Fall can be a temperamental time of year. Where I live, yesterday was beautiful, sunny and a great day to be outside where today is dreary, wet and all round nasty out. Anytime we go through a seasonal change, Mother Nature doesn’t seem to know what to do with herself and goes to extremes. While in the summer we spend most all of our days outside, in the fall we start outside and often end up indoors.

There are plenty of frugal, fun fall activities the entire family can enjoy, even with Mother Nature’s temperamental state.

Hike

I don’t know what it is about the fall but as soon as the leaves start to change and the weather cools off I want to find a walking trail or hill and get outside. More than any other time of year I want to be outside and doing it with the family is a perfect outing. If you have young children hiking up a mountain side may be too much but you can likely find a decent walking trail you can all run around on (or bring a stroller/baby carrier).

You-Pick

Nothing screams ‘’fall’’ like picking your own apples or pumpkins. Not only is this a cheap way to get a large volume of fresh produce, it’s a lot of fun and can be done with kids of any age. Young kids will have fun picking the apples off the ground where the older kids can carry what is sure to be the big heavy bag! Pumpkin patches are also great fun to run around in and explore, if they are one to grow extra-large pumpkins, kids will be sure to have fun marvelling at their sheer mass.

Baking

Though I love baking for Christmas, I love the flavors of fall baking more than any other time of year. Once you come home with your fresh bag of apples have family time in the kitchen baking up a storm! There is sure to be a task for kids of all ages from searching out the recipes to dumping the measuring cups into the bowl. Though you can be sure there will be a much larger mess than if you had done the job yourself I can promise it won’t be as fun.

Craft Time

Construction paper turkeys, wax paper leaves, pumpkin paining or carving, there is no shortage of fall crafts for kids of all ages! The younger kids can pick the pattern for pumpkin carving and you or older kids actually do the carving. Craft time is something I’m just starting to explore with my daughter and its bringing floods of memories from my childhood, so much fun and super cheap. Dollar stores make craft time that much more affordable too when you do need to go out and buy craft supplies.

Fall is when nesting mode kicks in for me. Fall and winter, more than any other time of year, are about family time for me. We need to just enjoy being together. It’s about having fun and creating memories, not spending money.