Sense to Save

Homemade board games

Speaking of board game fun, why not make your own board game?

You can take an old Monopoly (or whatever!) board, and turn it into something of your own. Make your own rules, tape down new landing spaces…whatever you want.

If you don’t want to completely invent a new game, you can make your own Mancala set for really cheap.

I learned how to play this game in middle school, and it’s a fun two-player game.

Here’s a picture of a purchased game, complete with glass tokens.

You can make your own version using an old, clean egg carton and your own markers, such as pebbles, pennies, or other small bits.

Click here for Mancala rules.

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Frugal fun

Board games and card games can be great sources of fun, frugal entertainment for the whole family.

You can find used board games (hopefully with all of the pieces intact) at garage sales or thrift stores for a great price.

Even if you decide to go out and buy a board game new, sometimes you can get a great deal–especially now during the Christmas gift-buying time.

Hasbro has a deal going on right now (it was in recent Sunday coupon inserts) where you can get rebates on select games.

Right now, we’re limited to two-player board games. Some of our favorites include: Scattegories, Scrabble, Sequence, Monopoly, checkers, and Guess Who? (haven’t played that one in ages), Connect 4, and Clue.

Some of my favorite multi-player board games include the above, and Apples to Apples, Twister (sort of a board game…not really), Boggle, and Mouse Trap.

If you have a deck of cards, you can play a ton of games. I recently learned how to play Euchre, a four-player game (can you believe I’m a Hoosier that just now learned?!), and other games include Go Fish, Hearts, and War, to name a few. If you’re all by yourself, you can play Solitaire.

What are some of your favorite board or card games? How often do you and your family play them?

For other posts on Frugal Friday, visit Biblical Womanhood. 

The glowing lure of free TV

Sometimes, I really love television. It can feel so good to lounge around and watch its mind-numbing goodness. But, as you know, you can have access to hundreds of channels and there could still be nothing on TV.

We don’t have cable. I bought a set of rabbit ears to put atop our TV set, and we get what comes over the airwaves. This includes: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, some local channel, and home shopping (!?).

The shows are decent, and reception is reasonable. Not as good as it would be if we broke down and bought cable, but hey, for free, it’s fantastic.

PLUS–the networks now have select shows online for free (and in some cases, limited-commercial) viewing. Gotta love that!

I tried to find out how much basic cable would cost, but I don’t want to call a salesperson. Between installation charges and who knows what else, plus the monthly charge, I know it’s a lot.

Finally, with fewer channels to watch, if nothing on one of my seven channels interests me, I can turn it off, save electricity and find something else to do. Hurrah!