Game Night and a Box 'o Wine
Angelique is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
This weekend, HappyDanceDay asked our Facebook and Twitter followers what kind of low-budget fun they were having, and we got some great responses. My favorite response is the title of this article. My Saturday night consisted of a couple of bottles of $10 wine and an “American Horror Story” marathon with my best girlfriend who had the whole first season saved on her DVR.
Ways to Have Fun on the Cheap
If you have an interest, there’s probably a group out there that meets to do it together. Check out Meetup. I participate with three different Meetup groups. I started one of them a few months ago and it already has 67 members thanks to Meetup’s great promotion and user-friendly website that makes RSVP’ing and getting messages out to the group a snap! Most of the activities that I attend or hold are free, some are low-cost. The Italian group that I participate with has monthly Italian cooking classes for $35.
Like to try new things? “Deals” websites like Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) and LivingSocial might be for you. Those are the two biggest, but there are a lot of other sites like this – some of which donate a portion of proceeds to charity like Recoup (primarily Washington, DC and Miami, FL and some National Deals), SharingSpree (Birmingham, Nashville, Portland, and Seattle), and Spott (Los Angeles and San Francisco). Goldstar is a site that offers deeply discounted tickets to events in 26 major cities across the country. I’ve done trapeze classes, gone to a number of plays, taken yoga classes, gotten fabulous massages, took an intro to scuba lesson, and sushi making classes through these sites – all at a substantial discount.
Word of caution: part of how the vendors make their money from participating in these programs is that a large percentage of people who purchase these deals never use them. So, make sure that 1) you’re really interested, and 2) that you pay attention to expiration dates. If you’re not going to be able to use it before it expires then your savings has gone up in smoke.
We’re very lucky here in the DC area to have so many great opportunities for free or very low-cost entertainment like:
- The National Zoo – The zoo is metro accessible, entrance is free, parking is $16 for the first 3 hours and $22 beyond that. If you go often enough, you may want to look into a Friends of the Zoo (FONZ) membership which is $55 for an individual or $70 for the household and gives you free parking as well as other benefits and discounts.
- Visit the Monuments – open 24/7 and totally free. Go at night when they’re less crowded. They’re beautiful when illuminated!
- Smithsonian Museums – Entrance is free for all of the DC Smithsonian museums.
What are some of your favorite ways to have fun on the cheap? Any great websites you’d like to share?
The Motley Fool has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. TMFHRFool has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
