Now that's entertainment
A night out for a family can easily run into $100 or more when you factor in dinner, movie tickets and snacks. But family game night has been around as a form of cheap do-it-yourself entertainment for years.
If board games get too "boring" to do every night, try making up some games or starting a craft project as a family. For fans of the "Minute to Win It" TV show, there's a board game in which contestants have one minute to complete a task using common things found around the house, but you can also make up your own games.
Keep in touch
Email or online cards are free to send, but they don't have the personal touch of a card or letter. While communicating the old-fashioned way can be a little costly, doing some of the work yourself can help keep costs down.
Greeting cards are expensive, but if you have a kid around who likes to draw, that problem can be easily solved. During holiday time, ask your child to draw a few card covers with Christmas themes, then take the drawings to a copy shop and print the pictures out on heavy paper. Fold the copies in half for personalized cards.
If you need envelopes for your cards, you can use an old map. It's not as difficult as it sounds, and can be done by using a template found online. Address labels can also be designed free online and printed at home, so now you have no reason not to send Grandma a long letter.
While not exactly do it yourself, part of the cost of sending a letter involves the stamp to ship it. Stamp collectors won't find this comforting, but if you're looking to save money on postage, there are stamp and coin shops that sell old stamps at face value or less. Unless the stamps are extremely rare, stamp collectors often find their stamps don't gain value and are worth face value or less. Some collectors sell their unused stamps for pennies on the dollar to stamp and coin shops, which sell them to the public for about 10 percent off, said Stephen Smith of Logos Bible Software. Stamps never lose their face value or expire, so buying a few penny stamps to make up the difference makes them worthwhile to buy.
"There are millions of dollars' worth of stamps that have never been purchased. So these stores are just looking to get rid of inventory," he says.