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Frugal Family Fun – Minute to Win it

Minute to Win it Games.

Minute to Win it

Welcome to another edition of Frugal Family Fun. This week, we are excited to offer a few ideas to have your own Minute to Win It family night.

Minute to Win It was a game show on NBC where contestants had one minute to complete crazy challenges using everyday objects. You probably have most of these items on hand (or can improvise/substitute), making it especially frugal and fun!

This has been one of our favourite birthday party themes, but also works well as a family night theme. Invite a few friends over to join in on the fun as well.

If you haven’t seen the original game show, you can watch others try some of the feats online at NBC.com.

What you need

  • Stopwatch
  • Plastic Cups – 9
  • Ping Pong Balls – 5 each of two colours or 10 white, and put stickers on only 5 of them
  • 2 Pairs of Nylons
  • Dice – 10 of them
  • Tic Tacs
  • Tweezers

Individual Challenges

In true Minute to Win It fashion, players have 60 seconds to complete challenges. Here are a few challenges that work well for single players.

Bucket Head: A player holds a bowl/bucket on top of their head. Someone else tosses balls, and the player has to catch 3 in the bowl within one minute.

Breakfast Scramble: Cut the front of a cereal box into 16 fairly even squares. The player has to build the puzzle in less than one minute.

Tweeze Me: Players use tweezers to quickly move 5 Tic Tacs from one bowl into another within one minute.

Face the Cookie:
Place a cookie on the player’s forehead. Using only facial muscles, they must wiggle the cookie from their forehead into their mouth. This one is hysterical to watch!

Partner Games

Baby Steps: I borrowed 2 pedometers from our local library. We strapped them onto 2 kids’ ankles. They have one minute to get the most “steps” by kicking furiously. We had some trouble getting the pedometers to pick up the kicks, so I recommend having someone count the kicks instead.

Kids Games

Penny Hose: (2 pairs of nylons, 4 pennies) Place two coins in the ends of the legs of a pair of pantyhose. Using only their hands, players inch their way down the legs to retrieve the pennies and pull them out. Each arm must work independently and the player cannot use one hand to stretch or hold the hose for the other.

This is hilarious to watch and is much harder than it sounds! We let the kids persevere well beyond a minute because it was so funny.

Pantyhose Game

Ping Tac Toe: (9 cups, 5 ping pong balls in 2 colours) We set up 9 cups (3 rows of 3). Both players get 5 ping pong balls in their own colour. When you say “Go”, each player bounces the balls onto the table and into glasses as quickly as they can. First player to complete a Tic Tac Toe sequence wins.

Games for Kids

Cup Hands: (10 dice, plastic cups) Each player places a cup over each hand and tries to stack as many dice as they can on top of each other in a minute using only their “cup hands”. At the end of the minute, the dice tower must be free standing and the player with the highest tower wins.

Minute to Win it Kids

Ready Spaghetti: (raw spaghetti, 3 empty pop cans) Partners each hold the end of a raw piece of spaghetti and use that to transport empty pop cans. The object is to build a 3 can pyramid as fast as they can.

Minute to Win it Games

Edible Creations: Every Frugal Family Fun night needs a treat (at least that’s what my kids tell me). In honour of the Minute To Win It event, we thought clock cupcakes would be fun. Decorate each cupcake with a number from the clock. Here is a sample from Helping Hands.

Clock Cupcakes

I hope these ideas set the stage for an action-packed family night for you and your family. Be sure to take pictures of your crazy antics – you will want to remember them for years to come!

Would you ever want to be a contestant on Minute to Win it?

Comments

  1. Sarah

    So much fun! We will definitely be playing this weekend. Thank you!!

    • Karen

      Thanks Sarah. You’ll have to let me know which ones your family enjoy the most. You must try the cookie one – no prep and fabulous contorted faces that make great pics.

  2. TallNFunny

    Some great ideas! I love it!

    • Karen

      I don’t know why this game show got cancelled – it was a lot of fun to watch people conquer almost impossible challenges with everyday objects. Hope you enjoy your family time.

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