After a long week of working or studying, almost everyone wants to unwind and do something fun on the weekend. While there are various activities you can do on a Saturday night, this list compiles those that are free to do. Hopefully, this will help you come up with something fun and enjoyable do to on the weekend after a whole week of hard work.
1. Have A Fancy Dinner at Home
Steak, roasted potatoes, and a cup of wine might sound like a fancy dinner at a restaurant, but you can also make that fancy dinner right at home too! Whether you just want to give yourself a treat or have a date right at home with your partner, cooking your own fancy dinner never goes out of style. Be it beef, lobster, or rabbit that you want to cook, I’m sure you can find a recipe online that agrees with your taste buds.
2. Play Board Games
There are board games that can get people mad (I’m looking at you, Monopoly), and there are some board games that are just plain fun to play: Apple to Apple, Code Names, Life, and Catan, to name a few. Whether you’re playing with you friends or family, board games is a classic way of bonding over some competition and laughter.
3. Play Sports with Friends
If you’re an active person and enjoy sports, the weekend is the perfect time to gather some friends together and play some sports. You can either find a field to play at in a nearby park or sign up for a gym at your community center. If you’re still in school, you might be able to reserve your school gym for a sports match on a Saturday. With so many sports to choose from, you can also switch up which sport to play each time as well.
4. Star Gazing and Identifying Constellations
The night sky is made for people who enjoy identifying constellations (or even planets!) or simply star gazing. After all, you don’t need to be a “space nerd” to enjoy looking at the wonderful lights the universe contains. Oh, you don’t need a fancy telescope for star gazing either!
Sky View is an app that helps you identify stars, planets, constellations, and even satellites. After downloading the app, you can simply point your phone at the sky and let the app help you identify stars and constellations. With the help of Sky View, why not go hunt for some famous constellations this weekend?
5. Be the Designated Driver
If you want to have some fun at the club or bar with your friends but don’t necessarily want to spend money, you can volunteer to be the designated driver. While you won’t get to drink alcoholic drinks, you can still have a great time talking with your friends, eating great food, and dancing to the music. Your friends will also probably appreciate having a volunteered designated driver who is also responsible!
6. Go Swimming
Many community pools let people swim for a relatively cheap price, and some will even let you swim for free at certain hours on certain days. Whether you choose to swim in laps or play games in the pool with some friends, swimming offers a good exercise and a fun time splashing in the water.
If you live near lakes or rivers and they are clean enough for swimming, why not create a splash right in that lake or river? After all, it’s free. However, since lakes and rivers don’t often have guards, you may want to be extra careful to ensure that you are safe and are prepared to handle things such as cramps while swimming.
7. Go Camping (Maybe in The Backyard?)
Going camping can be time-consuming as you have to drive to the camping spot, set up your tent, and take preventive measures to prevent animals from going through your food. If you don’t have enough time to do this on the weekend, you can camp right in your backyard. While it might not be as great as camping at a campsite or in nature, it is still an opportunity for you to brave the elements and sleep outside of your home.
8. Have a Picnic
A picnic combines two wonderful things into one activity: eating and going outside. Whether you want to be by yourself, with your pet, with some friends, or with your partner on a date, a picnic is a great choice. Just pack something to sit on, some food, some drinks, and maybe an allergy pill if going outside causes you to experience allergic reactions, and you’re good to go. You can also have a picnic right in the backyard of your home if you don’t want to leave your house on the weekend.
9. Throw a Potluck
Throwing a potluck is a wonderful opportunity as you can invite friends or family members over and hang out over good food. Sometimes, the food people bring to a potluck can give everyone a pleasant surprise. However, other times, there many repetitive dishes such as too many salads or too many soups. To prevent having too many repetitive dishes at your potluck, don’t be shy to ask someone to bring something within a specific category. People won’t get upset if you ask something like “Is it OK if you bring a dessert to the potluck? You always make such delicious desserts.”
10. Learn to Cook a New Dish
I have forgotten how many times I tell myself to learn a new dish, especially something I keep ordering from restaurants, and never get to it. Well, don’t be like me and keep putting off that dish you have always wanted to learn how to make. This Saturday, you can start trying out a new recipe and cook a dish you have never made before. If you successfully cook your favorite dish from your favorite restaurant, maybe you won’t have to spend money on take-outs anymore!
11. Go Through Your Old Photos
Photos are famous for capturing an instance in time, freezing it, and allowing us to look at that frozen moment again and again. Some photos are bittersweet, some are funny, and some are beautiful. As the human mind tends to forget images from time to time, it can be a great experience going through your old photos.
You can either pull out the photo albums in the closet or go through pictures you have on your phone. While you’re at it, why not delete some unnecessary photos to free up some storage space on your phone?
