10 (Frugal) Autumn Things That Make Me Happy

So much of the frugal lifestyle is made up of finding ways to celebrate the little things in life. Here are some of my favorites!

Taking the girls to an organic orchard to pick apples.

Trips to the playground with a girl whose feet never seem to hit the ground.

Library visits on rainy days.

Going to Open Gym with GIANT soccer balls!!!

Milk and cookies….. all at once!

Dancing in the dark — with flashlights!

Playing with leaves — in my own living room.

Getting lost in a corn maze with silly corn signs.

Breathtaking autumn nature hikes.

….and Jumping in puddles!!

What Autumn things make you happy?

I linked this post to:
Frugal Friday @ Life As Mom

Comments

  1. Dear Valerie,

    What about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens?
    Or.. bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens?
    Or.. brown paper packages tied up with strings?

    Love,
    Mark

  2. This is an awesome list! I’ll add migrating birds landing on our lawn, swinging, swinging, swinging, neighborhood walks, and hot apple juice with cinnamon to warm up =)

  3. Okay you two – that’s very cute πŸ™‚ I think I’ve got to go watch the movie now!

  4. I’m LOL at Mark’s comment!

    Those are some huge soccer balls, how fun!

  5. I am adding leaf collecting and hot chocolate. I love fall.

  6. open gym looks awesome!

    • We practically had the place all to ourselves! It’s a great way for Clara to burn off some of that extra energy while Emily is at school. πŸ™‚

  7. oo what a fun list! Our favorite frugal fall things are camp fires, football (played or watched), coffee, baking, and jumping in leaves πŸ™‚

  8. Fall jackets, soft breezes, chilly mornings that REQUIRE snuggling to wake up each child, figuring out trick-or-treat costumes from stuff we have at home, carving pumpkins, soup weather with crusty bread, more maxwell house moments with my hubby on chilly early mornings…

  9. uuuh, you inspire me!
    in Autumn I like … to drink a lot of tea! to put on warm and colored pullovers, to jump in puddles (me and chiara too!!!), and a new entry in my last post!
    bye ; )

  10. I love fall too. I would add warm apple cider and preparing for the holidays.

    Emily and Clara are the most photogenic children! They are always laughing.

    You are Mark crack me up. I guess that’s why Emily and Clara are always laughing!!!!!!!

    • Thanks so much, Christy! It seems there’s never a shortage of laughter in this household.

      I’m a big fan of hot apple cider too — especially with some cinnamon on top!

  11. It’s always bad when the dog bites and the bee stings. Very smart to save those.

    I love that you’re getting Mark to get pictures of you. Jeff just looks at me like I’m crazy when I request that.

    • LOL I’ve noticed only rare Ticia sightings on your blog! We’ll have to encourage Jeff to take more photos of you.

      Some of these were taken by Mark, but Emily shot the photo of me throwing the tissue paper leaves in the air. She’s getting to be quite the photographer!

  12. You and I are thinking alike again. I posted today about a walk to the beach!

  13. Oh, and I too, love the photos of you playing with your kids. You are so beautiful when you are smiling with your kids.

  14. Since I live in the desert, I look forward to the cooler (80*) temps! πŸ™‚

    • If you think cooler weather is 80*, you really do live in the desert! I saw that you did manage to find some pumpkins, though, and for a few minutes I completely forgot that you live in the desert!

  15. The puddle jumping photo is loads of fun.

    • LOL I was completely soaked after that, but it was SO much fun!!!! I think my shoes were soggy for about 2 weeks afterwards. Totally worth it though. πŸ˜‰

  16. Love that super sized soccer ball!!
    I also loved your nature scavenger hunt idea from awhile back.

    • They are new, and Clara thought they were SO cool!

      We’ve gone on several more scavenger hunts this year, and they’re always a hit. Have fun! xoxo

  17. You guys sure have lots of fun, that’s awesome!

    We love our fall baking,smell of wet leaves, snuggle for a good story wrapped in blankets, and lighting the fireplace for the first time since late spring- everyone is looking forward to this. πŸ™‚

  18. Alexa Ogno says

    Inviting neighbors over for a leaf-jumping party. BYO rake. My husband jokes that twice now I have gotten friends to rake the yard in exchange for a pile of leaves to jump in. It seems there is only one perfect day each year for leaf jumping. This year it happened to be a half-day at school, so it was a bigger party than expected. In the end, though, the pile is strewn all over the yard, more leaves fall, and none of them ends up in a bag.

    • Seriously, Alexa, you are brilliant!! I would have never thought of a leaf-jumping party! So much FUN!!!

  19. That’s a fun list. I love hayrides & apple picking. We went to our 1st corn maze this year. It was fun.

  20. Wonderful post!! You all look so happy!! That is a great thing about autumn!

  21. that post made me happy just reading it!
    thanks for sharing

  22. Free trips to the pumpkin patches, hiking, pumpkin pie, pulling out our tub of fall holiday decor (that’s only ever purchased during after holiday sales), and playing in the leaves. And just turning off the air and enjoying time outside finally. (We live in Arkansas where summers are hot and humid.)

    • Such wonderful things!! πŸ™‚ Have you tried pumpkin pie with nutella? OMG! Sooooo yummy!

  23. We love our favorite apple orchard so much that we celebrated our daughter’s first birthday there–I just posted a pic. Our annual trip is my favorite autumn tradition.

    I also love open windows, winter squash, warm rice socks in the bed, favorite sweaters, roasting marshmallows, cuddling, steamy sips, and the beautiful, beautiful leaves.

    The puddle jumping photo is a treasure.

    • Thank you, Whitney! What a wonderful list — we are big fans of rice socks in bed too!! I love that you celebrated your daughter’s 1st birthday at the apple orchard!

  24. These are great ideas! What beautiful pictures of your family! Just as your blog post illustrates, having fun with your loved ones does not have to be an expensive ordeal. It’s about spending quality time with each other and enjoying the simple things in life. We recently spoke to DIYFather who gave us some more ideas on how to have fun with the kids and save money at the same time. To check out the video click the blog post below:

    http://blog.heaps.co.nz/how-to/how-to-have-fun-and-save-money/

    Enjoy! πŸ™‚
    Keep loving life and promoting positivity in your great blog!

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