Frugal Ways To Keep Kids Busy – 40 Cheap Ideas

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Looking for frugal ways to keep kids busy for hours without spending any money?  Yep, me too!  I’m always looking for ways to keep my kids busy without sticking them in front of a screen, and without spending money.  Don’t miss these 40 frugal ideas to keep kids busy and having fun!

There are so many frugal ways to not only keep kids busy, but also stimulate their imaginations!  Plus, you don’t have to spend money to do it!

Hang on and I promise to share a huge list of ideas that won’t cost you a dime… or maybe a dime or two.  But, I promise, only a few dimes – all these ideas are super frugal and I know your kids will love them because mine sure did!

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Keep Your Kids Busy

Below is a big list of frugal ways to keep your kids busy for hours. After you read through the list, comment and let me know which one you think your kids would like best! Mine love number 3 and 17 – they have an obsession with tape for sure!

I’m hoping you have a lot of these odds and ends lying around your house, but if you don’t, I’ve included some links of where you can buy them.

But, hear me, the whole point of this list of frugal ways to keep your kids busy for hours, is that you find things you already have at home for your kids to play with. Not spending money. If you do choose to spend money on some of these supplies, keep it cheap and only buy what you need. Ok, rant over.

1. Balloons
2. Glow Sticks
3. Empty Boxes – (color, cut, play in, play on, build into other things)
4. Maksing Tape – (make roads on floor for cars, tape off a goal box to roll a ball into and not out of, etc)
5. Box of Tissues – (little kids will enjoy pulling tissues out of the box)
6. Kitchen Utensils, Pots & Pans
7. Plastic Cups (to stack)
8. Box of Playing Cads – (build a house)
9. Pipe Cleaners & Pasta Strainer – (pull them through the holes)
10. Toilet Paper Tubes & Pom Poms – (tape a tube to the wall and drop pom poms through the tube into a bowl)
11.  Laundry Basket
12. Sandbox and Cups
13. Mud Pies
14. Rock Tic Tac Toe
15. Color & Paint Rocks
16. Chalk
17. Chalk & Masking Tape – (make sidewalk mosaics)
18. Cheap Flashlight
19. Bubbles
20. Packing Peanuts & Boxes
21. Fall Leaves – (jump in the pile, bury toys in the leaves and find them
22. Playground Gravel Rocks – (hide a small toy in the rocks and then try to find it)
23. Homemade Koolaid Playdough
24. Playdough Pictonary – (make the item out of playdough instead of drawing it)
25. Easter Eggs – (have an egg hunt, hide candy or raisins in the eggs)
26. Paper Airplanes
27. Pool Noodles – (for racing cars and marbles in them down a slanted surface.  If you don’t have pool noodles, use paper towel rolls.)
28. Marshmallows & Toothpicks – (for STEM building)
29. White Board & Dry Erase Markers – (play Pictionary, or Hang Man)
30. Blankets – (build a fort, have a snack picnic with stuffed animals)
31. Sink – (fill with water and bubbles and have a toy car wash)
32. Stuffed Animals – (take your stuffed animal to the park and push on the swings)
33. Tea Party – (host a tea party with your stuffed animals, mini cookies, and lemonade)
34. Build a Car Track – (out of toilet paper rolls and tape)
35. Stroller Walk – (push a baby doll stroller or a kids shopping cart on a walk around the block – make sure to include your favorite doll or stuffed animal)
36. Collect Rocks – (on a walk to throw in a pond)
37. Popsicle Sticks – (number popsicle sticks and have your kids put them in order, or use the alphabet.  If you don’t have sticks, use straws, or real sticks from outside)
38. Milk Cartons – (make a bird house)
39. Cheerios & Easter Eggs – (number the eggs and fill the corresponding number of Cheerios)
40. Legos – build
41. Dig for ants!

There you have it!  40 frugal ways to keep your kids busy for hours without spending money!  I’m hoping you have most of these things lying around house, or if you don’t, you can improvise.   

My hope is that you have plenty of ways to encourage your kids to use their imagination to play!  Most of the cheap ideas can be improvised to work with whatever you have on hand. Hopefully they get their creative juices flowing and together, you will come up with many more ideas. 

What frugal, free, or cheap things do you and your kids already love to do?  Share your ideas below and I’ll be sure to include them in an upcoming post!

Want to remember this post? Pin this post, Frugal Ways To Keep Kids Busy For Hours, to your favorite Pinterest board right now!

Photos by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash, Maxime Bhm on Unsplash, Sigmund on Unsplash, Alexander Dummer on Unsplash, Debby Hudson on Unsplash