When you’re on a budget or you need to keep costs down then frugal activities are always a good thing. These family things to do actually mean you don’t have to shell out any extra money. Leaving a bit of spare cash hopefully for an ice cream or two.

It’s easy to forget that a simple walk together can also be a fun activity. Maybe you are so used to running around in the car during school time, doing after school activity drops and pickups, work, errands.

Make a list of 5 places near you that you can take a walk. Could be around your neighbourhood, a nearby park, woods, even the beach.

Make it extra fun by playing games along the walk (we like to play Unfortunately Fortunately where we tell a story in turns) or doing a nature scavenger hunt.

Strap on the helmets, grab the bikes, and go for a cycle. You can head out in your local area if you have cycling nearby or pile the bikes in the car and head to a forest or park where it’s safe to cycle.

PS: Don’t forget your helmets! Here are some family cycling safety tips.

Get our best content direct to your inbox! You’ll receive quick and easy recipes, fun ideas to entertain the kids, parenting tips, great competitions, as well as offers from brands we trust.

Make sure to check out your local library and find out what classes and events that they run throughout the year. Your local library branch is a wonderful, free, resource for families.

All libraries host very popular, annual summer reading programmes while many of the branches run or host parent and toddler groups, storytelling sessions, arts and crafts classes, book clubs, games and activities sessions, exhibitions and so on. Not to mention the fact that there is free computer access and the option to borrow books and DVDs!

For a change of scenery, why not visit a different library to your local branch?

There are some great playgrounds for children nowadays with well designed equipment, safety features and also designed well to cater for different ages. Many are specially designed now for accessibility as well.

You probably have a favourite playground you go to regularly, why not make a list of other playgrounds near you and aim to visit them all over time? It’s an activity that is both free and good fun!

Make sure to bring some snacks and drinks or a picnic lunch.

Research some historical sites near you and make a plan to stop by and visit them. Often people ignore small local museums but they can contain some interesting gems and the staff are usually happy to give tours or information for you to enjoy your visit.

In the UK, the National Trust and English Heritage have fantastic family-friendly visitor experiences at most of their historical sites. In Ireland, Heritage Ireland has maps and information on heritage sites around Ireland, while the National Park Service (USA) lists historical places on a register.

Speaking of history, it may sound like an odd idea, but kids love graveyards and they are great places to have a ramble and an explore around. We have found them to be tranquil and calm places, obviously we don’t visit them at night when it could be spooky!

It’s always interesting to look at the gravestones and wonder about people from long ago. It connects us to the past and children do appreciate that. We have also spent time trying to find interesting names or look for the oldest gravestone in the graveyard.

Make a change to your shopping routine and visit a farmer’s market near you. Kids often think things come in packet and it’s good to show them fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese and breads etc lined up on stalls.

You get to taste things, talk to the producer in most cases, find out more about how things are made and pick up seasonal things as well which is better for the environment.

Then either head home to cook up something delicious or grab some picnic foods while you are there for some al-fresco munching.

A favourite family activity of ours is heading to the beach. No matter what the weather is! (Remember there’s no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothing!). Obviously it’s nicer if it’s sunny and warm but if it’s not then you can still have lots of fun hunting for shells, making mermaids, digging sandcastles and more. Here are fun interesting things to do at the beach with the kids.

Take a tour of your own village, town or city armed with your smartphone or digital camera and snap places as you go.

Then when you get home print the photos and arrange these into a summer photograph scrapbook e.g. “Our Neighbourhood” or “Our Village”.

The kids will have fun writing captions for the photos too and maybe add in some information that they know about each place. “Here’s where I was born” etc.

Geocaching is a fun free activity where you try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share your experiences online. It’s kind of like a modern treasure hunt or Hide and Seek! You will be amazed to find out how many geocaches there are near you.

You look up a geocache near you and put in the coordinates e.g. into Google Maps then set off to find the cache. There’s a clue given with the coordinates to help you locate the cache.

Read our tips on Geocaching here to help you get started.