Ask Lemmy

Broke Ass Stuart had a lot of stuff for this. Also Craigslist has (or had) a whole section of free events. I never had problems finding free entertainment for the 10 years I lived in SF.

Check your library for local events, and local museums for resident free days.

Go to every park.

Go to every gallery.

Go to every neighborhood you've never been to and be curious about it.

Every city has free activities that happen from time to time. There are guides on entertainment online and in paper that will tell you what they are and when they will occur. For example, there is a spanish culture center where I live, and I've taken my kid there several times for free shows.

Going on walks in the city to take in the architecture is free. If you have a phone, you can try to improve your photography skills by taking pictures of things you see that are interesting.

There are places that are made for public well being that are free; like Museums and libraries. You can go to them to enrich yourself and learn new things, or even just see the artifacts (or replicas) you've learned about elsewhere.

As others have noted : parks and the like are free for the public to access. You can have fun being in a green space and in nature.

Meetups are organised online for free, for various hobbies in public spaces, sometimes even in pubs/restaurants/bars, or even specialist stores. Usually the proprietors won't mind if one or two people are not spending money if there is a large group there that is spending money.

By the way, for non-city folk, these things also apply to you. When I was living in a smaller town with population about 60k , I saw jazz performances, fun architecture and walked around in public forests and "meadows" for free.

For example, time out has a page dedicated to free things to do in London this week:

https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/free-things-to-do-in-london-this-week

There are other locations available just through timeout, and meetups has things that cater to your individual tastes, and I'm sure your local metropolitan authority has a page dedicated to publically funded events I'm sure they want people to attend, and are probably free because they are paid for with taxes.

For example, I went to two official US Cities sites....

San francisco :

https://www.sf.gov/latino-heritage-month There's events listed here (some already finished) that you can attend for Latino Heritage month, it was on the homepage at sf.gov

https://www.sf.gov/topics--things-to-do-san-francisco more lists of things to do, which led me to :

https://sf.funcheap.com/free-events/ A bunch of free (some require early RSVPing) events you can enjoy in SF.

New York :

https://www.nyc.gov/main/events/?categories=Free

Here's a bunch of free stuff you can do... although the NYC stuff is a lot more... serious than the SF one, just ignore all the "Special Waste Drop-Off" events.

If you want to know more, just reply. I love living in big cities and I usually don't spend that much money there to have fun either. For most of my holidays, I literally just stay in my home city and walk around or have fun at home.

House parties and board game nights, basically. Supermarket prices, and guaranteed to be around people I enjoy the company of. There's also normally events going on every week, so there's normally some kind of food fest/pedestrianized road with buskers/something going on that's either cheap or free.

Other people already gave most of the answers, but

Parks. Go for a walk. Play a game with folks (Frisbee, soccer, whatever). Ride a bike. Read.

Meetups. I go to a tabletop RPG one. That's not unique to cities, but I can walk to this one and there are probably more people attending than you'd find in a less populous area. I also used to go to a basic neighborhood hangout one. There are many others.

The library is free. Many books and other media to enjoy.

This city has beaches. It's $3 for the subway ride there , or if I was really broke I could ride a bike.

There are free museums. I don't go that often but they're interesting.

But also

And to make it worse many of them probably have a 1 bedroom apartment so its not like you can sit in there all day long (at least i cant).

I realize im still spending money by being in my house out of town, but still, at least things I buy are owned by me, and im not paying someone else every time I want to do anything. If I want to stay at home all day I have tons of stuff to occupy my mind without going nuts.

I don't think I accept this premise. I stay home in my one bedroom without any more trouble than when I lived in the suburbs. A computer full of games doesn't need a lot of rooms. I have plenty of entertainment here. I don't see what's stifling about a one bedroom. Maybe a tiny studio I could see. But even so, when I lived in a whole house it's not like I went skipping from room to room.

Pregame. Dive bars

I would argue that cities have more free activities than towns, by far. Cost of living is higher but so are wages.

Also, I don't understand why living in a huge home is required to stay in. Certainly isn't for me.

Download SteetComplete. You can help to improve openstreetmap and you get around. I mapped my area and found it interesting, because the app made me explore the neighbourhood. https://streetcomplete.app/

High-paying jobs come to cities, so a sizable number of people really are spending money for everything. Think of it like video game microtransactions.

Of course, to a small extent, it’s also nice that you’re not making car payments, including wear and tear, insurance, and gas.

Where I live, there are also city calendars that help you find the free festivals that cost less. These are often more scheduled rather than “all the time”, so they’re not convenient for tourists.

