Aprovechar

Thinking about taking the plunge for the official No-Spend Month in July? Dan and I have decided to repeat the No-Spend Month again in July, but I refuse to be deprived of fun just because I’m saving my pennies.  Here are a few ideas of ways to have fun inexpensively:

Visit a friend’s or family member’s house on a lake, at the beach, in the mountains, in the dessert—anywhere that brings you peace.

Go to a community pool.  Swim laps or take toys or friends or children to play the pool games you played as a child.

Gather together with friends or family, with each person bringng dvds of 5 movies he/she owns.  (Make sure each dvd has a sticker with the owner’s name on it.) Let each person pick dvds to borrow for a month.  Gather together again to re-exchange at the end of the month.

Create an adult version of a summer reading list.  Reserve the first two books at the library, and reserve half an hour each evening for your reading time.

Record yourself reading books aloud for the blind and dyslexic.  Get into it.  If it’s appropriate, use different voices for different characters.

Single and bored, or single and feeling lonely? Join match.com, and search within a reasonable radius of you for what you consider your ideal characteristics in a mate.  If any of the resulting people look interesting, wink at them, and give yourself the gift of possibility. (Hey, it’s exactly how I met my husband.)

Visit your local farmer’s market (many towns have them at least once a week—even the 2500-person town where I grew up!), and pick out foods for a fantastic dinner (or seven).

Take one of those board games off its dusty shelf, and remember why you always enjoyed it.

You know that park in town that you always mean to visit but never make it to? Or that nearby state park? Take a simple picnic and a tarp, and go have a great time.

Take up an esoteric activity you love. (Photographing abandoned houses is one of mine.  The initial costs of the camera, cards, Photoshop, etc., wasn’t insignificant, but the current cost is minimal with digital processing.  Of course, selling photos occasionally also helps me balance the costs!)

Use up some of the liquor in your cabinet by looking up mixed drinks you can make from ingredients you mostly already have.

Gather a couple of friends or relatives—people who love to be silly. Spread newspaper on a hard surface floor. Get printer paper (or other inexpensive paper) and a cheap set of Crayola paints and paintbrushes.  Paint whatever comes into your mind.  Label your paintings with deep psychological or mythological meaning, if you feel so inclined.  Put the paintings on the fridge after they dry.

Check out a yoga dvd from the library, and have a go at it on your living room floor.

Pull out your makeup, and make your face up entirely—nowhere to go, just for yourself. Or go somewhere, if you feel inclined.

Put on clothes you can get dirty. Slice up a watermelon.  Sit on the front porch or back deck and watch the fireflies while you munch on the watermelon and the juice runs down your arms.

Pick a cuisine you’ve never tried—Peruvian, South African, Moroccan.  Look up a recipe to make from that cuisine, and get to work in the kitchen. Relish the results.

Invite friends over for a tea party. Ask them to bring a bit of whatever special kind of tea leaves they happen to have at home.  Ask whoever is the baker in your circle to make a simple food to go with the tea.

Take a friend’s dog for a walk or hike.

Make dough for mini-pizzas.  Have each family member customize a personal pizza to his or her tastes.  Eat the pizza while watching a movie together.

Hold a purse swap with friends.

Ask around to see if any friends or family members own a karaoke machine.  Borrow it for a night of soulful, sometimes gleefully off-key singing.

Go hiking in a state park. (Wednesdays, even the parking is free in Georgia.)

Visit a you-pick farm, and get buckets of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, or blackberries for cheap.  Can or freeze the ones you can’t get to using right away. (It’s best to freeze berries before washing and just wash them when you want to use them.)

Invite a style-savvy friend over to suggest to you wardrobe combinations you haven’t yet considered.

Get a sitter to take your children to the park or pool.  Do nothing except lie on the couch with a stack of magazines beside you, reading or napping as you so choose.

Pull out your bike, dust it off (if needed), and go for a pleasure ride.  Or, if you don’t have one already, get a bike for free or cheap: ask for a bike on your local Freecycle, or search Craigslist in your area for someone selling a used one at a good price.

Make homemade playdough.   Create masterpieces with it.

Hand-write a letter to a friend telling her why she means so much to you.

Create a love jar for your significant other.  Take colorful strips of paper, write statements about why you love the person so much, and/or write things you’d like to do with or for your significant other.  Crumple up the strips.  Toss them in a jar with a lid, and present them to your honey.

Go tubing down a nearby river or stream.

Write stick-it love notes for your significant other, and tuck them in drawers, coat pockets, etc.

See if you can volunteer at a local festival that you’d like to attend for free. (It’s usually best to search out that info well in advance.)

Blare your stereo.  Jump around, jump around.  Or do pirouettes.

Download (or watch on YouTube) comedy routines by Bill Cosby, Ellen Degeneres, or any other comedian who gets you laughing.

Make icecream at home using whatever flavors of local fruit are at their best. (Coconut milk works great for a non-dairy version; agave syrup works well for a sweetening alternative.)

Take a nap.

A few other sources of ideas:

30 Ways to Get Happy for Free
20 Pocket-Change Date Night Ideas
Treat Yourself Without Breaking the Bank
100 (Mostly) Free Things to Do This Summer

What are some of your favorite ways to have inexpensive fun? Do you have a list on your blog that you want to share?

(For the record, we have $110 remaining for the rest of our No-Spend Month.  Go us! I’m so proud of us. It’s so cool to log in to our bank account and see all that money left for our savings account.)