What can a family of four do in Dallas for $20 a day?  Here are some ideas.

The best inexpensive fun is practically free and right around the corner from you, no matter where you are in Dallas.  Find the nearest Dallas park and take your family for the day.  Pack a picnic lunch, arrange for a water gun fight, and blow bubbles and let the kids try to catch them.

We almost always have a soccer ball in the trunk or a Frisbee.  The kids can climb or swing on a playground, feed ducks, fly kites or you can send them on a nature scavenger hunt.  Can they find a stick shaped like the letter “y” or a stone shaped like a heart?  A nature stroll is healthy and aerobic and while you’re at it, pick up trash or wash graffiti off play equipment, teaching your children an important lesson about nature and taking good care of our Earth.  The only money you need to spend will be on the picnic lunch.

In historic Fair Park many museums offer free admission.  Also within the park is a hidden gem called Texas Discovery Gardens, which contains ten themed garden areas for parents and kids to explore together and learn more about nature on their own, through workshops or guided tours.  Admission is pretty inexpensive at three dollars an adult, a dollar and fifty cents for children ages three to eleven years old, and children under three years old are free.  They have a butterfly habitat, a native wildlife pond, a scent garden, a shade garden and an heirloom garden.

The historic M-Line Streetcars that run along McKinney Avenue in Uptown Dallas are also free, and a great inexpensive way to explore that area of the city.

Five your children a free art lesson at Nasher Sculpture Center.  Adult admission is $10 but children twelve and under are free.  The indoor and outdoor galleries contain a comprehensive collection of masterpieces with rotating and special exhibitions.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport has an area in their Founders Plaza called Observation Station where you can watch the thousands of take-offs and landings in one of the busiest airports in the world.  A graph board helps you identify the many different types of aircrafts while you listen to live audio straight from the control tower.  This area is currently closed but scheduled to open up again in September.

Who says you can’t have inexpensive fun?

From guest blogger Marsha Takeda-Morrison of Sweatpantsmom

Just because our country’s in a recession doesn’t mean you can’t afford to go on that Girls’ Getaway you’ve been planning. You’ll just have to make some, uh, adjustments. For example, maybe you used to splurge on a four-day cruise on a private yacht where you’d sip Cristal out of a Manolo, but now you might just have to settle for a four-minute putt on the Balboa Island Ferry to pick up a Coke.

Here are some other ideas for you to stretch those pennies:

Before: Napa Valley Wine Train Tour, where an elegant rail car takes you through the scenic majestic wine region while enjoying gourmet meals and expensive vintages.

Now: Los Angeles wine tour, where you and your gal pals pile into your van and enjoy a five-hour tour of all the BevMo’s within a forty-mile radius. Crash at a local hotel, where you’ve only paid for two guests and then snuck-in your other three friends. Proceed to ‘sample’ all the varietals you’ve purchased straight out of the bottle. Splurge and split that $10 can of Pringles from the minibar.

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Before: “Sex And The City” weekend in New York City. Make like Carrie and her friends and take the city by storm: Designer boutiques during the day, fine dining and dancing at night. Stay at the posh Carlyle Hotel, featured in the movie.

Now: “Knocked Up” weekend in L.A. Drive by the Wilshire Boulevard offices of E! Entertainment, which is where Katherine Heigl’s character worked. Then head to the dive-y Del’s Saloon in Santa Monica to enjoy a couple of brewskies and to see where scenes from the movie were filmed. Then head on over to your brother’s friend’s house to play video games and pass the bong around, just like Seth Rogan and his pals did in the movie! Remember to bring along a condom so life doesn’t end up imitating art.

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Before: A spa getaway at La Quinta where you and your BFFs would enjoy pampering massages, spa cuisine and luxurious rooms.

Now: Head to the beach, where you and your posse can frolic in the healing waters of the Pacific. (Be on the lookout for signs of raw-sewage spills.) Take a barefoot walk in the sand for an instant pedicure! Save on meals by packing your own sandwiches and share a twelve-pack of water from Trader Joes.

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Before: Three-day shopping extravaganza to Fashion Island in Newport Beach. At night, rest your Bloomingdales-weary body at a nearby swanky hotel.

Now: Split the gas three ways for a trip out to the Outlets in Cabazon. Go ahead and have lunch in the food court, but remember to bring along the other half of that six-pack from Trader Joes so you don’t have to part with $2 for water. Sorry, you can’t afford a hotel, but if one of your girlfriends agrees to host a sleepover you can stay up all night admiring each other’s new purses.

From guest blogger Marsha Takeda-Morrison of Sweatpantsmom

I’ve been asked by the editors to participate in a meme called Thursday Thirteen. Coming up with thirteen of anything seemed impossible at first, unless you asked me to list the number of ways I can order a cappuccino at Starbucks.

