Being broke is a stereotype that has been proven true for most college kids. It’s a tragedy really, because in this economy everything requires money.
- Simple Walk and Talk
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This has been my personal go-to since middle school when I also didn’t have any money—but at least I had no student debt. It’s kind of self-explanatory; you walk around the place with your friends, and you can talk about anything, everything, or nothing. The best thing is that everything is up to you! You get to decide who to walk with and the time is all yours. In the morning you can take a refreshing walk, in the evening enjoy the relaxing views, or my personal favorite, have a night walk in the calm—something dangerous solo, but with friends it’s safety in numbers. (Still make sure to take safety precautions though.) How long you walk, how fast, and the where also determined solely by you. Basically, walking and talking is your free way to do something productive and fun depending on the company, and as a plus it’s healthy.
- Blind Karaoke
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Okay this one’s a little out there. It’s different from normal karaoke as you get no lyrics or words, only the beats of the song. This one’s the best way to embarrass yourself with your friends and test if you’re a true fan of an artist. This also allows freedom to choose the songs, the only requirement is access to either the internet or YouTube. Just look up no-words karaoke, or to up the stakes, you can even do the instrumental version as a final boss level.
- Off-Brand Just Dance
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Going along with the one above, a spin on a rather common activity, this is off-brand Just Dance. How is it off-brand you may ask? Well, rather than using a fancy gaming device and remotes, you look up the song and dance on YouTube and find the completed version someone already did and click on it. After picking a character, you follow the dance as best as you can—the only difference is rather than the remote telling you if you hit the points, a jury of your “peers” (friends) will be judging the dances. This version of Just Dance has much more potential because you’ve got to follow through to get your points rather than just moving your hand and remote, so no cheaters.
- Movie Night
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Nothing wrong with sticking to a classic. Movie nights are hands down the most lowkey, enjoyable thing you can do with your friends. All you must have is somewhere comfortable to watch a movie, a device, and mandatory snacks. No matter the genre, you’ll have something to talk about; how scary it was, how boring, excitement for the next movie, the possibilities are endless. And I’ve got the perfect formula to not have any fighting over what to watch. Growing up with kids your age made spinning a wheel and random generators your best friend. You can make your own wheel with specific genres or just movies, or go totally wild and have a random generator choose. A lot of movies are more accessible than they seem, even without the fancy subscriptions, but there’s still the ad breaks.
- Window Shopping
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This is another dual-purpose activity you can do with your friends. Walk around pretending you have money at the mall or outlet and make a list of things you want to buy. You can also give honest opinions about stuff and try things on and add them on to the list. Best thing is that the list you make is totally useable. It makes the perfect holiday or birthday wish list and is so low stress.
- Board or Card Games
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Another classic, games. You could go with the board games and that eats up time and you can get really into them, especially Monopoly or Uno. You don’t even need the board games, you can just take a deck of cards and according to Google the possibilities are essentially limitless because you can even make new games. I personally love a good game night, charades, Pictionary, etcetera, they’re classics for a reason.
- Quiz Time
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One of my favorite past times with friends is taking random online quizzes. The options are infinite; there are so many different topics, “what are you” quizzes, and even trivia quizzes all over the place. It’s so fun to compare results with your friends and make fun of them or compete for a better score. Something else you can do is record results and take the same quiz later to compare a past and present version of yourself. That’s something that’s always wild to see change.
- Online Games
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Probably one of the most common things people do with their friends these days is play online games. And it’s something very accessible in this virtual-oriented world. These games and possibilities are endless, anything from actual videos to Cool Math Games. Working as a team to complete all the levels of Fireboy and Watergirl, I think, is impossible, or playing the same game and trying to reach the finish line faster.
- Crafts
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Honestly, this is one of the items on the list that can be seen as boring, but fun little crafts are one of the best things you can do, especially surrounded by friends. Again, the possibilities and potential are endless. You can have art competitions of whos’ better or what resembles something more. Or you can do practical little crafts for around the house. There are also those viral actives, such as drawing each other, switching drawings, or “completing” a picture. I can say from experience it’s so much fun, especially with some good music.
- Water Fight
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This is probably the most questionable thing on the list and one of the few that have specific requirements, but it is also one of the most fun. Okay, so for a cheap water fight, you have to head to five below. Buy a couple of reusable water guns instead of balloons because there is less stress with clean up, and you have them to reuse. Next, you must find a place where you have an area to run around, get wet, and preferably with access to water nearby. People often think water fights are childish, but you’ve never really had fun if you’ve never played Capture the Flag Ultimate Edition with water. You’re never too old for water fights, nor the excitement.
These are only some things you can do with little money in the bank and still have lots of fun. However, the most important advice I can give you is that the people you’re with could make or break anything. They can do chores or phone calls (the best things in the world), or they can even suck the fun out of amusement parks. Best of luck with the low-cost journey, it gets better.