Fall is supposed to be cozy.
Somewhere along the way, though, we apparently decided it also needed to be expensive.
There are pumpkin patches with admission fees, $8 seasonal drinks, matching family outfits, elaborate porch decorations and enough carefully curated fall outings to make October feel like a second Christmas.
No, thank you.
Some of my favorite family memories have come from ridiculously ordinary things: food, football, being outside, making a mess, piling everybody into the car or deciding we’re absolutely not leaving the house.
You don’t need an expensive season to have a memorable one.
So if you want to actually enjoy the -Ber Months without sacrificing the Christmas budget to the Great Pumpkin, here are nine cheap fall activities your family can actually do.
And because nine isn’t nearly enough, I’ve also made a free Ultimate Fall Family Bucket List with 50 ideas you can grab before you go.
1. Go on a Fall Color Hunt
This one costs exactly nothing, requires almost no preparation and works surprisingly well with different ages.
Take a walk around your neighborhood, a local park or anywhere else with trees and see how many different fall colors everybody can find.
Little kids can collect leaves. Older kids can photograph their favorites. You can look for the weirdest leaf, the brightest red, the biggest leaf or one shaped vaguely enough like a heart that everybody agrees to count it.
You don’t need to drive three hours to somewhere picturesque, either.
Cheap fall rule: Your own neighborhood counts.
2. Have a Sunset Picnic
Dinner was already going to happen.
Move it outside and suddenly it’s an activity.
Pack sandwiches, leftovers, snacks or whatever you were already planning to eat. Grab a blanket and head to the backyard, park or another favorite spot before sunset.
When the evenings start getting chilly, bring a thermos of hot chocolate.
There is absolutely no requirement that picnic food be cute.
If everybody is eating yesterday’s leftover chicken while sitting on a blanket watching the sky turn orange, congratulations. You made a fall memory.
3. Build the Biggest Leaf Pile Possible
There are two steps to this activity:
1. Rake the leaves.
2. Completely destroy your work.
That’s it.
Make the pile enormous. Take ridiculous slow-motion pictures of everybody jumping into it. Let the dog attack it. Rebuild it and do it again.
And enjoy the fact that you’ve somehow tricked the children into participating in yard work.
Parenting win.
4. Make an Apple Nacho Bar
Fall activities are considerably better when you can eat them.
Slice some apples and raid your pantry for toppings: peanut butter, caramel, chocolate chips, nuts, granola, marshmallows, cinnamon, crushed cookies—whatever you’ve already got.
Put everything out and let everybody make their own apple nachos.
This is also one of my favorite ways to use apples before they cross that mysterious line between we should eat these soon and why is there liquid in the fruit drawer?
Money-saving rule: Shop your pantry before you shop the grocery store.
5. Have a Backyard Bonfire
If you’ve got a firepit, fall is its time to shine.
Grab blankets, pull out some chairs and spend an evening outside around the fire. Roast hot dogs or marshmallows if you’ve got them. Tell funny stories. Tell spooky stories. Put the phones away for a while.
Don’t have a firepit?
You can still take blankets outside, use battery-operated candles or lanterns and make an evening of it.
The memory is the point—not the actual flames.
6. Hold a Family Game Tournament
Pull out the board games and card games you already own and turn an ordinary game night into a completely unnecessary family championship.
Play several games and keep a running score.
Better yet, create categories.
Overall Champion.
Most Dramatic Loss.
Worst Strategy.
Most Likely to Demand a Rematch.
Person Nobody Wants to Play Monopoly With Ever Again.
The winner gets bragging rights.
The loser gets to spend the next week explaining why the entire competition was obviously rigged.
7. Take a Thrift-Store Treasure Hunt
You don’t even have to buy anything for this one.
Make a list of weird things to find—a holiday mug, ugly sweater, mystery kitchen gadget or something older than Mom—and head to a thrift store.
Take pictures as you find each item.
You can make it competitive, divide into teams or add ridiculous bonus categories as you go.
If you do want everybody to bring something home, set a tiny budget before you walk through the door. Five dollars can make this considerably more interesting without turning it into a shopping trip.
8. Have a Fall Movie Marathon
Some fall days are for adventures.
Others are for refusing to put on pants with buttons.
Pick two or three movies, pile blankets and pillows in the living room, make popcorn and declare yourselves unavailable for the foreseeable future.
Let everybody choose one movie. Draw titles from a bowl if democracy breaks down.
You don’t need themed decorations, coordinated snacks or a projector in the backyard.
Blankets + snacks + people you like = perfectly acceptable fall plans.
9. Let the Kids Plan the Day
This might be my favorite one because you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.
Give the kids a budget and a few ground rules.
Then let them plan the family day.
And here’s the hard part:
Don’t keep “improving” their plan.
Unless somebody suggests something unsafe, impossible or wildly over budget, roll with it.
You may eat cereal for lunch.
You may spend an unreasonable amount of time at a playground you’ve driven past 400 times.
You may discover that what your kids consider a fantastic family day is considerably simpler—and cheaper—than what adults think we’re supposed to provide.
That alone is worth finding out.
Want 41 More Cheap Fall Ideas?
Because apparently I couldn’t stop at nine. 😂
I put together The Ultimate Fall Family Bucket List, a FREE one-page printable with 50 simple ways to make the -Ber Months more fun.
Print it. Stick it on the fridge. Let everybody choose favorites. Check them off as you go.
And no, you absolutely do not have to finish all 50.
Grab The Ultimate Fall Family Bucket List FREE
Want the Ideas, Not Just the List?
The free bucket list gives you all 50 ideas.
But if you’d rather have somebody help you figure out how to actually do them without turning every activity into another project, I’ve got a recipe for that, too.
50 Cheap Fall Things to Do With Your Family: Simple, Affordable Ways to Make the -Ber Months Actually Fun expands all 50 activities with budget and planning labels, simple ways to make each one better, cheap alternatives and the occasional reminder that Pinterest is not in charge of your family.
It also includes an Our Fall Fun List so your family can pick the things you really don’t want to miss and decide what you’re actually willing to spend on fall fun.
Get 50 Cheap Fall Things to Do With Your Family — $7.99
Fall doesn’t have to be elaborate.
It doesn’t have to photograph beautifully.
And it definitely doesn’t have to cost a damn fortune.
Go make some memories.
