Weekends can quickly become pretty predictable especially when you are on a tight budget. But who says fun weekend activities must be expensive anyway? There are several ways you can liven up your weekends without breaking the bank.
And If you work really hard during the weekdays, then your weekends aren’t something you want to throw in a trash bag. You can have lots of entertaining, educative and fun weekend activities to create lasting memories.
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If you’ll prefer to spend the weekend with your family, friends, or just alone, here are fun weekend activities you should consider to spark up exciting moments in your life without emptying your purse.
1. Visit A Zoo Or The Local Museum
While zoos may be pretty expensive, you may want to cut down on costs by packing your own lunch, and also considering a nearby option. If you have interest in ice cream or fine art you are likely to find a museum for it. Local museums often have days they offer discounts or free experience to their visitors. You should take advantage of such opportunities for fun weekend activities.
2. Play Games
You can invite your friends for a card night. Have them enjoy your old favorite board games like Scrabble, Monopoly, or check out for new ones to enjoy.
3. Plan A Dinner
You can have a romantic dinner on a weekend. Romantic moments don’t necessarily have to be very expensive. Have a romantic, candlelight dinner with someone you love. You can also try out some grilling recipes. Think of something like chicken breast stuffed with tomatoes, cream cheese, basil, and mozzarella cheese. Honestly, you’d have one of the best fun weekend activities ever.
4. Organize A Community Cleanup
Organize a cleanup with your friends in your community. It is a great way to make your neighbourhood a better place and also give back to your community. Some tips you should put in mind when planning a community cleanup are:
- Consider the perfect cleanup that fixes an existing problem in your community.
- Plan well. During your planning, pick a date, pick a meeting point, consider the weather, volunteers, list suppliers, outline work to be done, list licenses and permits, schedule events for cleanup date, and consider steps for post-event follow-up.
- Choose An Enthusiastic Coordinator
- Recruit Volunteers As Early As Possible
- Receive Supply Donations
- Assign Tasks
- Plan How To Evacuate Debris
- Reward Your Volunteers
5. Go Get Free Food Samples
If you have a fancy farmer’s market happening in a community around you, get in there! Usually these farmer’s markets come up on weekends. And you can receive produce that are locally grown.
These food samples are often delicious and fresh. Also visit food fairs, artisanal chocolate factories, and other areas around you where free delicious treats are being handed out. Your weekends have just started to turn out to be your best days in the week.
6. Try Out A B.Y.O.E. Party
Throw a party with friends, family, and loved ones. Don’t bother yourself about feeding the multitudes, the party will be a Bring Your Own Everything (B.Y.O.E.) Party. Your guests will be encouraged to provide their own victuals to share. This kind of party will cost you little and will be worthwhile. How’s that for cheap fun weekend activities!
7. Get Trained
There are different kinds of training you can go for on a weekend. You should make your decision if you want a paid or free training on that aspect of your career where you need to improve yourself. Private and online training are also something to consider to hone your skills.
Communities and religious centres sometimes organize trainings for their members and can be of benefit to you. YouTube is imbued with lots of free videos too to help you.
Online platforms that can be helpful for training in various fields include:
- EdX
- Udemy
- ALISON
- CodeAcademy
- Microsoft Virtual Academy
- E-Learning for Kids
- MIT OpenCourseware
- Ed2Go
- Hubspot Academy
8. Read A Book
Do you have that book you have been considering to gulp down someday but haven’t? Reading great books will assuredly help you put your weekends to good use. You can pick up entertainment or educational books in traditional paper-backs, ebooks, audios, or videos.
9. Meet People
The kind of people you have in your life are either short, medium, or long term investments. It is important that you develop and nurture great relationships. And while your tight work schedules may have made this a bit difficult during the weekdays, setting out time to meet one new important person each weekend is a great way to improve the quality of your life.
10. Reach Out To Family And Friends
It is very likely that you have friends and family members that you haven’t heard from in a long while. Well, weekends are perfect for catching up with them. This doesn’t have to cost you so much money. Harness social media in your approach. Send text messages to them, do WhatsApp calls, or brief voice calls to check on them. You can start by creating a schedule to call 5 people each weekend.
