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I am not sure where you live, but it’s already hot and feeling like summer where I am. Although we sometimes have frosts in late May or early June, I already see people planting their gardens. We may not quite be in real summer yet, but there are lots of wonderful summer activities to look forward to. If you are like me, you might be a Frugalite on a budget. For this reason, I am sharing my best tips on how to find free versions of enjoyable summer activities.
Free concerts
Certainly, there are lots of concerts in the summer. If you have to buy a ticket, some of these can be outrageously expensive. However, there are some free options available, if you look.
In a big city, check the small and large newspapers for listings of free concerts. Community and Arts Organizations often offer at least some free events during the summer. For example, one arts organization down the street from me had weekend events that were free to attend, and there were some concerts and other special events, like free flamenco dancing lessons, that I took advantage of.
In the rural area that I now live, the free options are admittedly fewer. However, there are some. I just took a look in one of our local papers. At the local library, there will be a book launch on a theme related to country music, and two musicians will be performing for free. Whether you live rural or urban, your local library website would be a great place to look for free summer concerts.
As well, other local festivals, like Ribfest or the local town fairs often have free music during the day, with some paid concerts in the evening. When you are looking for free music events, the webpage of your big city or small local town is a great place to start. Look for an events tab and see what’s coming up in your area.
The only concert I attended last summer was one I just saw listed on our local town sign (the kind where you slide the letters in and it lights up). It was a free classical music concert given outside in a local park. Having missed live music, due to COVID, it was an absolute joy!
Nature walks
Time in nature is good for us. Research is proving what we likely already knew ourselves. Being in nature can support your immune system and increase your feelings of happiness.
I find that getting out into nature allows me to connect with the present moment. I can use my senses to ground myself. I listen to the birds singing, watch their antics and flight. I can often smell the scent of flowers or trees. I might touch the rough bark of an ancient tree and say hello, or dip my hand into a cool stream.
While living in a big city, I still had a small park nearby. It was on the water. I loved walking there in the evenings in the summer, feeling the cool breeze from the lake on my skin. On Sunday afternoons, there was a free music series in this park. Many people came to listen to the beautiful music in this setting.
There is a gorgeous provincial park 15 minutes from my home. However, in the summer, you need to buy a pass to enter the park. It is over $10, and that is too steep for me to pay just to go for a walk. However, imagine my delight when I found out that I can take a pass out for this park from our local library!
Time by the water
In the large city I lived in, I could spend time by the water just by walking out my door. The small park was a haven for me, I loved to sit in the shade on one of the many benches and listen to the waves.
There have been different times in my life where I had to travel quite a distance to get to the water. When I was living in the ‘burbs of that big city, I had to take a bus down to the lake, and then walk to a park on the water. I used to pack a picnic on my day off and make a long afternoon of it. All it cost me was my bus ticket for some great downtime on the water, reading a good book!
Although my homestead is near the water, I need to drive there. We have a swimming hole at a local bridge. There are some docks and a small park. On hot afternoons in the summer, I would enjoy driving five minutes to get there and jump in the water. So refreshing! I would feel cooled down for hours. I like to fact that all of us in the village can go for a cool dip for free, even if we can’t afford to own one of the cottages on the lake.
Bird watching
When you spend your time walking in nature, you can watch for the bird and listen for their songs. This can be free. You don’t have to carry the stereotypical binoculars if you don’t have them. I do own a set, but I bought them for next to nothing at a local thrift shop.
You could take a bird watching book out of your local library, and maybe you could borrow some binoculars from a friend. Our local library even has bird watching kits that you can take out for free. They include the book and some binoculars. If you local library doesn’t offer this, you could always put it in the suggestion box.
BBQs
It would not really be summer for me without a few BBQs. If you’re ambitious, you could do your own for the price of a few burgers or hotdogs and buns. If you don’t have access to a BBQ of your own, there are usually some free options available.
Many local churches have BBQs as an outreach activity throughout the summer. Or perhaps there is a festival or fundraising event locally where they could use a helping hand. You may be able to trade your time for a plate of summer BBQ. Do you have a friend with a BBQ? Maybe you could bring a couple of salads in exchange for being a guest one evening. If you ask around and keep your eyes open, you may be able to find a free BBQ option.
Summer fun….for free!
Many of summer’s best moments are free. Could you see yourself trying any of the thrifty tips on finding free activities offered here? Do you have one of your own you can share with us? Please tell us in the comments below.
