With the rising cost of gasoline and other items, family budgets are becoming tighter than ever. When families feel the pinch of a tough economy, they often have to reevaluate where their money goes. Often, the family entertainment budget is the first thing targeted for trimming. If you are in a position where you are considering making cuts to your family’s entertainment budget, do not despair. You can still have plenty of fun while spending less money on entertainment.
One way to approach making changes to the family’s entertainment budget is to enlist the help of everyone in the family. Write down all of your family’s current entertainment expenses, and how much each of them costs. Then, tell your family what the new total entertainment budget will be. Ask everyone to express their feelings about whether there are items that they won’t miss and also if there are certain things that are very important to them. You may be surprised by their answers, and you may also be surprised at what they can come up with for suggestions as far as low cost and no cost things that they would like to begin doing for family fun.
The same principles can be applied to the budget for family vacations. Instead of calling off this year’s vacation entirely, why not ask your family to think about ideas for less costly adventures. They may have some great ideas about how to have a lot of fun without breaking the bank, and you may want to begin planning vacations this way every year if this year’s trip is a success.
While a sluggish economy is not anyone’s idea of fun, there is plenty of fun that can be had without spending a lot of money. Some of the most fun things cost nothing, or close to it – time spent outdoors in nature, or playing games outdoors with friends and family are a good example. Even if you can afford to bring back the items that you cut from the family’s entertainment budget at a later time, you may just find that you don’t miss them enough to do that and you can use that money for something else.