Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, Walmart Family Mobile. All opinions are mine alone. #YourTaxCash #CollectiveBias
Tips and tricks to host an Outdoor Movie Night in your backyard
Littlest joined a new club at his school last week. On the one hand I’m really excited any time my kids find something they are interested in and want to become involved. On the other hand it’s something new to add to the family calendar and keep track of. It’s not just the kids who are involved in actives, I have a knitting group, volunteer organization, and book club I participate in. So while we are busy it’s also important to me that our family stays connected. Thank goodness for Walmart Family Mobile Plus Plan.
Right now is the perfect time to head to Walmart and pick up the Samsung Galaxy On5 on Rollback for $69. Since Family Mobile bills you later, you can stretch your tax refund and only pay $19.88 for your SIM Kit when you sign up. The PLUS plan gives our family a great value for our dollar. It saves me money with my teenagers every month because the Walmart Family Mobile PLUS Plan has Unlimited* Talk, Text, & Data for $49.88 per month, per line (*Includes up to 10GB of 4G LTE† data then 2G). I always know exactly how much the bill will be and they can never go over a data limit.
Disclaimer: All prices for phones and plans included in this post are accurate as of the date of posting; however, these prices are subject to change. Please refer to http://cbi.as/7e-jr or your local Walmart for current pricing.
We love to watch movies, and family movie night is a staple at our house. So I’m able to max my cash with the Walmart Family Mobile PLUS Plan and stretch my entertainment budget by including a free VUDU movie credit every month ($7 value) per line. With warmer spring and summer weather right around the corner I thought I’d move our movie watching night outside. Littlest was a bit confused at first when I picked up an inflatable pool at Walmart, but once he figured out the pool was our movie night seating he couldn’t have been more excited.
This is our first summer back in a house after living downtown the past few years. I was excited to pick up this inflatable pool and stretch our entertainment dollars by using it both as seating for movie night and knowing that Littlest can splash around in it this summer.
After inflating our pool I added plenty of pillow and blankets to keep us cozy. I grabbed pillows from around the house and throw blankets that we already owned. Use a small projector to project the movie up onto your fence or hang a sheet to watch the movie on, like a movie screen. You could even set your TV up outside. Get the snacks all ready so you can start the movie when the sun goes down.
Eating outside in the dark dictated my movie watching menu and I stuck to some fun finger foods. I served popcorn bars, soft pretzel bites, and waffle corn dogs. All semi-homemade which makes them all quick and easy. Plus every recipe uses 5 ingredients or less so they are budget friendly, too!
We put the snacks in bowls and then reused our DIY concession boxes from our last movie night to help carry all the food around. It was a great way to hold our snacks and drinks. And I love using things we make more than once!
I set up a card table near our seating with all the snacks. It was also easy to put a cooler under the table with a variety of drink choices for everyone to choose from.
I had a little fun with my waffle corn dogs and ended up making them two different ways. We like options around here! Depending on the ages of your kids you might prefer one option over another.
For the waffle corn dogs on the right I cut each hot dog in half and put a wooden skewer through them. For the waffle corn dogs on the left I sliced the hot dogs into pieces.
Waffle Corn Dogs
Ingredients
1 box of cornbread mix
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
hot dogs
Nonstick cooking spray
Directions
Heat up your waffle iron and spray with nonstick cooking spray
Prepare cornbread mix according to the directions on the box
Pour half of the cornbread mix onto the waffle iron
Place 1 wooden hot dog skewer into each of the 4 sections OR place hot dog slices evenly across the waffle iron
Cook until the cornbread is baked through (about 4 minutes)
Our second outdoor movie night snack were soft pretzel bites. For these I took a shortcut at the grocery store by picking up refrigerated pizza dough and queso in a jar.
Soft Pretzel Bites
Ingredients
1 tube of refrigerated pizza dough
1/3 cup baking soda
1 egg, beaten
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
Boil 2 quarts of water and 1/3 cup baking soda in a deep pot
Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper
Roll out the pizza dough
Cut dough into 2″ x 2″ squares and roll them up into balls
Place the dough balls into the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes
Remove dough balls from the water and place on baking sheet
Brush the top of the dough with the beaten egg
Sprinkle salt liberally over the dough
Bake for 15 minutes
Allow to cool and serve with queso or other dip of your choice. Or eat them plain, they’re still delicious!
I’m a sweets girl, so I needed a sweet snack included in our food for our outdoor movie night. Plus, I hadn’t made anything with popcorn yet. Instead of popcorn balls I made things a little simpler by serving popcorn bars.
Popcorn Bars
Ingredients
1 bag of microwave popcorn
10 oz marshmallows
2 Tbsp butter
Mini chocolate covered candies (optional)
Roasted peanuts, chopped (optional)
Directions
Butter a 9×13 baking dish
Pop the popcorn according to the package directions
Melt the butter and marshmallows in a pot over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until smooth
Fold in the popcorn until coated
Add in the mini chocolate covered candies and chopped roasted peanuts to suit
Press into the prepared dish and let sit for 15 minutes before cutting into bars
How are you maximizing your tax cash? And what movie would you pick for outdoor movie night? Let me know!
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