Tips and ideas for saving money on board games as suggested by the ThriftyFun community.
Check Thrift Stores
My kids love board games. I have a great thrift shore/resale shop in my neighborhood, where we can buy (nearly) brand new board games for about $4.00. Once its been played and they get bored with it, we return it back!
By Jenny
A Deck of Cards
The cheapest and most versatile game you can buy is a simple deck of cards. There are hundreds of games that can be played: solo, two players or a whole group. The games can range from simple to extremely complex. It takes no electricity or batteries and no other pieces are required. However, if you raid your piggy bank, penny poker is a great party game.
The Dollar General has been carrying a lot of brand board games for under 10 dollars. I found a Mancala game there this Christmas for $4, which is now one of our family's favorite games. Sometimes you can also find rebate slips from Milton Bradley in the store used with purchasing certain games.
My family enjoyed a particular board game so much that we had worn out three game boards playing it and decided to make the board out of wood and put the two sides together with a piano hinge cut to size. We used different colored marbles and colors on the board and background color and I bought larger colored dice to match the marbles than the original game, but the game played the same. Since then, grandchildren have played this game and enjoyed it, so we made them their own board game to take home and play with their friends.
With a bit of acrylic paint and imagination, you can paint your board in any color and when dry use a gloss clear acrylic sealer over it to give it that shiny effect and protect the undercoat of paint from chipping. Do not close the board or cover over until the paint has cured or else it will lift the paint off. Also, you can buy large sticky back sheets of felt to put on the backside of the board to keep from scratching.
Garage sales and rummage sales are great place to find board games. Just make sure they all the pieces for before buying them. If you have a board game that's missing some pieces, try to find the same board game for cheap. Then you'll have back up pieces.
I have bought some nice used board games at Amazon.com. And many times they are like new...purchase, opened, but obviously never played. Harlean from Arkansas
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