weekend activities

continualdiamond

What do people do at the weekend on a budget??

My fiancee lost his job 2 weeks ago and my wage only covers essential living. I found it really hard this weekend, not being able to do things. Saturday actually it got me really down and i confess i cried a little bit. I was just so bored, tv didn't appeal and after taking the dog for a walk and doing a word search, i just wanted to go to sleep to make the day pass.

My hair was a mess, needed a good cut and colour. I knew we'd never be able to afford it or save up for it, so i cut and coloured my hair myself. Must admit i made a huge mistake on the front and cut loads off, so now my hair is very very short. Sadly no family members or friends are hairdressers..

What can we do to make weekends nice again? After working a 40 hour week i look forward to the weekends, but then am so bored and disappointed, cant wait for work again.

Where only 25 and 24......outlook is looking very dull...

Bear_family

Hi,

I can really sympathise with you. Hubby and I are only 27 and 26 and we are saving to move next year and trying to finish refurbishing our home as well, so we have very little spare income to go out at the weekends.
We spend time together talking, playing boards,TV, in bed! having friends over on sat night for a pizza -shop bought, going for walks, local gallerys that are free. There are lots of things to do. Go on your local council's website to find out what things are free in your area. Embrace this time you have together, most couples worry they don't have enough time without other demands on their time.

Hope you feel better soon.

Bf

alyth

hi - sorry to hear about the job loss, I hope he gets something soon, but make sure he registers with agencies for temp work as he might get fed up being in the house all day, and it'll be some money coming in to help you both.

With regards to your weekend, make it a challenge to do as much as you can on as little as possible! Are there parks/museums/galleries that are free near you - maybe go and try something you ordinarily wouldn't be interested in to break up to monotony of the weekend. I must admit though that I read loads at the weekends, probably 4-5 newspapers, do housework, ironing, take the dog out for hours. I don't watch any TV but I always find stuff to do.

With regards to your hair - try your local college for the evenings when they have the student night type things, I've never done it myself but I know in my local college they're really cheap and the students are always supervised. But it'll grow back quick enough for you!

Perhaps invite friends round for dinner - people always bring tons of alcohol and make a cheap and cheery meal for them.

Good luck though, my partner works away a lot and I'm on my own a lot at the weekends, and I know how long those two days can be!

Snow_Angel

Student to the rescue! I can't afford to spend money at the weekends either and, like you, I really look forward to them after a busy week (incidentally, I'm a physio student and therefore I do have busy weeks, unlike some students :rotfl: ).

Anyway, back to the point :

Where do you live? I have to admit I am lucky enough to live by the coast and we often go for long walks at weekends on the coast path or out to Dartmoor. The bus fares aren't that bad when you consider it's a whole day out and we usually take pack lunch and a flask of tea rather than buy it out.
Do you or your boyfriend have a birthday coming up? Why not ask for a present like membership to the National Trust...then for a whole year you can get free entry to all National Trust properties and free parking in their car parks. Or if that doesn't appeal, maybe cinema gift vouchers.
The freebies board on here has a free cinema tickets thread where they post all the codes and places to get free cinema tickets. Admittedly some of them aren't at weekends, but if you have things to do on weekday nights too, you may start to appreciate the rest at weekends!
How about starting to look for mystery shopper opportunities. Some of these involve having to go for meals out or to clubs etc. You get your expenses back in return for your opinion (so a bit of work involved but still a free trip out!).
Also, have a search on the Moneysaving Old Style board - I'm sure I saw something on there about finding cheap ways to entertain yourselves WWII style!
How about volunteering for a few hours at a weekend - i know this destroys the object of being busy but there may be some ideas that don't involve hard work! try browsing https://www.do-it.org.uk to see if there's something that grabs you.

It can be a bit depressing having no money and I do get bored sometimes too, but you just have to look for happiness in different places!

continualdiamond

Thanks for the replies, went straight and checked my local council website for the freebies, but the website is down....typical.

I did 1 thing today that i actually enjoyed and was free. Dog portait competition with my 4 mth old springer spaniel, he loved all the attention as well. Though if those photos come back as so adorable will be hard to not buy 1.

Not many museums etc near us, but might find some within a close distance and also see a different part of the country. Must admit i've found it harder as i am not from the UK. Fiancee loved today as is Forest fan, even though they lost still enjoyed the game, i myself hate soccer, im from Australia and my weekends back home involved 1 of the days watching my footy side.

continualdiamond

Love the idea of the national trust thing and its my bday next Sunday, fiancee has my pressie sorted, just doesn't know about it yet.

I live in Nottinghamshire, the cinema freebies tend to not be near us, involves quiet a lot of travelling. The mystery shopping thing i love, dont mind a bit of work for a meal out somewhere.

Thanks so much snow angel....

moggins

My DH works most weekends so I am stuck here with the kids I know I'm a lot older than you but when I was first married at 19 we had zilch money. Our treat was to rent a slightly mucky movie on a Friday night (how innocent we were) and drag the duvet onto the floor in the living room

Apart from that we used to do jigsaw puzzles together, play board games (frustration was a good one) and I took up rugmaking. We used to drive to garden centres and spend the afternoon planning what our garden would look like (no temptation, we lived in a flat at the time). Sunday mornings we used to take a fiver and go to a carboot and challenge each other who could buy the most useful thing for the house with a fiver. Silly things really, but they stopped us from being bored and we did appreciate our time together.

Counting_Pennies_2

Walk, walk, walk.

It is so nice to get out there for a good hike. Now I have a child and another on the way, it is so difficult to get out on a good hike

Daisies

I recently discovered that the Ramblers have groups just for people in their 20s and 30s (had been put off before because my ex's mother is very big in a local group and I didn't want to spend my weekend with people like her!). They recommend joining them for several walks before joining (and it doesn't cost much to join either), they have all day walks through beautiful parts of the country and all you need do is turn up with a packed lunch and some sensible boots.
http://www.ramblers.org.uk/info/localgroups/

Otherwise, when I have time at a weekend, I love curling up with one of the big weekend papers and actually having time to read it!

The local library is good for cheap video/DVD rental, as well as books.

Have a "make your own pizza" evening. It's much cheaper than a takeaway and LOADS more fun, especially if you have friends over too.

Gabriel-Ernest

How about a potluck dinner with friends - everyone brings one dish to share. Should be cheap and a very social evening.

Daisies

I kept thinking of things after I'd posted!

I found some local history books at the library too, and ended up finding out quite a few interesting things about my local area. I bought a local large-scale map too (probably also available at the library) and have spent several Saturdays exploring round about where I live - cost = nothing at all! I even found a beautiful lake 10 minutes walk from my house, but hidden behind a housing estate, and now go there regularly. (and told my neighbours about it, they also had no idea it was there!)

If you go to your local tourist info place you might find details of other places you maybe haven't heard about that are cheap/free to visit - museums, galleries. We had a whole series of open studio weekends here where people opened up their homes to exhibit arts and crafts they did - cost was zilch and we met loads of interesting people!