12. Go to a Farmers Market
Farmers Market is a great place for those who love local and fresh products. With a variety of products such as fruits, vegetables, crafts, and even fast food, Farmers Market presents a great shopping experience to those who attend.
If you’re not interested in buying something at a Farmers Market, you should still go to one. Oftentimes, someone will perform at a Farmers Market by singing, dancing, or doing magic tricks. Going to a Farmers Market gives you a great opportunity to get to know your local farmers as well as meeting new people.
13. Make a Dessert
Almost everyone enjoys a homemade dessert, whether it is pie, cupcake, or cheesecake. However, not everyone is able to do so during the week as desserts can be time-consuming with all of that measuring, whipping, mixing, and baking. Thus, the weekend is the perfect time to make a delicious dessert for yourself or your family.
If you run out of ideas on desserts to make, you can always make desserts from other countries. Foreign desserts can provide a refreshing taste for those who want something other than the desserts they’re surrounded by all the time.
14. Volunteer at a Kitchen Soup
Serving those who are less fortunate than us can often bring a different perspective and allow us to see the people in our community that we normally don’t see. Additionally, it allows you to make a difference to those around you.
If you have some time, sit down with the people you serve and listen to their story. Everyone has a story on how they get to where they are and it can open our eyes to see that not everyone who comes to a kitchen soup for a meal fits the stereotype we may have for them.
15. Go Hiking
Hiking is not only a fun activity to do but also gets your heart rate going, i.e. giving your body some exercise. For those who live near the mountains or hills, you might never run out of trails to hike on. However, for those who live in a crowded city, finding a place to hike might be harder.
If you live in a city but still want to go hiking, you may want to consider using local resources such as public parks and/or forest preserves. While this might not be as “epic” as hiking on Arizona’s Grand Canyon, it still allows you to go outside and take a walk in nature.
16. Host a Movie Marathon
There is something fun about staying up super late on a Friday or Saturday night (though maybe not as fun if you’re a morning person and likes sleeping early). Hosting a movie marathon presents the perfect opportunity to hang out with your friends, stay up late, binge watch the movies or shows you have all wanted to watch, and to munch on bags of popcorn.
If you don’t have many movies or shows you want to watch, ask your friends to bring something they would like to watch. By doing so, you don’t have to worry about running out of ideas and your friends also get to contribute to the movie marathon.
17. Go to a (Nearby) Place You’ve Always Wanted to Visit
Is there a park you have always wanted to visit or a trail you have always wanted to hike but have not done so? Well, that’s what the weekend is for! Exploring the local area where you live is always fun and gives you one more place to recommend to people who visit where you live.
If you don’t really have the motivation to go exploring, you can invite a friend to make it more exciting. Taking a pet along is another great option, especially if your pet loves exploring new places as well.
18. Tour the Local Fire or Police Station
There is a fire station two blocks away from my apartment that I have never toured. If you’re in the same situation, maybe you can schedule a tour this Saturday and greet the men and women who selflessly serve your community.
If you have kids, this is also a fun way for them to spend the weekend. Not only do kids get to meet those who protect their community, they also learn about what being a firefighter or police officer is about. Many kids love firefighters and police officers, so this will most likely be a memorable experience for them.
19. Volunteer at an Animal Shelter
I’m an animal lover who cannot have animals in my apartment because of the building’s regulations. Maybe you also are an animal lover that cannot have pets in your home for whatever reason. There is a perfect solution to this problem: volunteering at an animal shelter (you can also volunteer if you have pets of course).
Volunteering at an animal shelter gives you a chance to work and play with animals while contributing to your community. Not to mention, it is a great feeling seeing animals at the shelter get adopted into a loving family.
20. Start a Craft or Art Project
For people who are artistic and enjoy expressing themselves through craftwork or artwork, working on a craft or art project on the weekend can be a great way to relax and exercise your creative energy.
Working on a new painting, writing a poem, designing a card for an upcoming birthday party or simply to thank someone, or starting a few origami projects are all fun and creative things to do on a Saturday. If you want to, you can also sell your artworks online for some extra money, gift them to someone who means a lot to you, or hang them on the wall of your house for display.
21. Learn a New Skill
How cool would it be if you can juggle or know a few card tricks? What about safety skills such as changing a tire or knowing how to jump start your car? It is never too late to learn a new skill. No matter what skill you want to learn, the Internet most likely has a tutorial that teaches you how to do it.
While skills such as juggling or performing magic tricks might take some practice, just imagine how surprised and in awe your friends will be when you show off the new skills to them.
22. Maintain Your Living Space
Maybe you’ve been meaning to hang up some pictures in the living room or want to do some deep cleaning in your bedroom but haven’t had time to. Well, a quiet Saturday is a great opportunity to do some home maintenance. While this might not be the most fun thing to do, it can make you feel that you’ve achieved something, not to mention it will improve your living space.