Walk or bike everywhere if possible. Go down any side path that looks safe, explore, poke around, find the interesting things. Go to tourist spots and photobomb people. Pick your nose right outside the window of an incredibly expensive restaurant. Talk with strangers while waiting for stuff (but read the room obviously) they'll know about stuff to do you never would have thought of. Get engaged in the punk community they're always doing free things and dirt cheap concerts. Find local musicians in a genre you like that aren't popular outside regionally and see where they do a lot of smaller concerts, hang out at those places. Walk around community gardens. See what buildings you can get into and figure out if the roofs are accessible. Throw bricks at cops. Volunteer, a lot of times this is as simple as handing out food that someone else already made and you get to meet people and feel like you're bettering your area. Seriously walk and bike everywhere if you can and be open to taking detours you'll find so much stuff you'd never have found in a car

Cities want to be explored. They have so much to offer but you need to find it. Sometimes you can stumble into things, sometimes you have to know the right person, sometimes you specifically seek something out so you poke around related things until you work your way there. Keep an open mind and reserve some time whenever you can to just explore. The best stuff will show up eventually even if it takes a couple years

In my experience in Seattle, the people with money pretended to have the most fun. The punks, the poor people, they actually had the most fun. When people don't have money to throw at impulse happiness they put a lot more work into building a life and community that can stand on its own. This includes mental well being such as finding ways to have fun

Also mushrooms are a cheap way to have the time of your life for 6-8 hours

Just chiming in as someone not in a big city, I'm pretty sure we're more than 2% of Lemmy. But I have lived in a few big cities, and living outside the city is way worse. I have to drive to do anything. There are some free parks I can drive to, but that's about it. You can't even go for a walk or a bike ride without driving somewhere first. There is no old town to walk around.

Also for example, if you live in a big city you pay more for housing but jobs pay higher and you actually have the option of not owning a car. So you don't have to sit in traffic and pay insane parking prices everywhere you go. My one complaint about the city is that food prices are crazy.

I think some people mistakenly think that being in a city means you have to go out a ton because there's all these cool bars, museums, etc.

But to me, I think of it more like, it's nice that if I want to do one of those things it doesn't require much effort, but I still only do it if I want to

Scenarios:

• You want to drink a lot and have an energetic night - One of the coolest things about cities is how close and accessible bars are. This makes it super easy to meet up with your friends and pregame a ton. Then you can walk over to a bar or club already hammered, and you only have to buy one or two drinks to keep it going.
• You want a cozy night - Then just get together with friends at one of your places and play board games or watch a movie or something. Now, if every single one of your friends has a really small apartment, then I understand this might be less comfortable. Maybe the apartment building has a common space?
• Daytime events - Parks, community events, festivals, etc. There's usually a few free events every day, check your local news

what do you think makes social media so addictive? it's one of the few things people can afford

Fully free assuming you have some level of equipment:

• Attend the local parkrun for a free 5k race
• Go for a walk in the park/forest, of which my city has a plethora
• Go for a walk in Old Town
• If in summer, go for a swim in the lakes
• Take a long bike ride
• If during winter, go ice skating
• Work out at an outdoor gym

Pretty cheap activities:

• Take one of the public transit boats out to the archipelago
• Take the train somewhere
• Check out a museum

Not going places they charge you money for.

You can go to a park, or spent a lovely afternoon at home, cook your own meals and clean your own clothes.

I mean, there are more options to spend money on. But it's not like you're obligated to exercise those options.

If you live out on a farm in North Dakota, and there isn't much by way of eateries near by, you probably don't eat out much. You don't have to eat out in a city, either. Just more options for it.

Stay inside and drink alone in the basement. Why would you leave the housing you paid an arm and a leg for?

Really gotta get full use of that rent payment.

Public parks, hanging at a friend's pad, just walking around, campfire on the beach, house parties, bike trails, free days at museums, free public concerts, block parties, political rallies, people watching

Are you having trouble picturing this because you've never been poor, or because you've never lived in the city?

Cities have a lot of free things like parks or such and even activities. Like they had weekly dancing in summer in parks in the evening or yoga in the morning. In addition in my city you could get passes to museums and zoos and such from the library for free if you are a resident. Oooh. The libraries are incredible to. Often there are groups that do interesting things to and universities are a good place to find some interesting things.

