Extreme Budgeting: Summer Plans

My son is not going to camp this summer, which means I need to find low cost, out of the house activities to fill his day.

I managed to come up with a variety of things and everything comes up to $145!

~ Great America Amusement Park & Gilroy Gardens; unlimited visits and free parking ($135)
~ 10 movies at the movie theater for $5 (x2)
~ Beach (free!)
~ Music Festivals in the park (free!)
~ Swim Class (already paid)
~ Local Kid Activities; which includes a truck exhibit, circus acts, etc... (free!)
~ Fairs and Festivals (free!)
~ Playdates (free!)
~ Soccer and softball in the park (free!)
~ Bowling (free!-for kids all summer long)

I think that should keep him good and busy :o) and the best part is the majority is free!

Extreme Budgeting: 17 meals with $45

I am very cost effective and often times you may see an 'extreme budgeting' themed post. I have to really think about every dollar that goes out of my household and make sure it's purposeful because right now, I need to provide for my son and I also want to expose him to activities and things that he enjoys.

So back to the goal... I wanted to plan 17 meals (May 13-May 30) with $45.

I should preface this by saying, I did have quite a bit of things already in my fridge and freezer so that helped.

Between 2 stores, I spent $44.78! Yay!

How I did it? I went through my pantry, fridge and freezer and took stock of what I had. I then opened up MS excel and created a basic calendar to create a meal plan. I listed all the core items I had on hand and then went to allrecipes.com to find some menu ideas and then Viola! 17 meals.

I only shopped for what I needed and I stuck to the list.... well, with the exception of a bottle of two buck chuck from trader joes!

Bleu :o)