Cheap cool activities can be difficult to come by. Regardless of if you’re looking for a town with free museums or a way to spend a whole evening without killing your wallet. It’s easy to have fun when you’re willing to spend lots of money. What if you don’t want to spend half of your paycheck on enjoyment? Finding fun stuff to do on a tight budget doesn’t have to be challenging by any means.

Let’s go over a list of cheap cool activities that you might want to try out this summer:

Enjoy the outdoors in your community.

There’s likely so much to do in your community that you won’t be able to find enough time to do it all. Community events range from theater plays at the local school up to a meet-and-greet bbq. Community events present a great opportunity to get to meet your neighbors and to enjoy yourself without cracking your wallet. What are you waiting for?

Host a backyard night at your place.

This can be really fun. When you host a backyard party you can bring all of your friends and family together in an environment where the music isn’t blasting and you can all chat. You also don’t have to wait in line for an hour (unless you want to make your friends wait). My recommendation for backyard parties is that guests are assigned with unique tasks. For example, one person can cover the beer, the other person covers the salad, the next person covers the soda, etc. This way you can all get together without spending lots of money to have a fun-filled evening.

If you don’t have a backyard don’t let this prevent you from throwing an outdoor party. You can take advantage of a local park or the common area in your building. There are many places you can host a gathering of friends.

Check out free attractions.

Your city might offer free museums to access or carnivals on the weekends. I find that if you keep your eyes and ears open you can easily find free attractions going on around town. Get out there and explore your city!

Play free sports.

There are many sports out there that you can play at a low cost. My favorite cheap summer activity is a game of soccer at the park. You call up a few buddies on a cool summer evening and get a game of soccer going. The costs are non-existent and you get some good exercise in. What’s better than free exercise?

Go for a bike ride.

Bike riding is becoming very underrated and extinct for our generation. A bike ride can be an excellent (and free) source of transportation for short distances. A bike ride in the early morning is also a great way to give your day a fresh start. I personally try to go bike riding a few times a week in the summer.

Go camping.

Don’t get me wrong because I love staying in nice hotels with luxurious service. I do however enjoy going back to nature on a warm summer weekend. Camping is a great way to lower the cost of lodging on your family vacation or a weekend outing filled with lots of camp fires and beers.

Go to a baseball game.

Depending on the city you live in a baseball game can be a really fun way to spend the day or evening. Baseball games are much cheaper than most sporting events and are a great time to catch up with friends. When I go to a ball game it’s a group of a few buddies and we grab cheap seats where we can watch the game and talk a little.

Those are the top cheap cool activities that I could think of. If I missed anything please don’t hesitate to share it with us. The summer is coming up and we need to do everything we can to enjoy it. Life is stressful enough, we need to play a little.

Check out the other posts in the series:

Affordable Sports and Training For You.
Frugal Balanced Menus.
Healthy Everyday Habits to Save Money Later.

(photo credit: robnamyc)

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When you’re young your parents have to force you to brush your teeth twice daily. As you get older and the bills start to pile up, you start to think about low income dental care. Many health problems can be prevented with small daily work. Most health problems don’t just creep up on us out of nowhere. These problems can be seen coming over a period of many years.

Let’s jump into some healthy everyday habits that will help you save money down the line:

Brush and floss your teeth.

It may get annoying and it does become easy to forget, but giving your teeth a good floss and brush twice daily will go a long way to protecting your teeth. As a college student you’re usually covered by health insurance from your school or your parents, so going to the dentist usually isn’t expensive. Now imagine that you decide to start a business after college or you just don’t have coverage for whatever reason. Every dental visit will cost you a lot of money. A simple cleaning can go for a few hundred dollars. On top of the price, think of the pain of going to the dentist.

Take a walk.

I would recommend that you try to do some sort of physical activity every single day. Now I do understand that life can get very hectic at times and exercise can be the last thing on your mind. This is why I urge all of you to try to find a way to take a 20 minute walk every single day. The best time to take a walk I find is right after breakfast. This gives you some time to plan out your day calmly. It beats rushing and stressing about getting everything done on time. Plus in Canada with our four months of summer, it gives you a fresh chance to enjoy the weather.

If you have no time for a walk at all you can always sneak one in. When you go shopping you can park as far away as possible so that you’re forced to walk a little bit longer. You can also take the stairs at work or school instead of waiting for the elevator.

Decrease a nasty habit.

Do you have any nasty habits? I know that it’s difficult to quit smoking or to get over any addiction. It’s also very hypocritical to tell someone to quit a nasty habit because it’s just not that simple. With that being said, there are many benefits with reducing a negative habit. You can slowly work on smoking less and eating less junk food. Quitting is challenging, but I’m sure that most of us can find a way to reduce things. You’ll be surprised by how great you feel just by cutting back. Who knows, you might eventually get the urge to quit when you realize how healthy you feel.

Eat better food.

What’s your diet like? Do you get your food groups in? Are you eating any greens? Is there lots of sugar in your diet? I feel like crap personally when I eat junk food. You know the old saying? They say that you are what you eat. This is true because when you eat sugars and processed food you can become really lazy and lethargic. When you eat food like lean protein (turkey, chicken, egg whites), slow carbs (beans, lentils), and vegetables (broccoli) you have much more energy. Not only will you have more energy, you might also lose that stubborn pounds that you gained in the winter time.

Building the habit of eating well will benefit you in the future financially because you won’t have to spend money on crazy diet pills that are always hitting the market. You also can prevent many diseases from affecting you in the future (like diabetes).

Cut out toxic people from your life.

Are there people in your life that are bringing you down? Do your friends judge you or do they accept you for who you are? Are you surrounding yourself with positive people? I’ve noticed over the past few years that my life has improved greatly just by cutting out certain toxic individuals. Anyone that puts you down or attempts to pass on poor habits will only bring you down in life. As a 20-something you don’t need this. You deserve to surround yourself with those that will help you improve your life over time.

What everyday healthy habits do you ensure to perform?

Check out the other posts in the series:

Affordable Sports and Training For You.
Frugal Balanced Menus.

(photo credit: fathersspoon)