Keeping ourselves and others entertained is a full time job nowadays. Whether you are looking for something to change up the everyday mundaneness of your life or you are looking to entertain your child or friends, we often turn to money for an answer. Of course I do not mean that we just look at our money.
What I mean is that due to decades of subconscious messages from social media we are conditioned to think we need to do something that costs money.
Social media sends messages that to have fun and be entertained you must purchase something or go someplace. Whether it is a special pair of pants or tickets to go to a concert, advertisements in every direction tell us that is what our lives are missing. I could go on and on about social media messaging around expectations. However, for the sake of our relationship I will keep this to one example.
Think of children’s birthday parties in movies or T.V. shows or even the apartment or house characters from your favorite show or movie live in. Now, think about the job, the salary of the job, and the cost of living for where the T.V. show or movie is set. For most, the cost of the party or home for characters never match up with the reality of what their financial situation would be in real life. Yet, these characters portray a life that we all hope to achieve someday, despite their expenses not matching their income. So, we spend what we can to try to make our lives what we think it should be like.
At the end of the day……
What if we challenged ourselves to cut our social budget in half or better yet not spend any money on socializing or entertaining ourselves?
Think of that, how much money could you save in 4 months or a year by not spending any money on socializing or entertaining yourself? Many individuals might fall into a depression in this kind of a challenge because they have never had to learn how to entertain themselves or others without spending a ridiculous amount of money. On the other side you could save hundreds or thousands of dollars with this challenge.
Whether it is a lifestyle change or a budgeting strategy there are lots of fun activities you can fill your time with. Below is a list of 25 things that you can do for free. Obviously you can do any of these activities alone or with family or with friends, whichever you prefer.
1) HIKE
Hiking is a terrific option when looking for free entertainment, since it includes physical activity you are crushing your workout while socializing. No matter if your hike is a day trip on a mountain or around a local park, be sure to take lots of pictures to commemorate the effort and beautiful scenery. Your photos can then be used to highlight on social media how healthy you are.
2) GEOCACHING
Geocaching is always a fun activity, especially if you have kids or teens, you might as well call geocaching a treasure hunt. Just be sure to bring worthy treasure to trade. This can include beads, pebbles, origami, or small trinkets that you will leave in a sandwich bag or waterproof container if needed to protect the item(s).
3) PICNIC
Picnicking is an age old social outing. You do not need much that you wouldn’t already be using at home, a simple peanut butter sandwich and an apple and bag of chips will do the trick. You can also combine picnicking with many of the other free activities on this list for free activities to fill an entire day.
4) ROLLER BLADING
5) BIKE RIDE
6) FIRE PIT
If you have a fire pit and some sticks around your home, invite some friends over for an evening around a fire. You can play some good music and roast some marshmallows to add to the fun. If you are worried about snacks or drinks, just be sure to include in your invite for everyone to bring a drink or snack to share.
7) MOVIE NIGHT
Inside or outside on a projector, invite some friends over or cuddle up with your family for whichever genre is desired. You can add a bag of popcorn and M&M candy with a root beer float to make the occasion even more special.
8) LOCAL BEACH
Local beaches are great places to go lounge in the sun for the day or bring your favorite book to catch up on your reading list. They are also a terrific place to work on your artistic skills, collecting rocks for your rock collection, or drawing, or painting. Of course you can also bring your frisbee or kick ball for some fun on the sand.
9) LIBRARY OUTING
Local libraries have many events for all ages, children through adults. Check out there website to see what events they have coming up for you and your family.
10) HOME SPA DAY
A self care day is important for everyone’s mental well being. Whether its just bathing and grooming or the whole kitten caboodle taking a day to care for yourself and relax can help with your overall mood for days. If you have the time in your schedule it’s a gift to yourself to have a self care day scheduled in once every week or every other week or once a month, or whatever your schedule allows. By scheduling your self care day to ensure you have time for self care, you are prioritizing your well being, so go ahead and schedule it in now.
11) SLEEPOVER
When was the last time you stayed up late talking with a friend all night, or let your child have that experience? No reason to fret, now is the time. Give a friend a call and plan a sleepover. You can plan to just talk all night or step it up a notch with a movie and scary stories.
12) GAME NIGHT
So many people talk about a game night but never get around to having one. So, come to the rescue of everyone who has been just waiting for a good reason to play games, and send out invites. Game night can be old school with board games or virtual on-line or of course the console games, personally my favorite is Just Dance.
13) PLAYGROUND
If you have children when was the last time you took the time to take them to your neighborhood park? Kids love running around swinging and sliding, it is an outing you can easily plan 2 hours for. If you bring water and snacks or food for a picnic you can easily extend a playground visit to 4 hours.
14) LOCAL MUSEUM FREE ADMISSION DAY
Many museums have free admission day for local residents, so if you do not know about this yet call around or check out the websites for local museums to see when they have free admission for local residents.
15) SLEDDING
If you live someplace that gets snow naturally then just find a hill and bring your favorite sled and sledding buddy.
16) VISIT A WATERFALL
Waterfalls are a beautiful site to behold. Search for a waterfall nearby to where you live and take a day trip to explore and capture some amazing photos to share.
17) VOLUNTEER
If you are looking for a social activity to get to know more people in your neighborhood then find a local charity to support.
18) BAKE COOKIES
If you are baking cookies with kids or friends you can consider doing a cookie swap or baking sugar cookies and having a decorating contest.
19) TOWN RECREATION DEPARTMENT EVENTS
Town recreation departments usually have a website where they list all their events, and typically they have several free options throughout the month. Many towns host outdoor movie and concert nights for locals to enjoy, if you are looking for a free social activity to attend in the evening or night time.
20) TAKE A WALK
Walking around your community is an easy workout and a great way for your neighbors to get to know you.
21) COLLECT ROCKS – START A ROCK GARDEN
22) MAKE AN AIR PRESSURE ROCKET
All you need to make an air pressure rocket is a 2L soda bottle, a cork, and a bike or ball pump.
23) DO A PUZZLE
24) PLAY CARDS
You can teach someone a new game or play an old classic like War. If you are alone you can play solitaire or make a card house.
25) WRITE A LETTER
You know, the kind we send via snail mail 🙂 Try it, the wait is exhilarating.
Whether it is because of a financial change that is forcing you to make this change or a personal choice to save money, this is a wonderful adventure. Through learning to entertain yourself, your friends, and teaching your family how to entertain themselves without money you are giving a priceless gift. The gift of happiness through expectations that you can control. Through spending less time on money and more time actually doing an activity with family or friends you will learn more about each other.
If you are looking for ways to make any one of these free activities more fun try adding your favorite party tunes to the activity or a special treat like a homemade pie or root beer float.
Remember that everything you do, is what you make it. Approach this challenge with a smile and look for reasons to laugh more as you explore each activity. Since there are 25 activities you could do two activities every month for a year.
