10 Fun Things to do for Free with the Family in January

Want to go and do fun things in Jan but at the same time not wreck your savings goals? Here is a list of some enjoyable pursuits that you can do with your family this month while remaining frugal. My list starts with indoor activities, as much of the US is blanketed with snow, but it also later includes outdoor ideas for those people either wrapped up warm or who live in parts of the US that remain pleasant during these colder months (like me – but don’t worry, I do have to pay for this luxury with having to pay for a higher house price, etc!). Here goes, my thoughts on things to do are:

1. Go and visit the local museums. When do you visit museums? I seem to only go when I have a visitor from out of town and we are rushing around seeing the sites, but maybe you can instead head to a local museum in your own time and at your own pace. Advantageously, at this time of year museums are likely to have less tourists and so may have discounts to their exhibits due to this lower foot traffic. How about hitting your local natural history, science or Art museum? Just try and pick one that your partner and/or children are going enjoy too, as it can be hard on the kids especially to be traipsed around a building containing old things of no interest to them, and for hours on end! Fortunately for me, there are bunch of great museums near where I live that cater to kids as well.

2. Head to your local Library. Your library likely contains more than just books, although this is a really great place to start. Our library has a bunch of other activities, such as arts and crafts, and at the moment our favorite thing to do is ‘baby rhyme time’. Our little one seems to love the activities, songs and rhymes and enjoys crawling around and making friends and occasionally stirring up trouble. Apparently on a recent visit, where my wife took our little guy, he stole the teacher’s demonstration teddy bear when she wasn’t looking, and he resisted all attempts to give it back. This was thoroughly amazing for the others present, and fortunately the teacher was happy to play along!

3. Do you have a local bowling alley, roller or ice skating ring? Certain times to visit these are much cheaper than others, where for example we can go to the local bowling alley on specific nights and pay just 1 dollar for a game! This will keep kids active and take them away from the TV, and you can also get cheap food, such as fries, etc. However, I do tend to avoid this because I would rather have something much more nutritious, but no one is going to complain about the occasional treat.

4. When it is really raining, cold or snowing heavily outside, why bother leaving the house, just stay at home instead and break out the board games and jigsaw puzzles. I find that jigsaw puzzles and board games are a good way to keep kids engaged for hours, which is great thing if you want to keep them inside without them going stir crazy. What are your favorites? I find Monopoly is fun for all (as well as teaching your kids the advantages of owning rental properties!). Do make sure to mix in some games with luck as well as strategy, allowing the younger ones to beat older siblings, and maybe even parents too!

5. Keeping on the stay at home theme, how about organizing a play date? Invite over your kid’s friends and get them to hang out. It can be watching movies, building things, drawing, painting, tell stories or back to the jigsaws and games as well, but now with even more competition!

Now for the Outdoor fun.

6. How about visiting the local zoo or wildlife park (weather permitting). This could get expensive, so look for deals on entry tickets; my family has a cheap pass that lets us go, within one year, as many times as we wish to both the local zoo and wild-life park. We are lucky that both of these places are probably as good as they get in the US, and are only a quick drive away. I think the wildlife park is really spectacular, and great to go as an adult as well as a kid, taking many visits to explore in full. Our infant is truly amazed by all the animals, spending most of his time smiling and laughing, which makes us parents really happy too. Hopefully, as he grows older he can learn the importance of conservation and protecting the environment, perhaps the most important thing for us all to do in modern times.

7. Do you have a local botanical garden nearby? This can really life the sould, and again, due the fair weather environment where we live, wintertime is still a great time to visit, and we can even enjoy the more rare plants that specifically flower in winter. The kids can run around, and we may take the time to stop for a bite to eat in this beautiful environment.

8. Take a trip to your neighborhood park, if it is not covered in snow or ice. We have a nice community park around the corner from us, so no need to jump in the car, and there are plenty of things to do there, including a children’s play area, a couple of basketball courts, baseball fields, a soccer pitch, tennis courts, cover areas for eating that include spaces for barbecuing, as well as a complex containing indoor rooms for badminton and the such like. What a wonderful local attraction!

9. Get out and about in a nearby nature reserve. When we bought our house we were not aware of a nearby nature reserve, which is great, lots of trails for hiking and biking, as well as large hill that is apparently an extinct volcano (extinct for many years, which I hope remains in such condition for a much longer time as well!). This place is such a pleasure to visit that I often head out there for my daily exercise. I’m not accepting winter as an excuse for those up in the North of the country, just break out your snow shoes or ski’s and get cross country skiing, both of these activities can be super good fun, and really great exercise.

10. Now for number 10, the simplest and cheapest, just go for a hike or bike around you neighborhood. See what is happening around your part of town, chat with neighbors and other locals, or even use this time to check out the local real estate situation, for example is there a new open house? (This time of year is the best for house buying and renting due to depressed demand)/ If I have a free bit of time and I need to get a quick breath of fresh air, I make sure to just to head out and about in the local neighborhood.