We’re very pleased to welcome back one of our Parent Panel mums, Jen Walshaw from The Mad House, A Thrifty Mum and Frugal and Fun with this fab guest post featuring some cool ideas for summer fun on a budget.

Many of us shy away from water play at home, but it can be so much fun and is perfect for overcast days as you do not need to worry about children burning.

Ideas

• If you have a trampoline, why not cover it with water filled balloons. Yes, this will take some preparation, but imagine the joy on your childrens faces!

• Water Pistols. Make sure that the children have a large bucket or outside tap to fill them up so they do not need to keep coming into the house dripping wet.

• A bucket of water and some paintbrushes are great for mark making on dry concrete and fences.

• Why not fill up some buckets and washing up liquid bowls and add a few drops of food colouring to them to experiment with colour mixture.

• Freeze ice cubes with different food colouring in them and just let your children experiment with them.

• Ice Treasures – freeze fruit or small toys in blocks of ice and give your children a variety of implements such as tooth brushes, warm water, salt and spray bottles so they can experiment with the ice melting.

• Sponge tossing, fill buckets with water and pop some sponges in: the aim of the game is to hit people with them.

• Car wash or toy wash, all you need is some water, washing implements such as sponges and clothes and some soapy water.

• First to fill the bucket. Have an empty bucket at one end of the garden and one filled with water at the other, add a variety of things that your children can use to transfer water from one to the other and start the race.

• Sink or float. Fill a bucket of water and see which items sink or float, but try to guess before you try it out.

• Water the plants

This post a small glimpse into Frugal and Fun, surviving the school holidays the thrifty way: the ebook which I have produced with Cass from Frugal Family and Becky from Baby Budgeting.

The book contains over 150 pages of ideas and activities to help you make sure that this year’s Summer Holidays are frugal and fun. There’s a planning week filled with things for you to do to get yourself prepared and the rest of the ideas are split into different themed weeks, with each week having five indoor activities, five outdoor activities and five recipes for you to cook with your children.

Themes include:

• The Olympics
• The Great Outdoors
• Around the World
• Heroes and Heroines
• Home Sweet Home
• Colours

If you like these ideas then why not follow us on Frugal and Fun.

There is no way you can possibly run out of ideas with this at your fingertips and you need never hear ‘I’m Bored’ again as these are guaranteed boredom busting (but not budget busting) ideas!

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