100 FREE fun things to do this weekend

Saving money can be surprisingly simple! By making mindful choices and embracing cost-free activities, you can easily cut down on unnecessary expenses and these small changes can accumulate into significant savings!

To kickstart your frugal weekend, here’s a list of 100 free fun things to do this weekend – for anyone, and from anywhere. These activities not only contribute to financial savings but also offer a chance to appreciate the simple pleasures in life without breaking the bank.

Find a group event on Meetup. Meetup.com is notorious for finding events run by independent groups and businesses. Most of the time they are free and great ways to meet new people!

Visit a local library. Modern libraries offer books, movies, tools, community events and activities, and at times showcase local art.

Bake a treat or cook a new dinner. The weekend is the perfect time to empty out your fridge before ingredients start going bad!

Listen to podcasts or audiobooks. There are many mediums where you can find free podcasts and audiobooks, like the Podcast app, Spotify, Youtube, etc.

Play board games or cards. Pull out a board game or deck of cards and play it with your family or friends.

Teach yourself a new party trick. Weekend downtime is the perfect time to pick up a new skill. Sites like Youtube, TikTok, and Instagram are filled with tutorials.

Explore a local park. Most cities and towns have public parks that offer beautiful natural surroundings. Go for a walk, have a picnic, or simply enjoy the outdoors.

Visit museums on free days. Many museums across the country offer free admission on certain days or times. Check their schedules and enjoy some art and culture.

Hike a trail. Take a hike in nearby nature reserves or trails. The USA has a wealth of stunning hiking opportunities, from national parks to local trails.

Attend a farmer’s market. Farmer’s markets usually happen on weekend mornings and are fun to walk around even without buying anything!

Stargazing. Find a quiet spot away from city lights and spend the evening stargazing. Download stargazing apps to identify constellations.

Historical sites. Explore historical sites or monuments in your area. Many offer free or low-cost guided tours.

Beach day. If you’re near a coast, head to the beach for a day of sun and surf. Swimming and sunbathing are free activities.

Volunteer. Give back to your community by volunteering. Many government organizations post available volunteer positions online.

Local festivals. Various religious, art, and educational centers often host free festivals to encourage community engagement.

Hold a “cupboard potluck.” Invite your friends for a dinner where everyone brings a “cupboard” dish they make from ingredients they have already on hand.

Dream big and plan your future. Usually, weekdays are for planning your professional future. Take the weekend to explore who you want to be outside of work! You can think about new hobbies, interests, travel plans, etc.

Start or join a fantasy sports league. Fantasy sports are a fun way to connect with friends for free, especially if you are a big fan of a particular sport.

Learn how to draw. All you need is some scratch paper and a pen or pencil! There’s thousands of YouTube, Pinterest, and other online sites where you can find tutorials.

Make origami decorations. For example, you might make 3D paper snowflakes or 3D hearts. Making origami decorations is a great way to practice mindfulness, work on your dexterity, and end up with beautiful pieces when you’re done!

Make a YouTube channel. If you have a particular skill or hobby that others might enjoy, make a YouTube video explaining how to get started. Or you can make a day-in-the-life Vlog.

Play a sport. All you really need is a ball and some friends!

Make a “time capsule”. Assemble a collage of memorable things that represent your current life. Put them together in a box and mark the lid with the date and hide it somewhere for a future you to discover!

Redo your phone and laptop wallpapers. This is a great way to look back on memories and pick photos for new wallpapers or look at some digital art on the internet!

Clean out your digital storage. The weekend is a great time to empty out your inboxes, delete photos you don’t want anymore, and delete old apps you’re no longer using.

Have a mini film festival. Pick out movies you’ve wanted to watch or some of your all-time favorites and have a “film festival.” One great approach is to choose a theme and invite friends.

Binge-watch a new series. There are thousands of series on streaming services that you’ve likely not seen, and if you’re anything like us, you have a bunch of them on your queue!

Practice yoga or pilates. There are many wonderful free yoga and pilates videos online that make it easy to workout at home.

Go geocaching. Geocaching is a free worldwide real-world treasure hunt run by volunteers, and it’s likely that there are geocaches all over your neighborhood. Start at Geocaching.com, download the app, and see what you can find in your area!

