Free Printable Archives - Sweet Frugal Life

Fall Bucket List Ideas.

Ahhhh fall! My favorite time of year. It’s the perfect fresh start as school begins, the air turns crisp, and we get to enjoy a bountiful garden harvest. There are also so many fall activities for families making the season perfect in every way!

With fall just around the corner, we decided to share some of our fall bucket list ideas. Hopefully they will help you and your family find some fun, frugal things to do together.

“Sweet Frugal Life is an Amazon Associate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”

Fall Activities For Families

Check out our favorite fall bucket list ideas below. These will make fall fun, while staying in budget!

1. Have a Bonfire

Fall is the perfect time for a bonfire. Invite some friends over for a backyard bonfire, or head up to the mountains and enjoy a large fire together in the forest. Make sure to bring some marshmallows to roast! Enjoy snuggling under a blanket and the fresh crisp air.

To keep the bonfire extra frugal friendly, skip all of the smores toppings and just roast marshmallows! They only cost $1/bag and are so tasty when melty.

2. Go Apple Picking

Fall is a great time to buy apples for a low price. Check out your local farmers market for cheap apples…or better yet go pick them yourself at a u pick apple orchard! This is a great activity to get your whole family involved in.

There isn’t much better than spending a day in the orchard picking apples, at least for me!

3. Carve Pumpkins

What’s Halloween (or fall) without a carved pumpkin??? Buy a few pumpkins from the store (or grow your own) and spend time together as a family being creative as you carve pumpkins.

You don’t even need to buy the carving kits in the store. Just print out a few free templates from the internet and use your kitchen knives for carving. Frugal for the win!

4. Fall Scavenger Hunt

Another perfect fall activity for families is to go on a fall scavenger hunt. This can be done in your neighborhood, a nearby forest. or a local park.

Just use a brown paper bag (or whatever you have at home) to collect different colored leaves, acorns, pine cones, etc. You might want to make a list of specific items to look for to have a common goal while hunting!

5. Fall Crafting

Fall is the perfect time for crafting! As the weather cools down, spend some time inside working on a craft together as a family.

Check out this super easy Toilet Paper Roll Pumpkin. It’s the best project for both crafters and non-crafters, and it turns out SO cute!

6. Attend a High School Football Game

What’s fall without some football! Make you would enjoy being a part of the community by attending your local high school football game. There is just something special about the cool fall air, bright Friday night lights, and the energy of a crowd.

Plus, tickets are usually really cheap making this a great fall activity for families!

7. Make Applesauce

Have you ever had homemade applesauce? It is so much better than store bought! My kids look forward to it every year, and I love making it!

Making applesauce be a very big process, but it’s a fun way to spend an afternoon together as a family. Plus, there is just nothing better than the smell of sweet apples and cinnamon in the house. It makes me happy!

Be sure to grab this applesauce maker and apple corer/peeler/spiralizer. They both make the applesauce process much easier, promise, game changers!

8. Go to the Pumpkin Patch

Spend a fun family day at the pumpkin patch. It can be so fun walking around the pumpkin patch while looking at all of the different colors, shapes, and sizes of each pumpkin.

To make the experience a little cheaper you could choose to buy just one pumpkin as a family to share together.

9. Go On a Hike

Fall is the perfect time of year to get up in the mountains and enjoy nature with a hike. You could even make a day out of it by packing a picnic! I love seeing the beauty in the forest as the leaves are changing color.

10. Bake Something

Is there anything better than fall baking??? I think not! Spend time together in the kitchen baking some fun fall treats.

Here are a few of my fave recipes to try: Grandmas Famous Banana Bread Recipe or Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe.

Related: Mels Home Cooking Recipe Book

11. Play in the Leaves

Rake up a big pile of leaves and then have some fun jumping into them! This is the perfect way to get your kids to help with the work…and then celebrate with some fun!

12. Drink Apple Cider

On the first day of fall each year I buy a box of Apple Cider for our family to enjoy. My kids love this simple tradition!

13. Go to The Corn Maze

Go to your local corn maze and get lost! Try it both during day time and night time for different experiences.

Most corn mazes will offer daily deals, so be sure to look out for “buy one get one free” or “family discount” days. Last year we went on bring a pet day and received a discount.

14. Paint a Pumpkin

Don’t like carving pumpkins? Consider painting one instead. You could paint a funny face on it or even make a pretty design, the sky’s the limit!

Related: 25 Completely Free Family Winter Activities

15. Dip Apples in Caramel

Making caramel apples is a fun fall activity, but can get a little messy! So, I love to buy apples and caramel for dipping instead. It’s much less work and you can control how much caramel goes on each apple (the more the better in my opinion!).

16. Make a Fall Treat

One of our favorite fall bucket list ideas is treats! Because treats just happen to be my love language!

There are so many delicious goodies you can make during fall. Pumpkin cookies and apple pie are a couple of favorites at our house. My kids always request these Monster Rice Krispie Treats. They are perfect for Halloween time and sure to be a huge hit!

17. Go On a Hay Ride

Hay rides are so much fun and the perfect fall activity! Look at your community events and find a place where they might be offering hay rides. They are usually only a few dollars per person.

18. Roast Pumpkin Seeds

After carving pumpkins, be sure to save the seeds for roasting.

All you have to do is wash the seeds and place them on a cookie sheet. Drizzle olive oil on top and sprinkle with seasoning salt. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Easy and so so tasty!