11. Evaluate Your Achievements In The Past Week
Review your past week. Evaluate your successes. Replan and set new goals for the coming week. This will help you improve the quality of your life for bigger achievements. It would also save you from being veiled by a dense and tiring work week.
12. Invite Your Neighbors For Dinner
With the kind of fast pace and busy life we are often enmeshed in, it becomes difficult to know or spend time with your neighbors. Why not invite them over for a dessert or dinner this coming weekend and make an effort to know more about them and even learn from them? It would be really worth it.
13. Write A Letter To Someone You Haven’t Reached Out To In A While
There is definitely that person you have neither heard from nor reached out to in a long while – we all have them. There is something nostalgic about creating a written piece of content on paper for someone. It doesn’t always have to be digital. Sit down and write a letter to that family member you have not talked to in a while, and let them know how much you care about them despite the distance between both of you. This person could be you mom, roommate in college, or your favorite lecturer in school.
14. Visit An Orphanage
Showing love to children who are in need is a great experience you should have this coming weekend. Pay a visit to an orphanage and provide support for the kids. This move does not have to cost you so much. Just put together a few items that would be appreciated.
15. Go to the Aquarium
It is very likely that you haven’t visited the aquarium ever since you left middle school. But it is still a great place to visit! All the silence and diffused lights can really be soothing and create some sense of relief after a burnt-out week. Pay close attention to the marvelous fake coral reef and keep your mind off work worries. It is definitely part of fun weekend activities you should consider.
16. Catch Some Fish
Do some fun things by a pool this weekend – go fishing. This experience can really be memorable with family or friends. Find a pond, grab the poles, and cast out those lines.
17. Go For A Lecture
You can acquire some more knowledge this weekend. There are so many places where you can be part of scheduled lectures. Check out social media platforms, TV, your local university or college for upcoming events. There is a likelihood that an interesting event is coming up.
18. Volunteer
There are ways you can be helpful to your community regardless of what your interests are. As a volunteer, you will be rendering support for other people and can also pick up new skills in the process. For instance, you can make yourself helpful at a local library or animal shelter. You can volunteer to babysit for a neighbor who needs some time out, volunteer to offer help at an event, or volunteer at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. You will find organizations who are always in need of volunteers. And the amazing thing is that this help you would be rendering can make a positive difference on your resume!
19. Offer Help To Someone
You can find fun and joy in being available for someone who needs it. A friend, neighbor, or co-worker may be needing help, provide it if it is within your capacity. Buy food for a homeless person, give out valuable household items which you no longer use, or just listen to them tell you their stories. You may also want to direct them to an organisation that can help them.
20. Get Creative With Your Fitness Regimen
Are you a daily runner? Why not shake things up by going for a boxing class? And if you are a constant bike rider, then go for a hike instead. Changing your regular fitness regimen is an assured way to have some fun weekend activities. You may also want to bike to places you haven’t explored before, or take your bike to an unfamiliar city for your own bike tour. But ensure the area is safe for a bike ride.
21. Scan Your Hard Copy Photos
You probably already have several of your photos around the house, take the weekend to scan them. Go through all of them, scan them, and create digital scrapbooks. Make memories that your grandkids can one day laugh and scream over.
22. Become A Bartender
You can become a bartender for a weekend. Pick a classic cocktail and get skilled on perfecting it. This is one sure activity that can make your weekend fun filled.
23. Try A New Delicacy
What kind of delicacy have you been considering to give a try? You should make it happen next weekend! Do something new and different. Get into the local farmer’s market for ingredients for your new creative food concept. You should also check out the seafood stand for some nourishing combination. This at least will save you some cash compared to dining out.
24. Go To The Library
Going to the library can expose you to various educational and fun resources. Aside from finding great books to read, you’ll also be able to have access to different magazines, rent movies, and even surf the net! What more fun activity can a great weekend hold?
25. Rearrange Your Living Room
Bring your family members together for a new creative look to your home. Change the arrangement of your furniture, dining sets, frames, TV set, and other things in your living room. You are unlikely to spend a dime to get this done, and you’ll have added a new flair to your home.
