Simultaneously living in New York City and planning a wedding means two things: I’m almost always busy and I’m almost always low on cash. Especially now that the holidays have passed and the wedding is almost here, I’m in serious money-saving mode.
As I enter my 30’s, I’ve tried to get more serious about long-term financial goals. A down payment for a new house. Retirement. A backyard cat sanctuary. But I’ve also never been one to sit at home with FOMO just because I don’t want to spend money.
Here are some of my favorite things to do on the cheap.
Exploring near Fort Tryon Park
1. Park it
Sitting around on the couch can be depressing, but lounging around outside is a different story. Drop me at the beach, on a lake or in a park and I’m content not moving for hours at a time.
Bring a blanket, that book you’ve been meaning to finish, a journal or a new playlist and relax. Oh, and people watch! It’s endlessly entertaining, not to mention a gold mine for choice Snapchat material. In the frigid winter months, cozying up at a coffee shop works well, too.
Radegast Hall in Brooklyn has live music 7 days a week
2. Check out live music
Live music is the best. Depending on your mood, you can dance like a maniac in the front row or sit on a barstool and chill in the back.
Concerts are great, but they’re expensive. Live music at a bar is usually pretty good (or hilariously awful) and once you drop a few dollars in the tip jar you can stay and enjoy it as long as you want.
Hiking in Van Cortlandt Park
3. Take a hike
If I can find good hiking in New York City, you can hike wherever you are. Even flat-as-a-pancake Florida has nature trails.
Fill a backpack with sunscreen, water and homemade PB&J’s and get out there. Walk until you’ve worked up an appetite, then post up and have a picnic lunch. It’s so relaxing and you’re bound to run into some highly Instagrammable photo ops.
4. Learn something new on YouTube
YouTube videos are seriously underrated. Pretty much any class you’d pay for, from fitness to cooking to building furniture, can be found on YouTube for free.
YouTube was my first introduction to yoga and also how I learned to fix a bunch of stuff around the house (like our air conditioner, holler!) Makeup isn’t really my thing, but I wish it was because there are so many YouTube tutorials out there on it and you can apparently turn yourself into Kim Kardashian or a drag queen without ever leaving your bathroom.
Whatever new hobby you’ve been interested in, pick a YouTube video and try it out.
5. Movie night
When you’ve had a packed schedule that’s been costing you a lot of money, nothing is better than a good old-fashioned movie night at home knowing there will be no temptation to spend a dime. Every time we do this, I wonder why we don’t do it more often.
I love a good at-home movie night because you can pick stuff you’d never watch otherwise. Children of the Corn and Silence of the Lambs are two of my personal favorites. A Dateline or The Office marathon are also solid options.
Walking around one of the many boat shows in West Palm Beach
6. Community events
This is one of those things that gets cooler the older you get, like having dinner at 4 p.m. or saving money on your car insurance.
Even if you live in a small town, there’s guaranteed to be at least one free concert, festival, art show, lesson or other activity during any given month. West Palm Beach (where we used to live) has a ton, from weekly outdoor concerts to the Boat Show every spring, and obviously New York has endless options to choose from.
Checking out the Florida Keys on bike
7. Bike ride
This one will cost you a little bit up front if you don’t already have a bike, but the $200 I spent on a used bike back in Florida was one of the best investments I’ve ever made.
I used to ride my bike all over the place, from the beach to downtown to ritzy Palm Beach to stalk around the back alley of celebrities’ houses. It’s fun, it’s completely free, and the toned glutes are a nice perk, too.
You don’t need to buy a new bike. You can get a way nicer brand that will last a long time by buying secondhand at a bike shop or on Craigslist. Or do what I do in NYC and rent one for the day.
8. Visit the library
I fell in love with the library in Western Colorado during my first job when I was really broke (i.e. maxed out credit cards and eating Spaghettio’s multiple nights a week).
You can check out books (duh), but they also have the latest issues of almost every magazine as well as current movies and shows. More and more libraries are also starting to offer Kindle downloads, which is awesome. And if there’s a book you want that they don’t have, they’ll request it from another library and have it sent there at no charge to you, so there’s pretty much no excuse to ever pay for a book again. I share some of my favorite recent reads in this post.
Also, libraries do some amazing lectures with well-known people like authors and architects, if you’re into that kind of thing.
9. Go somewhere divey
If you really want to spend next to nothing, go somewhere where the beers are two bucks and the hot dogs are free (I’m lookin’ at you, Rudy’s).
Exploring hole-in-the-wall bars and restaurants is one of my all-time favorite things to do. They always have a great back story and usually a juke box too, and it’s pretty much guaranteed the bartender is going to be a character. It’s like a comedy show you don’t have to pay for.
Currently topping my dive bar hall of fame list are Harry’s Banana Farm in Lake Worth, Dan’s in Washington, D.C. and Rudy’s as mentioned above.
10. Volunteer
I have a heart after all. Volunteering can be fun when it’s something you’re actually interested in. If you’re into the outdoors, do a park or beach cleanup. If you like to cook, help in a soup kitchen. If kids are your thing, god bless you, help those little hellions learn to read.
Group events, like a Habitat for Humanity build, can also be a good time if you get a fun group of people to go in on it together.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned while working from home being alone in the house all day, it’s that the more focused you are on yourself, the bigger your own problems seem. Spend a Saturday morning helping people who have less than you and suddenly that $5 you have doesn’t seem like so little.
Once you get into the mindset that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to have fun, it’s way easier to think out of the box and find different things to do on the cheap. It’s become almost a game for me to see if I can go the whole day without spending any money.
What are your favorite things to do when you’re trying to save money? Leave a comment and share them below.
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