20 Free Things to Do As A Family

At the LA Zoo with my little monkey

Happy Sunday and happy Daylight Savings! I thought this would be a fitting blogpost for such a lovely Sunday afternoon. I was reading an article about how to stay within your household budget and one of the tips they suggested was to write up a list of things you enjoy doing that are free. I guess it makes sense because oftentimes when we get bored we go out and shop or spend money unnecessarily. I wrote up a list of the top 20 free things we enjoy doing as a family in or around Burbank and the Los Angeles area. Now, these are free to us, but may require somebody else to spend some money, I'll explain each point if it does.

On a family hike

1.  Play at the park
2. Have a picnic
3. Griffith Observatory (parking and admission are free!!)
4. Travel Town 
5. Play Tennis at the local park
6. Go to the LA Zoo (for us this is "free" because we were given a year-long membership as a Christmas gift)
7. Blow bubbles
8. Draw/Color
9. Go to the library
10. Surprise visit Grandma and Grandpa
11. Go on a hike
12. Read books
13. Walk around Magnolia Park Shops
14. Watch a movie (at home)
15. Go on a walk
16. Have a family dance party
17. Bike ride
18. Descanso Gardens (Tom's grandparents work there, so for us it's free)
19. Build an indoor fort/tent
20. Play instruments/ jam session ☺

A rainy day fort set up in our living room

Here's a bonus list of 5 things we enjoy doing, but do require us to spend a little bit of money.

My favorite picture from our visit at the CA Science Center

1. Getty Museum (admission is free but parking is $15 per car)
2. California Science Center (admission is free but parking is $10)
3. Go get some frozen yogurt (a favorite of ours, but costs a little bit of $)
4. Free day at LACMA (on the second Tuesday of the month admission is free, you just have to pay for parking which is $10 or $15 depending on where you park)
5. Fly a Kite! (we don't currently own one so we'd have to buy one, but that's a great family activity on a spring afternoon) ☺

I hope I gave you some ideas! What other things does your family like to do that are free when you have some time on your hands? Please share!