About Colette
Colette is passionate about sharing her knowledge of thrifty living and self-sufficiency. She has developed her skills in self-reliance living in the suburbs, the city, and more recently, on her own Half-Acre Homestead. Colette lived five years completely off-grid and without running water in an eight by 24 foot tiny home while designing and building her own 18 by 24-foot eco-cabin. She has just launched her website, Half Acre Homestead. Colette invites you to stop by and visit this work in progress! Coming soon in 2022 is her exciting new online program. Interested in Resiliency, Preventative Health, and Self-Sufficient/Off-Grid Housing (to name a few!)? Stay tuned for more details!
8 thoughts on “Free Summer Activities to Look Forward To”
In town about 20 miles from here there is a small river walk and nice pond. A nice picnic area and children’s playground. I sometimes invite a neighbor to join me there for a picnic and watch her grandkids play. It gives us a chance to visit. We’re in town where we both attend the same church 15 miles from home.
I’ll buy a tank of gas and my son will drive out sightseeing in the country or head to a lake he likes. It’s a fun way to both visit and do something we both like.
Hi There Alterego1, Oh my! That sounds so much like our own local swimming hole, although we don’t have the playground equipment that you have there. I love your suggestion about combining enjoying a nice drive or sitting in nature with visiting with someone you like to visit with. What a nice suggestion! Thank you for sharing.
Depending on the area there can be surprisingly fun activities at the library. My area even has an heirloom seed swap so that’s kind of double the benefit. There can be reading groups, small classes, kid activities, and whatever.
Another summer activity might be volunteer work – sometimes that can actually be fun depending on what it is. It also might be profitable. For example the produce rescue place near me gives free boxes of produce to anyone who helps out at their distribution locations.
Going to visit seniors at an assisted living home, walking dogs at the animal shelter, or helping out with Habitat for Humanity might be other activities that are free and potentially fun.
You can also come up with your own activities that normally cost something, on the cheap – like a “sip and paint” or a photography walk at the local park. Sometimes a bit of planning and a fun theme can take a somewhat blah activity and make it really fun. I used to have a blast when my folks and I would have a campfire at the fire pit of a local park. They would hide little treasures in foil and I’d have fun running around with a flashlight looking for stuff.
Hi Redbranch, What a wonderful addition to free activities: volunteering! Thank you for sharing. I love your memory of the campfire and all the fun you had. Much appreciated. Wishing you well this summer.
Great ideas! If you live in a college town, there are usually free lectures on all types of topics followed by free refreshments. If there is a planetarium at the school, then there would be free lectures along with star gazing. If you’re a senior citizen, then you would be able to audit, for free, any undergrad, graduate or law school classes. You don’t have to buy the book and you don’t have to take any exams! The community College may offer free cooking classes to the public also! The extension service offers free classes.
Hi Kathleen, Fantastic addition: many people are within driving distance of a college town of some sort. So many children (and adults!) would love the star gazing idea. Your local college or university website would be a great place to start. Look for upcoming events and take advantage of all there is available. Thanks so much.
I put the free app Merlin Bird ID on my phone several weeks ago, and it is a joy! I click to have it listen to bird calls, and it tells me what they are. I had no idea I had yellow-breasted chats in my yard!
Another idea I didn’t see mentioned above is solar cooking. It’s practical about 2/3 of the year …. varying a little each way depending on the latitude where you are. It’s an easy online lookup to learn how many days of full sun-light you average in your area. It is also cost-free use of sun energy ,,, which saves on fuels you have to buy or your time and effort on wood fuels you might have to forage for. There are about six basic types of solar cookers with countless variations on each type ranging from several hundred dollars for the most expensive retail versions all the way down to dirt cheap DIY versions like the Copenhagen design I built for about $10 in materials. Tin foil (or tougher mylar sheets), some spray adhesive, sheet cardboard (or more long lasting Coroplast plastic sheets that big box stores carry but often are used by politicians onto which they print their campaign promises). After elections those sign discards often become freebies. The two easiest of designs that are potentially DIY doable are the panel and box designs for which YouTube has several how-to videos for each type. Some are large enough for either stay at home cooking or even vehicle traveling. Others are highly portable, foldable, and have traveled well around the world. Finally … some designs work best from about 10am through 3pm. Others claim up to twice that time. Do your homework to decide which design(s) you want to work with –while you enjoy the great outdoors in ways of your choice — whether the power grids are still operating or even if they’re not.
–Lewis