19. Go To The Farmers Market

Does your community have a farmers market? Spend a day as a family browsing the different booths.

Farmers markets are a fun place to taste a few samples, listen to some good music and maybe buy a treat or two. It makes for a lovely morning out, without having to spend a lot of money.

20. Plant Fall Bulbs

Fall is a great time of you to plant a fall flower bulbs in your yard. When you plant them in the fall you will be rewarded with beautiful flowers in the spring, which is such a fun treat to see! My favorite bulbs to plant each fall are tulips and daffodils.

21. Watch Football at Home

Invite a few friends over to watch a football game together on TV. Ask everyone to bring an appetizer or dessert so you can eat while enjoying the big game.

22. Watch a Halloween Movie

Another fun fall activity for families is to watch a Halloween movie together. A few good family friendly Halloween movies are: Double, Double, Toil and Trouble, The Haunted Mansion, Casper, and Hocus Pocus.

In Conclusion

Fall is such a magical time of year, but it doesn’t have to be expensive! I hope a few of these fall bucket list ideas helps you to have a wonderful fall with your family!

Pin for Later:

What are your favorite fall activities for families?

Best free chore chart for kids.

Are you looking for a free printable chore chart for kids? Because I have one for you today!

Teaching my kids how to work is a huge priority for me. In today’s world with busy schedules and so many kids focused on screens, it’s hard to find the right way to instill a hard work ethic. I’ve tried so many different methods and kids chore charts to try to encourage my kids to be hard workers. Many of those methods have failed, but the method we are using right now has been going strong for 7 years. That’s definitely a record in my house! Of course, I don’t know if it is teaching them the hard work ethic I desire, but I know it has been teaching them a lot about household chores and so I am happy with it!

Honestly, my chore system is nothing fancy, SO un-fancy in fact that it probably shouldn’t even be called a “system”! 😉

Kids Household Responsibilities:

Here are the three main household chores my kids are responsible for each week.

Bedrooms

First, the kids are responsible to keep their rooms clean and tidy, including making their bed each day and putting away any clutter. This usually only takes 5 minutes each morning, sometimes more or less.

Once a week they are required to vacuum and dust their rooms, we usually do this on Saturdays. I always check on Saturdays to make sure they did what was asked of them and to verify that they haven’t stuffed anything under the bed or in their closets (because, that has been known to happen from time to time….).

“We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”

Dishes

We have three “Dish Duties” that we rotate each week between our three kids. These duties are: Load the Dishwasher, Sweep the Floor, and Wipe the Counters.

After our nightly dinner the family all cleans up the dishes together with the kids each helping with their specific assignment.

Household Chore

Each week my kids are assigned a Household Chore. The Household Chore is usually centered around a room in the house; one that the entire family uses, so we all need to help keep it clean. These chores are rotated each week, so that the kids all get even turns with each job.

Saturday is the day we complete household chores. After breakfast the kids work on both their household chore and bedroom chores. Once they have completed both of these, and I have inspected to make sure it was done correctly, they can then have free time.

Our current list of household chores are:

Family Room
Bathroom
Basement
Kitchen
Entry
Your Choice

I love to include a Your Choice option in the rotations so that the kids can have a little control over the area they clean. They all look forward to when they get a Your Choice chore.

If a child is assigned “your choice” for the week they can then choose from these job options:

Wash Windows
Laundry
Clean Out Car
Refrigerator

I keep a chore list hanging in our kitchen so that my kids always know exactly what is expected of them each week. These chores are changed every Saturday as we prepare for a new week.

Free Printable Chore Chart

After a lot of request I decided to turn these free chore chart for kids into a printable for you to use in your home!

You can download your free printable chore chart for kids at the bottom of this article.

I recommend printing these printables out on white cardstock to keep them sturdy and durable.

After printing it, cut out each of the the household chores checklists and then laminate them using contact paper.

Next, laminate the the Family Weekly Chores, Chore Chart, and Bedroom Checklist. I prefer sticking these larger printables in a page protector, because it’s easier. But, you can do whatever works best for you!

Printable Bedroom Checklist Chore Chart

Now that you have your chore chart all put together, it’s time to start using them with your kids!

Hang one bedroom checklist in your childs bedroom. The closet door is a great place for this. Now, whenever your child completes their daily and weekly bedroom chores they can use a dry erase marker to mark off each chore. This helps you as the parent to quickly see what they have completed, and reminds the child of what should be done each day.

Family Weekly Chores Chart

Next, hang up the Family Weekly Chores chart somewhere that your family will see it often. I like to put mine in the kitchen or entry area. Write each of your kids names next to a chore. That will be their assigned household chore for the week. Once the week is over, rotate the names down to the next chore. This gives everyone a fair chance at each chore.

Your child can use the chore checklists while working on their household chores. This helps them stay focused on the chore and remember all of the details.

Chore Chart Printable

I also included a basic chore chart printable. This gives you the option to fill in the chores you want your child to do each week, just in case they are different from our families chore chart.

Grab Your Free Printables Below!

I truly believe one of the greatest gifts we can give a child is teaching them how to work. They WILL look back one day and thank you for giving them this gift. I whined and yelled and cried and complained and told my parents they were the meanest in the world…..but I grew up….and I realized just how GRATEFUL I am that they taught me how to work!

The saying says there is more than one way to train a horse! That falls true with kids too! This is what works for my kids, you might find something different that works for your family. All that matters is that we are TRYING. Keep trying mamas! We got this!