Hey friends!  So do you all have plans for the upcoming sunny weekend yet?  Well, in case you haven’t realized, it’s Friday, so… you might want to get on that.

Here’s a few more ideas for weekend fun on a dime:

1. Find a place to go hiking.  It’s outdoorsy, beautiful, and fun (and active!).  There are tons of places to hike for free (at least in the Bay Area), and it’s a great way to get cute pictures of you and your hiking buddy for your house/apartment/room/office.  (A picture of you hiking in the wilderness on your desk at work says, “I’m fearless!  And I look great with a canteen pack on.”)

2. Spend some time RELAXING.  Yes, I realize that many of us working Americans have not really mastered the art of relaxation on the weekends.  If you’re anything like me, you work all week, whilst keeping up with workouts and homemade meals, then spend your weekends running around taking care of various errands and social obligations.  Take an hour or two just for yourself where you can just relax and let go.  Take your honey out for coffee, or go sit in a park and just enjoy the scenery.  Sit in your apartment and catch up on your DVR without worrying about the fact that you need to vacuum, do laundry, and plan next week’s meals.  I think I would be a lot less crazy if I managed to work this into my weekends.  I will have to make an effort!

3. If you don’t belong to a gym already, do some research on the gyms in your area.  Once you’ve found one (or more) you like, head over and ask for a free trial.  Most gyms will give you a week to a month free to try out the place before signing up for membership.  (And if they have a pool — BONUS.  It’s supposed to be wicked hot this weekend.)

4. Volunteer!  There are TONS of volunteer opportunities out there.  Call your local animal shelter and see if you can help out — it’s kitten season so most places are overloaded with incoming new animals and need help now more than any other time of year.

5. Throw a spa party for your girlfriends.  Invite your besties over for a night of old-school facials (think: those clay masks you used to do in high school — they’re literally like $5 or less at the drugstore) and at-home mani/pedis.  Pop in your favorite chick flick and reminisce about the days when you used to just die over electric blue Wet ‘n Wild nails.

6. Find your neighborhood farmer’s market.  Most places in the Bay Area have at least one farmer’s market that goes on during the weekend.  Check out what’s coming from the local farms and sample the local fare.  Because most of the produce comes straight from the farm, there’s generally less of a mark-up than what you would find in your local grocery store.  Plus you’re supporting local agriculture — look at you, you fashionable local-vore!

7. Organize a clothes-swap.  If you’re anything like me, you have a closet full of clothes, half of which you don’t wear anymore.  I become dissatisfied with my clothes and constantly complain about having “nothing to wear.”  There are plenty of wearable pieces in my wardrobe that have simply fallen out of favor with me.  Enlist your friends to go through their closets and collect clothes, shoes, and jewelry that they no longer wear.  Once you’re all together, swap pieces (either by doing even trades, or have everyone draw a number and pick things one at a time).  By the end of it, everyone will have some great new pieces for $0!

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More weekend fun to come!

If you’re anything like KC and I, you’re occasionally (or, more than occasionally…) caught in the rut of, “What do you want to do?” “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” on a Friday/Saturday/Sunday.  KC and I have been attempting to live frugally (so we can replace our couch which looks and feels like it’s been through some sort of war), which often limits our options for fantastic weekend fun.

I figured I’d post some budget-friendly weekend ideas on here every week in the hopes that it will inspire you (and me, for that matter) to get out of the house and have some fun on a shoestring.

So let’s get started, shall we?

Night-time Fun

1. Make your own happy hour for you and friends/your loved one/whomever ( I know, it’s a novel idea).  All you need is one cocktail and one snack — easy and cheap!

2. Throw a potluck dinner with friends.  Assign everyone a course and ask them to bring a drink to share.  It’s a dinner party without the hassle or the cost.

3. Do some research online.  A lot of restaurants have adopted late-night happy hours that include food and drink specials.  If you can’t make it to the regular happy hour (which generally ends at 6pm), check to see if there’s a later one.  A lot of places have specials starting at 9pm or later.

4. Date on a budget.  KC and I often like to go out before dinner for a drink and an appetizer.  It ends up being way cheaper than going out for a full meal (plus you can just sit at the bar so you don’t have to wait as long for a table).  We also like to eat dinner at home and then go out for a fancy dessert occasionally.  The wait has generally died down by the time we get to the restaurant; and really, is there anything more romantic than sharing something decadent on a Friday night?

5. Many cities have free outdoor festivities during the summer.  Our ‘hood does a cinema night every Thursday where they show a movie outside that anyone can come watch.  Walnut Creek has a band and food vendors on Thursdays for their “Downtown at the Creek” summer series.  See what’s happening in your town and get in on the free fun!

6. Invite friends over for a night of board games or charades.  It sounds childish, but it’s hilarious to see how competitive people get.  Trust me.

7. Have a movie night.  Invite friends over, throw some blankets on the floor, pop a bunch of popcorn and pop in a flick.  If it’s a warm night, open all the windows so it’s like being outside at the drive-in.

Daytime Fun

1. Start a tradition.  As most of you know, I have a slight (er, more than slight) obsession with coffee.  Because of this, I’ve started a tradition of going out on a coffee date with KC and/or friends on the weekends.  I generally bring my coffee to work all week, so I allow myself to splurge on coffee from a coffee shop on the weekends.  I like to scope out new coffee spots in my neighborhood and drag KC along to try them out.  We hang out and do a crossword puzzle, take care of things we’ve been meaning to get done (like organizing photos from NY to order), or just talk.  It’s a fun way to get yourself out of the house and usually costs less than $5 (if you drink the cheap drinks like we do).

2. Take a walk.  It’s summer!  The weather is beautiful (well, sometimes) so grab a friend and get outside.  It’s a fun way to explore your neighborhood.  Bonus: on the weekends there’s generally open houses you can look through.  KC and I toured a $1.75M 1908 mansion a couple weekends ago — great motivation to step it up at work during the week!

3. Find a friend with a pool.  KC and I hang out in the further East Bay a bit which gets a tad hotter than Oakland.  Luckily, KC’s parents have a pool so we spend many a Saturday slathered with sunscreen lounging in the water with friends.

4. Pack a picnic.  Grab a blanket, towel, or old sheet and head to a park with some friends.  We pick up a loaf of bread, some lunch meat and cheese and hang in the shade, or toss a ball around.  It’s also a super fun way to celebrate a birthday because you can buy or make some summer goodies and bring them for everyone to share.

5. Have a BBQ.  Find a place with a deck or backyard with a barbeque and invite your friends over for a night of burgers and hot dogs.  Tell people to bring their own meat and a side and you’ve got an instant party.  If you want to go even cheaper, throw a s’mores party where people bring their own drinks and you supply marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate.  Because really, who doesn’t love a s’more?

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Alright, well that’s what I’ve got for now.  I’ll post some more ideas soon.  Happy weekend-ing!