thedifferentmomblogAs a single mother, I’m always looking for inexpensive ideas to do a variety of things with my children. We have to pinch every penny most of the times. Even if you don’t have to pinch your pennies, it’s still always rewarding to save money.
So what could I come up with to entertain them? I finally came up with a movie night. My children truly love movies. So guess what…
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When college football is over, we have movie night at our house. Yes, this mom has to wait for football season to end LOL. I gotta watch my sports. I told you all that when you learned all about The Different Mom Thankfully my children understand…not like they have much of a choice. ?
It’s not going out to an expensive theater, where we would have to pay about $30 to enjoy a movie, but rather streaming movies and having snacks…trust me, it’s A LOT cheaper! And us single moms need inexpensive ways to spend time with our children, and entertain them.
Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and other streaming options has made movie nights possible, fun, and ever changing for us.
It doesn’t have to be a movie. We’ve binged watched “The Flash,” or other TV series on Netflix and/or Hulu.
My crew loves our movie nights, and they look forward to them. So almost all winter and all summer long, we spend the majority of our Saturday nights watching a movie on our couch!
The only rules are no cell phones during the movie, limited talking, and the last rule HAVE FUN!
There’s no right or wrong way to do it! Seriously, just have fun with your children…stress free family time.
This is how we do it… $100 you started singing “this is how we do it…” in your head huh?!
One person is assigned a week (we usually do the youngest to oldest. You can decide however you’d like.) to pick a movie they want to watch, PLUS the meal we have, and/or the snacks that are served.
It’s so much fun to watch them plan and put thought into it.
Some times my children know right away what they plan to do. But I give them until about Thursday or Friday just in case they change their mind. When they are certain, I make sure we have those ingredients or foods in the house.
This gives whoever’s week it is about a week to prepare the menu and decide what movie we’ll be watching.
That Saturday morning, we make sure the house is cleaned before we can enjoy the movie night. About 5:00 or 6:00 that evening we start preparing everything so we can just sit and enjoy the movie. No stress and no worries.
We start the movie about 7:00. That leaves us plenty of time to get ready for bed and prepared for church the next morning.
Here are some examples of the snacks and meals that we’ve had:
- Leroy’s hotwings
- Pizzookie
- Tortilla shell cheese roll-ups
- Chips & queso
- Brownies
- Homemade personal pan pizzas
- Pizza rolls
We’ve even had the movie theater concession stand idea. This brilliant idea was started by my daughter. It was such a neat idea. This one is my favorites for sure.
She’s had a “concession stand” where we can pick from a variety of snacks like popcorn, sodas, the $.98 candy boxes from Wal-Mart (i.e. M&Ms, Sour Patch Kids, and Milk duds). We’ve also had gummy snacks, water, and chips.
She simply lays out the snacks in categories like a concession stand on the dinning room table. We go around the table picking what snacks we want. Then we sit on the couch with a tray full of our snacks, and enjoy the movie.
Shower caddy from walmart
This little thing is amazing to fill with your snacks so you can sit down and enjoy the movie. Just fill it with your choice of snack from the “concession stand,” and you’re ready.
For our popcorn, we have a cute popcorn bowl that looks like a bag from the movie theater, but it’s made of plastic. It was a gift from my mom for our movie nights. We’ve thought about getting individual ones, but this large one is fun to share with, so we’ll stick this for now.
My children absolutely love this time. It’s such a bonding time, and so much fun. My teenager still loves it, so I’m not stopping until he’s had enough.
Your movie night doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. Relax and enjoy the experience. It’s just a great and inexpensive way to spend time with your family
You can choose whatever night works for you. Saturday is the best day for us. Pick a day that works for you.
We love this bonding time. It’s a blessing to be able to spend this quality time with my babies. And they get their mommy uninterrupted. And I’m not going to stop as long as they want to keep doing it.