While not free, I find a membership or two to be advantageous. There’s usually member swaps where you can get in another local location for free for a month. When we go on vacations our first stop is always a grocery store, and I usually try to get an extended stay hotel with a kitchen. Saves on eating out because we’ll pack for lunch and make dinner. We have an amusement park pass that works with other locations so parking and admission is included. Our museum membership works for hundreds of other out of state museums so we visit science and children’s museums included. Vacations are still expensive of course but this reduces costs significantly.

Other than that things like parks, beaches, library events. Meet up with friends at someone’s house.

Anime, series, internet, comics, manga, and ofc music. Some casual games and literature, sometimes.

Also helps having a hobby like music production or 3D modeling, this is, all done on the computer ofc, outside of the computer there's no world, just a neverending roads and buildings and cars and stores and more of the same.

There's lots of free public spaces in my area. But it's also just as easy to stay home in a big city.

Exercise of one form or another mostly. As far as the places you gotta pay for, learning where to stretch your dollar while getting the enjoyment and social interaction you're looking for is a time and experience thing and you gotta look to find them.

I certainly don't. Ain't anything free to do in this city except just walk around and experience the public. There aren't even any real dog parks here; nearest one is in another city 15 miles away. Best there is, is an indoor dog park that is also a bar and requires a fucking subscription.

When I lived in the city I was dead broke but had a great time. I hung out at the library, which was its own cool thing but also served as a community hub to let me know when the local Gurudwara was doing a luncheon, or when crafting clubs met, and having a library card also came with some museum passes. I learned about all sorts of cool, free goings on through my library.

There were also local attractions that had free days or days for locals, and there were street festivals nearby that had live music and performances. One of my favorite things about living in the city was hearing the sound of live music and walking out the door to go follow it to some cool, hitherto unknown to me event that was happening.

We also went ice skating on the pond in the park (free if you had your own skates), or went biking on bike paths. We built snow sculptures in public parks and gardens and just walked around exploring. There were lots of beautiful and interesting buildings and side streets where we could get pleasantly lost.

The key part of where I was is that it was walkable, and there were plenty of "third spaces". I understand not all cities have that. However, if you're in the US I highly recommend starting with your local library.

Walk in the city centre, the historical centre is always neat, but we do have parks, riverside and more

Free events (Traditional, art school/club, municipal fest)

Be member or whatever hobby club with a fixed (and affordable) yearly rate, or even informal hobby group like the runners who meet at the park entrance every Sunday morning

I'm outside a big city. But there are tons of free things to do. Many places do free days for residents. We have lots of parks. There are street fairs you can go to, and while food and drinks cost money. You usually can walk around and listen to music for free.

We have beaches you can go to, libraries, friends houses.

Window shopping is always free.

Feed the ducks

Get a bike that you can bring in your car. Park in a neighborhood or other area with free parking, get on the bike and just go exploring. It is a great way to learn about cool and often free stuff going on. If you can use transit and bring a bike, that's even better.

I've watched expensive music shows from a nearby parking garage using this technique. Outdoor music venues often can't stop the music from escaping into the nearby blocks.

Find a hobby that is easy to do in a park or other public space.

All the best free stuff is usually on the margins, so it takes some recon to figure out what is worth your time. But that's part of the adventure of exploring a city.

In my town, there's a lot of beautiful parks to hang out at. I can take a workshop down at the library. The museums sometimes have free admission days. There's lots of great things to do at low or no cost, you just have to look for them.

This is one place where traditional social media shines. Following local establishments on Facebook, or joining your city's subreddit, can keep you in the loop about cheap or free events in your city.

I realize im still spending money by being in my house out of town, but still, at least things I buy are owned by me, and im not paying someone else every time I want to do anything. If I want to stay at home all day I have tons of stuff to occupy my mind without going nuts.

This may surprise you, but it's possible to buy housing (that is bigger than one bedroom), stuff for hobbies, and access to entertainment in a city. 🫨

I am also extremely annoyed that there are many amenities which coast money (like no public bathrooms and water fountains, maybe you can guess the country already).

On the other hand you can look for free stuff to do in your city. Things we have here:

Some museums are free

Botanical gardens

Outdoor movies in the summer

City festivals with live music

Public readings

How to get free things or access to low cost things:

Join a cheap club. Sport, boardgame, etc They normally also have the gear for beginners / newcomer’s. Volunteer. This gives you access to people and gear (time in exchange for feeling good, maybe do what you like and make an impact).

Maybe not everything you like you can find easily. I guess you have to dig to find a free rave if that’s what you are interested in. Back in the day I would have suggested looking for Facebook communities in your city.

I realize im still spending money by being in my house

I have heard that some people spend their days at work...