Entertaining yourself, and being super-social, is hard work. It’s also expensive. Going out to bars, eating at high-end restaurants, traveling, and dating can take a toll on your wallet. Here’s how to have a good time and keep some coin in your bank account by Richard Turner:
Gather Up Your Friends And Play Cards
If you’re already a somewhat social butterfly, you can always invite people back to your place for drinks and games. It’s a great way to save money, and you can still be with your friends. Card games tend to be a simple solution, encourage conversation, and can be played by just about everyone. You don’t need special boards, dice, or equipment other than a standard deck of cards.
You could even turn it into a BYOB party or potluck.
Go On A Walking Tour
Have you ever explored your city? If not, go on a walking tour. Dollars to donuts, you don’t know some of the more interesting features of where you live. Stop by a tourist office and pick up some brochures. Spend a day or two visiting the local museums. See if you can learn about the history of your town or city. You might be surprised by how much fun this kind of stuff is.
Use Coupons
Coupons can be used for almost anything. The Dojo blog keeps a running tab of all of the coupons from major retailers, and includes discounts for everything from movies to dating sites to tourist attractions to sporting events, and restaurants. Sometimes, you can find discounted tickets to music events too.
Share Food
When you go out to eat, avoid the usual restaurant. Go to fast-casual places like Chipotle’s, where you can share a meal and not have to pay a tip (it’s not standard to pay tips at these places). Alternatively, go to a gastropub and sit at the bar and order food. Gastropubs tend to serve high-quality foods without the pretentious pricing.
Go For A Hike
Go for a hike in the woods. If you have a state park nearby, go there. Most state parks in the U.S. are either free or low-cost. You can go hiking all day, and not spend very much money at all. Just make sure you check with the park officials about bringing food and drinks into the park. Some parks prohibit this practice and some charge a fee for it.
Go Geocaching
Have you ever gone geocaching? If you like treasure hunts, you’ll love this game. Basically, you venture out into the real world with a GPS-enabled device and play “hide and seek” with a little container, called a cache. And, you can do this with large groups of people. The more, the better.
Caches are hidden all over the world. If you find one, you’re supposed to write in the logbook that you found it, and then replace it for others to find.
Some caches have secrets in them, and items that you can take. Usually, the rule is that, if you take an item, you must then replace it with another one. But, you’ll be forewarned when you search for the cache on the Geocaching app. Keep up to date with the latest coupon offers on Google+ too!
