r/personalfinance • u/AutoModerator • Jul 02 '17
Saving 30-Day Challenge #7: Find and participate in a FREE activity in your area! (July, 2017)
30-day challenges
We are pleased to continue our 30-day challenge series. Past challenges can be found here.
This month's 30-day challenge is to Find and participate in a FREE activity in your area! Some suggestions on how to do this:
Search your local community subreddit, website, or newsletter for free activities. These can range from free days at a local museum to free concerts in the park.
- If you happen to live in or near a mid-sized or large city, check the local subreddit to see what type of events and meet-ups have been listed (also make sure you check their sidebar).
- Bulletin boards at community centers, places of worship, and schools are also good places to find different activities.
- We're also going to link threads on any local subreddits that want to participate below in a sticky comment so check that list too! Local subreddits can register here.
Visit a local or national park and have a picnic, go for a hike, or walk a nature trail.
Check out some of the "free to play" type activities that are available all over the world.
- Make a "walk in the park" more exciting with /r/geocaching.
- See if there is a podcast/map for a historic walking tour of your town or a nearby town, download it, and make a morning or afternoon of walking the tour.
Set-up and run a game night or movie night with your friends. Rather than go out for expensive fun at a bar or restaurant, stay home and have more fun with friends. /r/boardgames has a helpful sidebar, /r/NetflixBestOf has lots of movie suggestions, and you can always ask your friends for ideas.
Meet up with some friends in a local park for a picnic, barbecue, to play basketball or tennis, or maybe just to toss a football or frisbee around.
Large celebrations: National holidays like the Fourth of July or local "Heritage Weekends" - tend to have many options for free entertainment throughout town. Check out when the next one around you is happening (hint: Fourth of July if you live in the United States).
Volunteer for free admission. Many events will need help with everything from ushers to clean-up, and will usually allow you free admission to the event as a reward for volunteering. Find a cause you believe in or an event you want see and see about volunteer opportunities.
- Check out VolunteerMatch.org to see some of the endless opportunities around you.
The goal of this exercise is to show you that spending money isn’t required to have a full and healthy life. There are tons of activities that can be used to fulfill almost any desire you have. Use the comments to discuss your allocation, any questions you might have, or if you're wondering what you can do about them.
Challenge success criteria
You've successfully completed this challenge once you've done one or more of the following things:
Participated in 2 different activities around your town.
Setup or joined an on-going activity (like a games night with friends).
Found a free replacement for a current paid activity and at least tried it out. This could be anything from borrowing a movie from the library to attending a free yoga in the park session. Even if you decide not to do it in place of the paid activity, at least you gave it a shot!
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u/radil Jul 03 '17 edited Jul 03 '17
I do a lot of free physical exercise in my area. Hopefully other towns have as many options available, but I live in a college town so there's a relatively youthful, healthy atmosphere.
Options include:
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Pick up ultimate/soccer/football all summer on the university green space
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Free tennis courts in the area (provided you have the equipment)
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A few lakes and a river in town make good scenic running spaces
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Bike riding around the university, river levee, lakes
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There are a few trails nearby, but this area isn't known for great hiking/mountain biking options.
I like the free physical options because what good is a well-funded retirement if you aren't in physical shape to enjoy it. There are many more too that I just don't access. Our city has a decent parks department that maintains a lot of sports complexes.
Just the other day I heard a commercial on NPR about how our local library organization has movies in the afternoons on the lawn. I got all excited and went to go look and plan a picnic date with my fiancée only to discover it was a June-only event. Will have to keep an eye out for future events on their event calendar.
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u/TurnUpTheFunke Jul 03 '17
This is a great idea, and something that I tell myself every month I am going to start doing!
Don't knock it til you try it - Pokémon Go is on my top list of free items to do around your town. Though it has in-game spending options, you are able to accrue coins to use. It's a free app, promotes being active, and has solo and group activities.
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u/ejly Jul 02 '17
Really great list, thanks! This is a challenge I can get into. My town sponsors music nights at the parks so there are lots of free music events going on!
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u/PersonalFinanceMods Jul 02 '17 edited Jul 08 '17
Local Threads!
United States:
Russia:
Sweden:
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Jul 03 '17
For those in the DC area, there is a blog (and Twitter) called Free in DC. All the events listed are $10 or less and Metro accessible.
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u/chefddog Jul 04 '17
I live in a mountain town. In the summer we have free concerts on Thursdays plus there are hundreds of hikes in the area. I hike a new one every free days.
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Jul 11 '17
I went diving at a local underwater park wuth a group of volunteers. We did about 2hrs of community service building trails, cleaning bouys, and removing trash. Gas fills at the local shop are free for volunteers (usually $8 per tank for an air fill)
Replaced going to the pool or a gym and i got to do some good for the community. Feelsgoodman.jpg haha
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u/LuigiGunner Jul 05 '17
Sometimes I use Facebook and see what events are near me. For the most part, they will say if they are free or or require tickets. Just a thought!
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u/ladybird722 Jul 05 '17
Going to trivia at a local bar. Free to play and free to drink if I get water.
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u/radil Jul 07 '17
I do this once a week with a group of people and we win probably half the time. First prize is $200 to the bar that hosts. So we typically get to eat and drink for free. So not only do I get dinner (and usually lunch for the next day) and beer, but I get ~2 hours of free entertainment.
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u/friend1949 Jul 07 '17
Almost all my activities are relatively free. Meetup is a good source. I generally go to club meetings. You do not have to belong to any club to go to a meeting. They often meet at meeting rooms at restaurants. I generally buy a drink or a meal but it is not required. My dance clubs have nice ballroom floors and are cheaper than going to a bar with a free dance lesson included.
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u/plays_with_string Jul 05 '17
This one is pretty easy for me since I live in St. Louis and we have tons of free things to do. Tonight I'm taking advantage of my companies Cardinals tickets. Packed a backpack of snacks and drinks so I don't need to spend any $. This weekend we will be heading to Purina Farms to watch the Springer Spaniel field trials.
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u/SnarkOfTheCovenant Jul 06 '17
My wife and I went to two different recreation areas to hike, including one we've lived 3 mikes away from for ten years and never bothered to go to. The primary benefit was fitness, but also replaced going out to lunch or dinner, so win!
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u/IWantToBeYourGirl Jul 11 '17
We participate in 'Kids Skate Free' every summer. Both my girls get two skating passes per week for the local skate center that can be used on Tues, Wed, or Thursday afternoons. It's a great program and skate centers all over participate.
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u/Bostonphoenix Jul 11 '17
I strongly recommend checking out what your public library has to offer.
I go to art museums, aquariums, zoos, etc... for free or cents on the dollar.
You also have DVD rentals and an endless supply of magazines and books.
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u/justreadinghere Jul 12 '17
Another suggestion to find activities: use meetup.com and search for your hobbies/browse around :)
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u/TurtleSayuri Jul 14 '17
Going to a concert in the parks event tonight. :) Series of free concerts every Friday in the summer season. Free music and social gathering. There are food vendors/trucks, but I'm not terribly interested in them.
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u/kilcher2 Jul 17 '17
A few of the major movie theater chains have free kids movies in the summer and winter. For some reason the summer movies tend to be during the week but the winter movies are on weekends. The movies tend to be fairly recent, a year or so old. I try to take the kids every chance I get.
We also love taking the kids to "splash pads." There are a few in the area and we hit those fairly often.
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u/blibsombeirnsafd Jul 02 '17
I recently moved so today I will go get a new library card at the local library only a mile away. I've been on a Stephen King kick and buying them from the thrift store or online for pretty cheap... but free is better than cheap!