Fun Things To Do When You Have A Day off And No Money

What can you do on your day off when you have no money? When money is sparing we still have to be able to enjoy life! Gas prices are high, food prices are high, basic necessities like electricity, water and cable and internet all cost money. The rent or mortgage payments, taxes and insurance prices have more than doubled over the years. This leaves us with little left over. At least it does for my family.

We have to be creative in order to enjoy life with the little money that we have left over. We have to put on our thinking caps and find a way to enjoy life without spending a lot of money. I have put together a list of things that we can do that cost very little.

1.) We have many lakes and parks where I live. Take time to smell the roses. Find a park bench to just sit and soak up some sun. Take a walk, read a book or go for a swim. Go fishing, ride a bike, take a hike! Enjoy the beauty that God created.

2.) My husband and I enjoy going to yard sales. We may have only a few dollars to spend but we always find a little treasure to bring home.

3.) Go to the mall and do some window shopping. Visit the pet store and love on some puppies or kittens. (this is a favorite of ours) Stop and enjoy a cup of coffee or a cold drink on your way out.

4.) Visit your family. Two of my grown children live within 5 miles of us. We enjoy spending time with them, watching the grandchildren play, sharing a meal. Time with our loved ones is time well spent.

5.) Spend time with your neighbors. We've become friends with our neighbors and every once in a while we get together and play a board game or card game. We share a meal together, barbeque, or maybe just a snack and drinks. Each of us contributes something. I love to spend time with my neighbors!

6.) Take the kids to the playground. My children are grown up now but when they were young we had a great time at the playground. I still accompany my grown kids and grandchildren at the playground on a nice warm afternoon. (or even a cloudy day)

7.) Go to the Library. I love our cities' public library. It costs nothing to check out a book, CD or DVD. There are also shelves of books and magazines that are for sale for practically nothing.

8) Go to the flea market. I know it can cost money to go to the flea market but there are other activities there as well. One of our flea markets has pony rides and even an elephant! There is a circus that we can go to inside the flea market and it doesn't cost a cent to watch. The last time we went I came upon a woman singing and playing the piano. People were having a great time dancing to her music.

9.) My grandson plays Little League baseball so we go to watch his games. We don't have to spend anything to go and enjoy watching him play. We take along a water bottle so we don't have to spend a dime.

10.) Go bird watching. We live in a warm climate where there are all kinds of birds year round. We enjoy the blue herons, storks, and all kinds of ducks and geese. Sometimes we take along a little bread and feed them. We also get to see an occasional alligator! Take along your camera for some great shots.

I'm sure that you can think of other things to do on a day off. You just have to use your imagination! I was raised on a dairy farm with 6 siblings and my parents had little money to spend on extras. Our friends and neighbors came over to play baseball and we had enough people for 2 teams. I know my father enjoyed this as much as we did! We also used to load everyone on the hay wagon along with sandwiches and drinks and have a picnic under the old maple tree down in the field. We had great hiking experiences, oftentimes picking wild berries or wild flowers. My mom was a kid at heart and took us fishing, ice skating on the pond and sliding down the hill in back of the house. We didn't have tents or sleeping bags but that didn't matter. Sleeping out under the stars was something we loved to do. We had great imaginations; we were sure we saw UFO's!! We didn't lack for fun things to do just because we didn't have a lot of money!