Rearrange furniture in one of your rooms. Flex your interior design skills and give it a try! Simply moving the furniture around to give a room a new look can make your home feel brand new.

Complete a community service project. There’s a lot of opportunities in communities for encouraging growth, helping cleanups, or developing deeper relationships!

Start an unread book from your collection. If you have any books you haven’t gotten around to yet, this is the perfect time to start one!

Call or FaceTime a friend or family member. If you have some relatives or friends that can’t come in person, give them a call or FaceTime them.

Start birdwatching. Birdwatching is a wonderful hobby that can be done almost anywhere! There are tons of great birdwatching apps for free that can help you with identification and logging.

Start a natural collection notebook. Start a collection of items you find in nature, like leaves or dried flowers, or start taking notes on what you observe. Learn how to identify wild trees and plants and sketch the things you find.

Start learning a foreign language. Speaking more than one language is an extremely beneficial life skill, and there are many free tools that make it easy to start!

Sort through things you want to sell. This will help with decluttering your space and setting you up for making a little extra money at a future yard sale.

Do a sudoku or crossword puzzle. There are many places to find crossword puzzles and sudoku puzzles online! These are a fun way to work on your brain health for free!

Learn programming. If you’d like to hone your coding skills, look for an open-source project to contribute to or watch online videos on how to get started.

Take an online class. There are many tools online that enable you to take a free class on almost any subject imaginable. These can range from courses taught by passionate community members to online classes made available by academic institutions.

Teach yourself a card trick. There are many card tricks that can turn into a party trick with a little practice and prep time!

Do a workout. There are many bodyweight exercises you can do at home with no equipment. You can find examples online or even watch an entire instructor led class online for free!

Journal your thoughts. A journal is a great place to write down your thoughts and dig through what’s bothering you. Take out that old notebook and just dump out whatever’s on your mind or search journaling templates and thinking exercises.

Make holiday gifts. A free day is an excellent time to start or continue working on a home-made holiday gift! Pulling items you already have on hand for gift-making is an awesome way to see what you can work on before you may need to go out for supplies!

Plan a scavenger hunt. A scavenger hunt is a great birthday party or sleepover activity for kids of all ages, but it takes planning time. Starting it during a free day will allow you to have it ready for whenever you need it next!

Solve a Rubik’s Cube. If you have one around, solving it takes some practice, but once you get it, it’s a great and fun accomplishment.

Play an instrument or learn to read music. If you have a musical instrument stowed away, get it out, tune it, and play a few songs. If you don’t have an instrument, you can start by learning how to read sheet music.

Grab your city’s free newspaper. Most cities have a free newspaper that’s available near the front door of many stores. You might find some new things to do or, at the very least, learn more about your community.

Write letters. Reconnect with friends or find a penpal!

Play with a pet. Grab some toys and play with a pet of yours or a friend’s.

Make a picnic lunch. Find a secluded spot and take your lunch outside.

Exchange massages with someone. Spend time massaging your partner or a friend.

Volunteer in your community. Start with your city’s website, contact local food pantries or clothing pantries, or see if there’s a Habitat for Humanity group in your area.

Play a card game. If you have a deck of playing cards, there’s an almost infinite array of games you can play.

Take your child to a playground. Playgrounds can be fun for any age!

Share your favorite movies with friends. This is an easy way to get new recommendations and bond with your friends a little more!

Explore new websites. Find websites that are interesting to you and think about why they catch your eye. This is a fun way to learn more about UX, graphic design, or other components that may be interesting to you.

Toss a frisbee around. Got a frisbee in the closet somewhere? Got a friend or two or three? Tossing a frisbee is fun, super casual, and a great way to spend a sunny day at the park.

Attend a dress rehearsal. Many community theaters have public open dress rehearsals that you can attend for free. It’s a great way to learn more about theater!

Attend a free workshop. Many stores offer free workshops as a way of attracting customers.

Discover new music. Listen to a new playlist and see what songs may become your new favorites!

Play old favorite video games. If you have a video game console that’s a few generations old, like a Wii or a Playstation 3, pull it out and try some of your old favorite games again!

Go on a long nature walk or hike. Visit the websites of any municipal or state parks in your area and see what trails they have available.

