This past weekend was a pretty great one for me. I did a lot of socializing, a lot of eating and spent some time outdoors, which are all favorite things of mine! There was hiking, there was brunch, there was a birthday and the was Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. I spent a ton of time with the boyfriend too, which was great. We see each other haphazardly because of my multiple jobs so when I get to spend a bunch of time with him I’m happy.
Another great thing about the weekend is that I spent almost no money for all my fun times. I love when that happens! With a little planning you can always find free fun things to do.
There’s no rule that says you have to pay to play in life. Free is all around us and just takes a little looking to get to. My boyfriend and I are going on a road trip in three weeks where we’ll be camping and hiking for most of it. We’ve been trying to get in as many hikes as we can beforehand to help get our bodies used to the exercise. I’ve also just gotten new hiking shoes (on sale on Groupon!) and I need to break them in before I basically live in them for four days.
Here was our weekend plan:
Friday night: dinner and a movie at the casa
Saturday morning: early morning hike to beat Austin summer heat (it’s only in the 80’s before 11am!)
Saturday evening: his dad’s birthday dinner out at a classic Tex-Mex restaurant in town
Sunday morning: quick early morning hike
Sunday afternoon: ‘Buffy brunch’ with my friends. We get together, eat and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s great.
Lots to do and little to spend! Just my type of weekend. Friday night we made dinner with what he had at his house already. Veggie burgers with spinach, tomato, carrots and mushrooms. So delicious! We skipped the movie and just ended up talking and going to bed early because we’re #toocool. That’s actually how a lot of our date nights go…
While neither of us are morning people by any stretch of the imagination we managed to get up and on the trails the next morning by 9am. Quite a feat for a couple that can and does sleep until 11am some weekends. We both really like hiking, though we certainly classify as novices. (Austin isn’t the most mountainous of towns so we don’t have crazy terrain to work with.) We both like getting out of the house and into nature though and it’s always a bonus when we see some animals!
In the Texas summer heat you have to be really careful out on the trails. It’s been hitting the low 100’s regularly all August so we made sure to hike in the coolest part of the day. We were out for about 2 hours and it was just hitting 90’s by the time we got back to our car. Our hike had a fair amount of hills involved and we sweated through them. We discovered a lovely little part of the river that runs through the southern part of town though and hung out there for a bit watching the turtles and fish.
We made it back home by noon and showered then made lunch, again using what was already in the house. Breakfast burritos was what we came up with. Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes, topped with avocado. Delicious and just the protein we needed after our morning exercise. 
We spent the night with the boyfriends family, celebrating his dad’s 61st birthday. Way too many chips and queso were consumed by everyone at the table but there are no regrets. Queso is one of the best things about living in Texas! We were back home by 9 and slept off the Tex-Mex binge that night. At this point we’ve had a Friday night and a full Saturday of activities, food and family and have spent zero dollars. Frugal weekend win!
I’m only a little sad to say that we missed our next morning hike. We overslept. What can you do, it’s the weekend? We made our way to Buffy Brunch though and hung out with a lovely group of friends. We picked up chips and guacamole at our nearest HEB (discount grocery store) and brought them as our brunch contribution. There was also homemade biscuits and gravy (a southern staple), fruit salad, pickle dip and potato chips (it was AMAZING), and the makings for fuzzy navels.
After three episodes of Buffy and far too much pickle dip we called it quits and headed home again. I gathered all my things from the boyfriends house and we separated for the night. We’d spent pretty much all weekend in each other’s company and we still like each other! This bodes well for our upcoming road trip and also our relationship in general. 🙂
The grand total spent on this wonderful weekend of fun? $7.24 for the chips and guacamole. If the boyfriends oven had been working I would have made a quiche with the eggs, spinach and mushrooms he has but alas. Still, I’m more than happy to spend on things that add value to my life. Chips, guacamole and friends definitely do that. I had a wonderful weekend and it was almost entirely free!
Kara Perez is the original founder of From Frugal To Free. She is a money expert, speaker and founder of Bravely Go, a feminist financial education company. Her work has been featured on NPR, Business Insider, Forbes, and Elite Daily.