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Sick of draining your bank account every time you go out? There’s plenty of ways to have fun without dropping fat stacks of cash. Keep on reading!
Sometimes, it seems that as soon as that direct deposit hits your bank account, most of it is lost to bills, groceries, gas, and other necessities. This leaves very little room for what I like to call “fun” money.
You wish you could spend $50 on that concert ticket, or that you had enough money to drop on a week’s vacation in Mexico. Although those both would be very fun experiences, there are so many ways to have fun without breaking the bank! Try some of the following; who knows, you might have a great time.
1. Go Out in Nature
Mother Nature. Being outdoors is very freeing, both physically and financially. There is so much you can do outside. You could go hiking, sunbathe on the beach, or even just hang out in your own backyard!
Going out to hike some trails with friends can be a very enjoyable time, as you can converse as you walk through nature. Hiking alone can be fun too; it’s very relaxing and good for the mind. Observing nature in all its beauty is quite a fun activity in my opinion.
Then there’s the beach. If you’re lucky enough to live near a beach, take full advantage! Personally, I’m 30 minutes from a beach/pier on Lake Michigan and I go when I can. Sun, warm sand, and the ice cold (or warm, depending on location) water makes for great free fun.
Lastly, if you have one, do something in your own backyard! Blast some music, grill some burgers, or play some catch (or do all 3)! You don’t even need to leave home to have plenty of outdoor fun.
2. Blogging
Ah, yes. Blogging. If you enjoy writing and sharing your perspective and ideas with the world, blogging is an extremely fun creative outlet that CAN be done for free. You can pick any topic that you are passionate about, hop on a blogging platform, create your blog, and start writing!
Some great free and cheap blogging platforms include:
- WordPress.com (the free wordpress website that takes care of hosting and other things)
- WordPress.org (the free wordpress software)
- Blogger
- Medium
- Jekyll
- Squarespace
I’d recommend wordpress.org or wordpress.com if you are starting out. I’ve used both and they are both great platforms. Also, depending on the platform, you may need to purchase hosting from a provider like Bluehost (it’s really cheap: under $10 a month!).
Besides being great for expressing yourself, blogging can be fun because if you eventually build an audience, you could be helping people out with your writing and even monetize your site!
3. Learn Something New Online
The information age is magical. If you have a device and an internet connection, you have a vast sea of knowledge at your fingertips.
There are so many apps and websites where you can educate yourself on whatever strikes your fancy for FREE! One of my favorite sites is MIT OpenCourseWare. This site is a massive collection of essentially all of MIT’s course content. Yes, you heard that right. You can learn from one of the top schools in the world for free! It’s easy to use too. I used it to prepare for college calculus by downloading some PDF’s off OpenCourseWare and self-studying and it really helped.
Another great self-education site is Coursera. They have an enormous selection of courses from top schools like the University of Michigan, Penn State, Stanford, Georgia Tech, and so many more. Most of the courses have a 7 day free trial, so you don’t have to risk paying for a class you dislike.
A lot of courses on Coursera are self-paced as well, so you can take your time if need be. After the free trial, entire courses are priced anywhere from $29-$99. That’s a meager sum compared to even community college classes.
You should check out Udacity too. They started out with a focus on tech-related classes, but have since expanded to include other subject matter. Udacity has both free and university courses, so if have the money you can take actual courses for credit. Otherwise, you can learn something at no cost.
So if you’re ever bored but short on cash, try picking up a new skill using some of these resources!
If you need ideas for skills you can learn for FREE that will make you money down the road, check out this post.
4. Read a Book
Books are fantastic, and I’m sad that my peers don’t read more. They are free at libraries, all over the place online and in the real world for low prices, and even available in electronic form!
Whether fiction or nonfiction, books contain all sorts of wisdom and knowledge just waiting to be shared with the world. This is obvious for nonfiction books, but fictional stories can teach a lot of valuable lessons too.
If you don’t want to buy a bunch of books, you should visit your local library. You can find a lot of hidden gold to read if you poke around the shelves there.
5. Host a Movie Night
This one may be hard to do for free, but you most likely have a Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime account. Since you’re already paying for those, put them to good use! Find a movie that you’ve never seen before (even if its one of those awful ones 100 rows down on Netflix) and give it a try.
How to make this one better: invite your friends. Especially if you’re gonna pick a cheesy/awful movie. If you have your friends around to laugh at the film with you, you’ll have a much better time.
Tip: If you are of legal age in your location, make a drinking game out of it. With friends, of course.
6. Surf Around for New Music
There is no better feeling than discovering a new musician to start listening to. There’s just something satisfying about adding new music to your library. There’s all kinds of streaming services nowadays that make it easier than ever to branch out and find new music.
I use Spotify. Besides the fact that I use it every day when I hit the gym, I am always browsing around for new music. There is a “similar artists” feature which makes this extremely easy. I just click that button and I can look at a ton of similar musicians and give them a listen.
You can make playlists on Spotify for whatever mood you’re in or activity you’re doing. They also have featured playlists full of popular songs that are carefully curated to be great for different activities and moods. Spotify will even construct recommended playlists for you based on what you’ve recently listened to.
When I first purchased my premium Spotify subscription about 2 years ago, it was $0.99 for the first three months. That’s right: 1 dollar for THREE MONTHS. I could not pass that up, and I do not regret my purchase one bit. It appears that they are offering this special deal again, so if you want three months of music for what amounts to free, I’d recommend signing up for a premium account. That way, you can discover and listen to your heart’s content.
7. People-Watch
Other than going out in nature, this is most likely the simplest, cheapest way to have fun. I will admit that when I was in college, I did this quite often in the dining halls. I’d just watch people all over the room and make a guess as to who they are and what they’re doing. Might sound a little weird, but it really isn’t. Everyone has people-watched before.
One of the best places to people-watch is at the mall. Other than the fact that malls are extremely high-traffic areas, malls also have all sorts of people. This makes it easy to imagine who people are and what they are doing.
You can either sit down and observe everyone around your area, or you can walk into all different kinds of stores and observe what people are doing that way. You may even see something interesting happen!
Now That You Have Some Ideas…
You don’t have to complain about wanting to go to the bar but not having money every Friday anymore. Try some of these out. Not only will you save a ton of money, you may even learn something new!
“Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.” -Ayn Rand