by. The party is still going on! Enjoy the rest of your week!
Christie ~ Sparkles of Sunshine
Great list of ideas! I’ve been trying to plan out what we are doing for the kids’ Easter break and I want to pack in as much fun as possible in a short time. With all the snow days, the schools have to make up the time during break 🙁 so I want it to feel memorable no matter what. And with four kids, things definitely need to be on a budget so this is perfect. We went to a museum last week, but that didn’t go so well with the 3 yr old hence this week’s blog post 😉 so we’ll be doing outside stuff! Thanks so much for sharing!
-Sara, uncommongrace.net
We’re still a few weeks away from Spring Break. Great ideas to get me ready!
Great ideas. I’m pinning this one 🙂
Looks like you have lots of fun ideas there! I wish we could get into our zoo free with a library pass. Thankfully, we have really great free nature centers around here as well.
I love the library. It’s really turned into a multimedia center near us. I love to attend events, book readings or just hang out with my 6-year old and read books there.
Great ideas! Makes me excited for spring & all the possibilities. Thanks for sharing at the #HomeMattersParty 🙂
Thanks for sharing on the (mis)Adventures Mondays Blog Hop!
We have never gotten to go away on Spring Break because my husband is a college Instructor at 4 different campuses which mean 4 different Spring Breaks 🙁
I love all of your ideas and will be using them in another week.
Saw this on This Is How We Roll.
Thank you for linking up at #Fabulously Frugal with your great post.
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What a great ideas! Going to be using some!!!
Such great ideas! I had no idea that libraries had free passes for anything! Definitely something worth looking into here!
Thank you for sharing with us at #MommyMeetupMondays!
Great ideas! Our family has always enjoyed staying home during our breaks (we homeschool, so choose our breaktimes) Your ideas will be quite helpful to others!
I love these ideas. These are great not just for Spring Break, but to keep the kids entertained over summer break too. Thanks for sharing!
Sounds like a lot of fun things to do with the kids. Thanks for the ideas. Spring Break is in a couple of weeks.