Try writing poetry or fiction. Trying new forms of creativity can be fun and can help you learn more about yourself! You never know what stories are inside you.

Make a collage postcard for PostSecret. You can use images and other found materials to make a collage on one side of a blank postcard. Then, you can mail it to PostSecret.

Go on a bike ride. If you have a bike in the garage or in a closet, pull it out, strap on your helmet, and go for a ride.

Meal prep. Prepare meals in advance for the rest of the week.

Redecorate your fridge. Cover your refrigerator door with mementos and affirmations!

Go stargazing. If there are any wide open spaces near you, away from the bright lights of the city, go out there after dark with a blanket, stretch out on the ground and look at the stars.

Complete a jigsaw puzzle. A jigsaw puzzle is a wonderful thing to set up on a card table. If you have one on hand, get it started!

Do a “Wikipedia wander.” Think of a topic you’re interested in, and go to its Wikipedia page. You may end up going down a rabbit hole!

Play a free online game. Try a free game online or from a console store!

Take a bath. If you have a bath bomb, face mask, or bath bubbles, you could have a mini spa day!

Get informed! Are there any issues out there you’ve thought about and seen both sides of but never been able to truly understand? Look online for some good arguments for each side, read them and give them some thought.

Address that thing that’s been nagging at you. Handle that thing that bugs you every time you see it or think about it.

Bake cookies. Many people have everything they need to bake cookies already in their pantry!

Make a bread starter. These starters are easy to make, though it can take some time and they might be smelly during the process.

Visit a relative. If you have any relatives in the area, a free day is the perfect time to pay them a visit.

Visit the historic sites in your area. Most areas have historic sites of interest that you can visit for free. You might have been aware of them, but never actually visited them yourself!

Walk around your neighborhood. Stroll around your neighborhood and see what you notice. What’s new in your area that you haven’t noticed before?

Go to a free program at a nearby college. Many colleges and universities have programs open to the general public, such as speeches and presentations from interesting people and demonstrations of the newest technologies.

Go to a grand opening. Business grand openings are often very entertaining and sometimes offer freebies and giveaways. A great way to find out about business openings is to check out community Facebook groups and read free community newspapers!

Go to a public beach. Soak in the sunshine and water! The beach is a great place to walk, swim, and relax.

Build a sandcastle. This isn’t just fun to do with kids. Grab a few modeling tools (cups, small buckets, a putty knife) and get to work on the beach.

Host a video game competition. Challenge your friends to a competition with a multiplayer game!

Have a karaoke night at home. There are many YouTube videos that provide karaoke versions of popular songs for you to sing along with.

Go to a free sporting event. This is particularly great if a child of a friend or a young relative is competing. Many youth sporting events are free to attend and children can always use someone cheering them on!

Rediscover your city. Most states and many cities have a travel guide, informing people of interesting things in the area. Try “visiting” your city all over again!

Host a movie night. You can invite some friends over to watch a movie or, if they’re remote, host virtually.

Go to a poetry slam or book reading. Many bookstores and coffee shops offer free poetry slams and book readings.

Visit a market. Walk around and get to know your community members better!

Try Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go is a free smartphone game that encourages you to walk around your neighborhood to advance in the game.

People-watch. Find a spot near where people like to go, then sit and watch the people walk by.

Start an in-person or virtual book club. Pick a book from your shelf that you’ve always wanted to read, then use that as the basis to start a book club.

Have a campfire. If you have spare wood available, host a campfire! If you don’t have your own firepit, many parks have some- or see if your friends are willing to host!

Watch a sunrise or sunset. It’s rare that we make time to see sunrises and sunsets, as we are usually asleep or at work or home when they happen. Take time to watch and fully appreciate one!

Visit a place of worship. There are many different religions and places of worship that you can explore on a free day. Open yourself to new experiences!

Rediscover old interests. It can be fun to look at projects you’ve had stored away for a long time. Maybe you could get back into whatever it was you used to love doing.

Enjoy the architecture. Do a read-up on architecture history and significance, and then take a tour of your city with new eyes.

Cook for fun. Use whatever you already have and see what recipes you can make for fun rather than for necessity!

Nicole Moughrabi

13 Nov 2023, 14 min read