Is your teenager constantly asking you for money? Its ironic that teens, right when they need to start saving aggressively for college expenses, suddenly want to spend money all the time on movies, eating out, football games, and gas to drive their friends around.
If your teen is draining your pocketbook, ask your teenager to invite his or her friends to your house and offer the following frugal but fun options:
Pizza And Movie Night
This is probably the easiest option of all, especially if you have a subscription to Netflix, Hulu, or Blockbuster online.
Set Them Loose To Play “Bigger Or Better”
Split the group of kids into two (you’ll need a big group for this game, just to keep it safe) and give each group something small (in size) and inexpensive, like a battery or a Tootsie Roll Lollipop. Now send each group out to ring doorbells and ask people to trade them for something “bigger or better” than the item they have in hand. You won’t believe what they’ll come home with! Just be ready to drive your pick up truck across the neighborhood to haul someone’s old sofa they no longer want.
Set Up A Scavenger Hunt
If you’ve got some extra time and energy, plant clues around the neighborhood and hide a treasure, or send the kids out geocaching or letterboxing. Offer a prize for the group who collects the most clues, finds the treasure, or finds the most items when geocaching or letterboxing. Another variation of this game is to send the kids out with a digital camera and a list of items for them to locate and photograph.
Mystery Murder Night
For $30, you can buy one of those mystery murder board games, complete with character descriptions and a narration CD. Teens love to dress up and pretend to be someone else for an evening.
Card Night
Teach your teens how to play something fun like Spoons, Nickels, Hearts, or Texas Hold ‘Em, and then set them loose. Have them use M&Ms for poker chips and hook up your child’s iPod to a speaker so they have some awesome music.
Photo Shoot
If you’ve got a bunch of girls coming over, consider hosting a photo shoot night. You can get artistic make up ideas on line (Google Michelle Phan and Klaire de Lys for starters) and have the girls make each other up with unusual, beautiful face art. Then take photos of the girls (or let them photograph each other), just like on a reality show like “America’s Top Model”.
Tips For Keeping It Super Duper Frugal
Even the options listed above can get pricey. Do the following to keep costs down:
• Ask every teen who comes over to bring his or her own beverage or snack to share
• Ask all the teens to chip in towards the cost of the night’s activities (pizza, movies, drinks, etc.)
• Talk to some of your teenager’s friends’ parents and ask them to consider hosting some of these parties.
If you get creative, you can find plenty of safe, positive, inexpensive activities for your teenagers to do for home entertainment. You’ll save money, but you’ll also help your teenager build positive memories at the same time.
About the Author: Bridget Sandorford is a grant researcher and writer for CulinarySchools.org. Along with her passion for whipping up recipes that incorporate “superfoods”, she recently finished research on culinary schools in wisconsin and culinary schools in GA.
~Kelly
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