But then I remembered a dilemma I face almost daily living in Los Angeles, the land of the Perpetually Primped. How can I, a working mom, go out in public with the least amount of personal grooming? And most importantly, avoid running into anyone I know lest they judge my haggard appearance? After all, this is L.A., where most women wouldn’t dare leave the house without lipstick, two coats of mascara and a Botox injection – and that’s just to get the mail.

Thursday Thirteen – Thirteen Places You Can Go In Los Angeles Without Makeup

1. The ‘scary’ grocery story in your neighborhood. I prefer our local downtrodden market to the more upscale version located a few blocks closer. So what if all the cashiers are missing half their teeth? It’s worth it if I don’t have to run into any of those moms glowing after their seaweed peels and three-hour facials.
2. Art-house movie at any Laemmle Theater – Although it appears that my highbrow taste is the motivation for attending subtitled films about lonely cobblers finding love during WWII, the real reason is there’s not a chance that any of the other three people in the theater is someone I know.
3. Chuck E. Cheese – My kids outgrew this place years ago, but I still long for those days of being able to blend in with the other hundred frantic, pasty-faced parents scarfing down pizza while their toddlers run wild.
4. Jury Duty – If you’re trying to get out of serving, appearing as unkempt as possible will work in your favor here. No one’s going to want you deciding the fate of another human being when you look like someone who can’t even brush their own hair.
5. The Car Wash – This only applies to those venues that let you stay in your vehicle while your van hits the suds. Resist the temptation to get out and pick up another fake-pine air freshener or pair of cheap sunglasses.
6. Gas Stations – I try to look as unattractive as possible when pumping gas, in order to discourage panhandling. However, I was given five bucks by a homeless guy once and told to go get a good haircut.
7. Any 7-Eleven – For obvious reasons.
8. Bally’s Total Fitness, Between 11pm and 6am ONLY – Trying to get on a treadmill during normal business hours without a full face of makeup in L.A. will result in a severe ass-kicking by other gym patrons forced to stare at your ugly mug.
9. Any fast food drive-thru – No one will ever see you ordering your super-sized monster taco meal while looking like you just woke up from a fifty-year nap.
10. Target, Sepulveda Blvd. in Van Nuys – This Target is a mecca for overworked, overwhelmed parents and it shows. I feel right at home amongst the tattered-sweatpants crowd. Drive over the hill to Sunset and Vine, though, and every single person looks like they’re from the cast of The Hills.
11. The Dry Cleaners – What person in their right mind would get gussied up to pick up a bunch of sweaters?
12. Ross Dress For Less, Mervins, Marshalls or anywhere else you can get a coat for under ten dollars – See #7
13. Sorry, but there really are only twelve places in L.A. that you can go looking like a hag.

Times Square and 5th Ave and the Empire State Building are all good for someone who’s a first-time visitor to New York City, but the real summer fun can be found in the islands around New York. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a Hawaii vacation. For less than 50 bucks, you can have a fun day out island hopping in New York City. Picture if you will, a quiet beach or river front, kids fooling around, families with picnic baskets, brilliant weather (well…maybe), and the Manhattan skyline a few minutes away. Photo by Tom Mascardo via Flickr.

You probably have heard about Staten (Staten Island ferry) and Ellis Island. Bucketloads of ink has already been spilled writing about the attractions these islands have. So I’ll tell you about their lesser known brethren, and the fun things you’ll find on these still pristine islands.

Governors Island: Free ferry ride from Battery Park to Governors Island, located 800 yards from lower Manhattan and closer still to Brooklyn. Nothing better than a lazy Saturday afternoon picnic at Governor’s Island with art festivals, music shows and concerts in the 92 acres set aside for the Historic District. There’s plenty of room for bike rides, and tours of the historic forts built way back in 1812. Here’s a full schedule of events.

Roosevelt Island: The trip to and from Roosevelt is probably more fun than the island itself. A red tram from the station at 60th and 2nd Ave takes you across the East River to the island. Photo credit – RIOC.

From the tram, you can gaze straight into Manhattan’s high rise apartments. If you have binoculars, the view of Manhattan from the tram as you come back from Roosevelt Island is spectacular. As for the island, it does have a few landmarks you can visit, and some which you can’t – Like the Renwick Ruin, which was a smallpox hospital and the Octagon, a landmark mental health facility which has a sad history of mistreating patients, arson and fire. Yeah, well…Maybe you should stick to the tram ride.

City Island, The Bronx: Located on the edge of New York City in the Bronx, City Island is much more commercialized, but still maintains a small town feel which comes across as a refreshing change for a day trip out of the bedlam and the pressure and grime of the City.

City Island offers excellent seafood restaurants and corner cafes, summer festivities with boating and sailing, shopping at quaint shops and art galleries, with plenty to see and do for nature explorers and bird lovers, since it sits adjacent to the wetlands of Pelham Bay Park. Don’t forget to take a ride on the Seaside Trolley, which takes you on a tour of City Island, stopping at landmarks, shops and restaurants along the way. More info here.