Money’s Tight but Memories Abound: 10 Thankful Thursday Ideas
Money’s tight, luxuries rare. Spend your time and a few $$ creating lasting memories. Time spent with your loved ones keep you warm at night, put a smile on your face, make you feel at peace and can never be taken away.
Step 1 for lasting memories is to drag out that camera or old video recorder. If you don’t have a camera, there are actually great brands for under $50. Don’t have a computer or 
inkjet printer, you’ll find Kodak photo printer kiosks at Walgreens and other major drug or department stores.
Take lots of pictures! Pass the camera around and let everyone take pics. It doesn’t even matter if a few heads are cut off, just concentrate on the action!
Here are 10+ Low-Cost Ideas to Create High Value Memories:
- Remember board games (no batteries required) – invest in the classics Scrabble, Sorry, Life, Monopoly or Candy Land.
- Splurge on boxes of 64 Crayola Crayons then print out coloring pages from Coloring Book Fun or Crayola Crayon. Have a coloring contest. You’ll be surprised how adults love this too!
- Sign up for the Knack (kids craft club at Michael’s Crafts) for great free project ideas, discounts and inexpensive in-store classes. You don’t even need kids to enjoy simple crafts.
- Cook with your kids – put on some fun, silly songs and decorate purchased pizza dough or better yet make some dough and let them use their fingers! Nothing is better fun than getting cake batter in your hair and licking the beater!
- Cook with your lover. Send the kids to Grandma’s or find a friend who will swap babysitting chores. Pour your favorite beverage, put on the songs that were playing when you fell in love. Make something you can eat with your fingers – hot, cold, sweet, sour, smooth, crunchy – tantalize all your senses and enjoy!
- Have a picnic! Rain or shine you can make those
3-times a charm leftovers seem glorious with a picnic. Spread out an old blanket in the backyard or huddle under a dining room table and make-believe. - Buy or make body paint and spend some time decorating each other – great for kids or a hot evening with hubby! Recipe for edible body paint – adults or kids enjoy!
- Learn to dance or teach your kids/partner to dance. Rent a video (libraries often rent movies for FREE) and see if you actually do have two-left feet.
- Find a park to people watch. If you’re well beyond grade school, swing as high as you can, twirl on the merry-go-round and go up-and-down, up-and-down on the teeter-totter.
- Write letters to friends and family far away. Sure the phone is there and email is faster but there is something about the pleasure of pouring your heart out on paper. End those regrets – share your hopes and fears – mend fences – help someone else create a memory!
Plus one for the road…
Here’s the best tip of all:
Make believe is a powerful way to transform a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into a feast. It actually doesn’t take anything more than your mind to create a memory. Just mix in a beloved pet, friend or mate and top it with your kids or grandkids and you’ll be successful.
