Top Ten Low Cost Summer Activities To Save You Money

 1. Whether taking your whole family or lone wolfing it, geocaching is one of the most fun and frugal activities that I have ever done. It is basically a worldwide treasure hunt. You use a GPS to find things that other people have hidden and trade items from inside of the cache. Click Here for a tutorial and check out Geocaching.com to get started.

2. Go to a wildlife preserve or local animal research center. You will learn more than you ever imagined from just watching the animals interact and play. My personal favorite is a local bear research station where they have rescued Grizzly bears that can no longer live on their own in the wild. There is really nothing cuter than bears playing in a bathtub. 

3. Go to your local arboretum or gardens. An arboretum will allow you to leisurely walk between many different 'continents' of tree, plants, and flowers. They are often separated into areas that represent different places from around the world. Most individual plant beds will have signs telling you what they are, where they are from, and an interesting fact or two. My local arboretum even has two ponds with Koi and snapping turtles. If you are looking for a peaceful getaway from city life, I cannot recommend this enough.

4. Take off into the wilderness and go camping. There are a lots of campsites that don't even charge a fee for their use. Ask your friends to come along and split the cost of gas and food with them. You can even borrow equipment or rent equipment instead of buying it all new. This will save you both money and space at home.

5. Consider staying in a yurt while on vacation. Not all vacations have to be in fancy hotels or packed into a Super 8. Many campsites in Oregon and Washington, for example, both along the coast and in the interior offer very affordable yurts. This saves you hundreds of dollars in housing costs per vacation and also space in the car. It has all of the charms of camping without needing a tent or a sleeping roll. For 40.00 bucks a night you can fit up to five people in a yurt. That is less than ten bucks a person and all that extra money can go into doing even more awesome stuff while on vacation. The best part is that they also have dog yurts, for an extra ten bucks a night you can bring up to two canines with you. There at least 17 other states that also allow yurts, just check out your local camp grounds to see if they are available in your area.

6. Use Groupon to find deals for activities in your area as well as deals on great vacations. Groupon is a website that can get you great coupons and deals for a variety of things like vacations, restaurants, events, shopping, and more. Groupon is also a great way to find out about things that you normally would not have thought or known about.

7. Its starting to get hot out there again and we are all going to want to cool off sooner or later. Instead of hitting up a waterpark, consider your local swimming pool. They may not even charge a fee or if they do it will be a nominal one and you can often get summer passes to make it even cheaper. Better yet head to your local reservoir, lake, river, stream, or beach for free. Some cheap floating chairs and some pool noodles and you won't give the water park so much as a second thought.

8. Summer time is full of fairs, community events, and farmers markets. Most, if not all, of these will be free to enter and the food will be very inexpensive. I have been to Renaissance fairs, pride festivals, car shows, local town celebrations i.e the lentil festival, and other festivals a few towns over. Not only were these free but most of them also had booths with free stuff! There are also free movies on campus and in the park, tons of sporting events, and even concerts that are free during the summer as well as all year round. Check your local chamber of commerce, Craigslist, and community calenders to find free events in your area. 

9. Check out your local town museum or other museums in your immediate area. Typically these smaller museums do not charge an entry free but are still just as cool as bigger museums. This gives you an excuse to learn more about the area that you live in and see some cool exhibits on loan from larger institutions. Sometimes there are even free standing exhibits that are well worth the trip.

10. Volunteering is a great free activity that can actually be really fun and rewarding. Volunteer at your local animal shelter, old folks home, homeless shelter, YMCA, YWCA, Amvets, or even clean up your local highway. Get a group of friends or go solo and help make your community a better place.

This concludes the top ten list. The links are meant to be examples of things to do, I realize that 99.999 percent of you will not live anywhere near to these activities. But to those that do, you are welcome. :)