26. Have Fun At The Beach
Go to the beach for a fun weekend and get some relaxation and rest at the sandy shore. However, always ensure to keep your skin protected to prevent any form of skin damage. Wear a hat, stay hydrated, cover your skin, use eye protection, use appropriate sunscreen, and use an umbrella for a perfect shade.
27. Host A Movie Marathon
Hosting a movie marathon which features all the classic movies you had while growing up isn’t going to be a bad idea for fun weekend activities. Put together all the classics you can remember, invite your friends over, and let the movie marathon begin! Hosting a money movie marathon is also a great idea. Do not forget to have some sweet popcorn around.
28. Act As A Tourist In Your Community
Many people do not visit the tourist attractions in their own city, they would rather visit other places. But you can break that rule by pretending to be a tourist in your own community for a weekend. You’ll realize there are fascinating things you didn’t know were there.
29. Watch the Sunset
Do you have some great viewpoints for sunset in your locality? Find that nice spot to catch a perfect view of the sunset. Go along with a chilled pack of your favorite drink and let those poetic lines play in your head.
30. Create A Bucketlist And Focus On One
Draw out a list of things you’ll like to achieve or experience in life. Take enough time to brainstorm ideas on your bucketlist and ensure you pick one that would be done this coming weekend.
31. Clean Out Your Closet and Give Out Unused Items
It is very likely that you have those items you have abandoned for quite a long while in your house which are still in good condition. You may want to consider putting them together to donate to your local Goodwill or put them on apps and websites that can fetch you quick returns. Apps and websites you can consider include:
- thredUP (for your used clothes)
- Second Sale ( for all used books)
- Gazelle (for selling old electronics!)
- Decluttr (for selling DVDs, video games, etc.)
- Worthy (for your jewelry)
32. Set Five New Crucial Goals
While this would demand that you put on your thinking cap, it is an effort that will be worth it. Set five new goals that you intend to achieve in the next six months to one year. Write them down and revisit them every weekend.
33. Go Dancing
Your local club can be graced with your presence for a fun weekend activity. Call your friends together, put on your dancing shoes, and dance off the stressful week at the club. Hip-hop, salsa, or ballroom, you are sure going to find that spot to shake it up
34. Plant A Garden
Add more beauty to your surroundings by planting a herb garden or making a garden box. Planting designs can be quite tricky for newbie gardeners. Here are some tips to ensure that you have a garden that is attention grabbing to birds, butterflies, people and bees, yet which also has a clear purpose:
- Carefully select plants for the front row.
- Put the impact of sunlight on color into consideration.
- Take lines, colors, and forms into consideration.
- Create a Foliage Tapestry for your garden.
- Consider the pollinators.
- Let on the butterflies.
- Birdscape with berried plants.
35. Visit The Park
Go to the park with your friends or family and remind yourself of your childhood love for the swings. Swing on them like you did as a little child.
36. Go to The Local Nursing Home
Visit the nursing home in your locality. You are going to find many elderly folks there who need some company. Most of these elderly people have some great life experiences and stories they would be glad to share with you. Be loving and patient while you listen to them tell you their stories. Ensure you learn from them.
37. Bake A Cake
It’s a weekend. Bake a cake and enjoy it with friends. You may also try out some new creative cake ideas from a pastry book.
38. Go Skating
Skating is always fun. If you haven’t considered this before now, you should think about trying it out this weekend. Ensure you don’t go alone. Your friends and loved ones will make the day memorable as you go roller skating. It is a great workout session too!
39. Become An Artist
Grab your pencils, crayons, paints, and charcoals and go to where you easily get inspired to unleash the artist’s creativity in you.
40. Go On A Picnic
Have a picnic with one or two friends. One of life’s greatest pleasures is owning and using a picnic basket. It is a nice and fun weekend experience.
41. Go To A Local Concert
Summer is often accompanied by several outdoor activities. This is a perfect time to enjoy live shows. Attend any outdoor concert happening in your locality for a great weekend.
42. Have A Road Rally With Your Friends
Bring your friends together for a road rally. Go on a scavenger hunt. Whoever completes the list wins. Better still, the winner should have the losers buy him dessert. It is indeed a fun activity.
These are great ideas for creative and enjoyable weekend activities. They are cheap, rewarding, and fun filled for a memorable weekend. Now, start planning for the coming weekend!