23. Take a Free Course
It is rarely a waste of time to acquire more knowledge for yourself. After all, you never know when a particular skill or piece of knowledge is needed. There are online courses or seminars that teach people for free or give you a free trial for a period of time. Oftentimes, free courses are a way for teachers to promote their courses and attract more students. Thankfully, this creates an opportunity for you to learn something new for free, whether it is creative writing or coding.
24. Learn How to Dance
Many dancers publish dance tutorials on the Internet for free, often because they want to promote their dance studio or promote themselves as a dancer. Because of this, you can learn how to dance right from the comfort of your home and without paying a single penny. Always wanted to learn ballroom or hip hop dancing? Well, let’s turn on YouTube and search for a dance tutorial.
25. Read a Book You Have Always Wanted to Read
Reading a book can be a relaxing activity for many people and most of us need to relax on a Saturday. If you enjoy reading, why not start with a book that you have always wanted to read but keep putting off? On my bookshelf, there are at least 3 books I haven’t read but keep promising myself to. Maybe I’ll open one of them this Saturday too.
If you don’t have the book you want to read, you can try finding it on the Internet. Many public libraries have eBooks you can download onto your laptop or mobile device. If you have a Kindle subscription, there is a chance you may find your desired book there as well. If the book you want to read is in public domain, you should be able to read it on the Internet for free.
Don’t know what to read? Re-reading a book you like but haven’t read in a while is also option.
26. Take a Nap
Taking a nap might or might not be a fun activity, depending on who you ask. For example, ask a new parent who barely gets 5 hours of sleep a night and they will tell you that taking a nap is amazing. Yet, ask a child who would rather play than sleep and they will tell you that napping is unnecessary and they prefer doing other things to closing their eyes.
Many of us are going to school or going to work, and at either place there are bound to be stressful moments where we experience sleep deprivation, either to study for an important test or to finish a big project. When you’re sleep deprived, what better thing is there to do other than taking a nap before powering through the day again?
27. Read Comics
There are many talented and funny comics writers out there waiting for you to discover their works. Moreover, the Internet also allows people to read comics for free. There are many great comics out there of varying lengths and in many different categories waiting to be read.
By simply typing the words “free comics” into the Google search bar, you can find thousands of websites and apps that offer free comics. Whether you like romantic comics, funny comics, or want to escape to an alternative universe where humans have superpowers in comics, there is most likely someone out there that has posted what you’re looking for.
28. Start a Journal
For those who like creative writing (or just writing in general), keeping a journal or diary is a great way of documenting what you go through every so often and providing an outlet for you to express yourself. While some people write in their journal daily, you can do so weekly or even monthly, depending on how much time you have.
While a journal is often thought of as something you write for yourself, it can also be a great gift to pass onto the next generation. How great would it be to have your grandparent’s or even great grandparent’s journal? A journal not only reminds you of your life journey, what you’ve gone through, and what you’ve learned, but it also tells your story to future generations and allows them to compare their current life versus the life you lived. Overall, starting a journal is an activity with many pros and almost no cons, so why not do it?
29. Write a Letter to Your Future Self
Keeping a diary or journal requires consistent updating and writing, and maybe you either don’t want to do that or don’t have time to. Thus, writing a letter to your future self is an option that is quite similar to keeping a journal, except for it is a one-time activity. You can either write a letter for your future self to open on a certain date or when a specific event takes place.
Maybe you want to write a letter as a birthday present to the future you. Maybe you’re going through some major life changes (graduating, entering a relationship, getting a pet, etc.) and want to write to your future self about how you’re going through these changes. In this case, instead of writing down a specific date, you can write something such as “to be opened on my wedding day” or “to be opened when I buy my first house”.
Reading letters from your past self can help you recall memories better and live through the bittersweet journeys again. Moreover, it requires less updating and writing compared to a journal, making it a great option for those who just want to write occasionally.
30. Spoil Your Pet
I don’t know about you, but making my pets happy makes me happy. Many of us have pets and consider them as one of our best friends. Therefore, why not spoil your pets once in a while?
If you have a dog, your dog would probably love an afternoon of playing fetch, roaming free in the dog park with other dogs, taking a long walk, or going to an area where there are lots of sticks for him or her to find. You can also go to a lake so your dog can take a swim. Oh, don’t forget to end the day with his or her favorite treat!
If you have a cat, maybe your cat would enjoy a new yarn ball or a new treat you just made. Brushing your cat’s fur while sitting in a warm place might also make a good afternoon for your kitty. Many cats like games that tap into their hunting instincts, so maybe you can play a hunting game with your cat.
If you have exotic pets, it’s also just as fun to find out what they like to do and spoil them. Not only is it fun for your pets, it also allows you to have some fun while bonding with them as well.
