How do people in cities have fun without spending money at every turn?

The trick in cities is to know things and people.

Know the guy with the swimming pool.

Know the woman who runs yoga in the park every Thursday.

Know when the museums have free or discounted events for the locals.

Know where the buck-a-slice pizza joint is - the one two blocks from your apartment that's almost tucked into an alley at the bottom of a brownstone's side stairs, and that most people would just walk past without noticing.

Cities have lots of free and cheap things, you just need to be a local to find a lot of them.

I go for walks in a nearby park, it's a great way to spend an hour

I'm not poor but most of my fun stuff is free, hanging out at parks (picnics with friends or just relaxing with a book or something), walking/cycling trails, free or pay as you feel shows and weekly food not bombs community dinners.

Nothing wrong with a 1 bedroom apartment tbh, and I don't understand why not living in a house means you can't buy and own things lol. I've got loads of stuff I can do here if I don't want to go out, I've even got plenty of private outdoor space. If I didn't have so much stuff keeping me busy I could very easily stay in my apartment for weeks at a time, only really leaving to get groceries, I've never gone mad from it.

Tbh I find this life is significantly cheaper given I don't have as much maintenance as a house, and I don't need to pay the absurdly high costs associated with a car.

Edit: looks like jerboa broke for me so I've got no clue if this posted or what anyone else is saying lol

Honestly I've found there's way more to do for fun that's free in cities compared to when I lived in a small town. The libraries, museums, parks, etc. are all much larger, more exciting, and easier to access - I don't even need to own a car to have fun anymore. There's also more social groups for more niche interinterests. Back when I lived in a town, the options for free(ish) fun were: go to a house, go to a mountain, go to the beach, and all were places you had to drive, god forbid you want to take a bus or walk somewhere, and then the people you would hang out with at those places were just co-workers or people you met in school, because there was no other way to meet people.

Fun is a Leftist conspiracy to distract you from producing more for your bosses at work

The issues is that you are GOING to the city. One you live there, you have all your stuff and do your normal thing. You cook at home and play videos games, then read books before walking your dog to the park by your friend's house. Basically: don't extrapolate from the perspective of a tourist.

Your impression of a city is probably skewed by how you interact with it. If you drive in, pay for parking, go to events or attractions, eat out, etc. it all adds up. But that’s not necessarily the experience of someone who lives in a city. They’re living their life, not sightseeing.

Our parks, Zoo, and Science Center are all free. And the Botanical Garden is free on specific days, and the symphony and other similar orgs do at least 1 free event per year on average.

Walk. Just like I would hike when I lived rurally, walk. There are trails along the River and through the woods, even in the middle of town. But there’s also sidewalks. A town common. Parks. Several playgrounds have pickup basketball if your knees are better than mine, or there’s a track within an easy walk for some more regimented exercise. Our favorite activity starting during Covid is to walk around our city, seeing the sights. It was a great chance to talk with my kids for hours, before they went off to college. And yes we played Pokémon go as something to do while walking (and a game like that is much better in cities), and met several groups of people that way. If that game is too nerdy or childish, there are apps that gamify walking in various ways. If you’re willing to spend a little, sometimes we would stop at a convenience store for a soda or something, but not always.

When I lived in the major city, it was the same only much more. Every weekend had a festival (free). Every weekend had a band playing somewhere outside free. Every weekend had some big free event at multiple parks. Every Wednesday was free museums. Walking the waterfront is really cool and entirely free. Tourist areas sometimes have street entertainers, free. My city is very walkable and has many colleges: every weekend had some event at some college. My city has a lot of history and tourism, organized as a free “trail” and with most historic things free. There are things like a sailing ship that is free to see: you would have to pay for the museum and gift shop but why would you? Read the historic plaques. If a building or something looks historic, look it up.

For a relatively small amount of money, one of my favorite activities was the farmers market: it was huge and cheap (although I haven’t been in many years). Sometimes I just wanted to walk around and see everything (that shopping is selling whole goats?), or I could buy a week’s worth of veggies fresh from the farm for pennies on the dollar. And connect that back to food prep: when I didn’t have much money or time, I’d take all Saturday, goto the farmers market, come back and put together a giant salad for the week, a pasta salad for the week, maybe marinate some meat in some ingredients I bought- basically get half my cooking and shopping out of the way, dirt cheap

For a relatively small amount of money, much cheaper than operating a car, I usually had a subway pass. The core of that major city is very walkable, but the pass opened the entire city by just hopping on a convenient train without having to think about spending in the moment.

As far as staying in the small apartment goes, being in an urban area means gigabit fiber, which I guess a lot of people still don’t have. Being a first class citizen online is priceless and opens a lot of free (after your internet bill) activities involving sitting at your desk

When I was a student with a small budget in an expensive city:

• Basketball, softball, flag football, soccer, kickball, bocce, volleyball (free for pickup games, very cheap for organized leagues)
• Picnics/cookouts at the park with friends (same price as eating and drinking at home)
• Lifting weights and other fitness-oriented exercise at an indoor gym (relatively affordable monthly fees)
• Museums (cheap/free access for students, some memberships can be a good deal if you're going regularly)
• Volunteering (free, easy way to meet and socialize with people)
• Live events. Sure, an NFL game or a Taylor Swift concert isn't going to be cheap, but the thing with big cities is that there are literally dozens of small music venues, semi-pro sports leagues, comedy venues, theaters, etc., putting on small shows for less than $10/person (or maybe $20-30 after buying a few drinks at the venue). Some things are free, like plays or movies or concerts in the park.
• Festivals. There are always street or art festivals going down in big cities.

I'm not a musician or artist but I know plenty of people who get together to play music with friends, or do creative things together.

And even now that I have money I still do plenty of the cheap/free things in my city, and I donate a lot to the libraries and museums and park cleanup/beautification nonprofits around me in large part because those are great public spaces worth supporting.

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.

I would like to kick this back to you, what do you do outside of a big city that is free?

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.

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.

Friends. Yes, you'll probably spend more to do events.

But the good friendships, you end up just hanging out - wasting time at a park, going for a walk around the neighborhood, having dinner together.

Pregame. Dive bars

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.

use the library. I don't mean go to the library, I mean use it for free things. for example I can go to like 20 different museums for free through my library. disc golf is free at almost every disc golf course on the planet. parks are free, walks are free. bouldering is free. There's a ton. it's all about your imagination.

Minecraft was like $20 and I've probably put 10,000 hours into it

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/

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.

if you already own an apartment in a city, the chances are that you'd grow used to the space and you'd feel at home, and anything lacking is made up for with closer proximity and easier access to stores and public facilities.

i live in hong kong, one of the densest cities in the world, and i'm able to live comfortably. there's very little noise where i live because it's in a less urban area, i get a fantastic view of and immediate access to a riverside park, a mall full of great food and boba just a 15-minute walk away, a library and a big transit hub just a short bus ride away, and from that transit hub, very cheap access to all of hong kong for museum visits, sightseeing, hella hiking and biking trails, exhibitions, etc.

i've also lived in berlin for a bit. it was also in a less urban area, in a very tiny apartment, and i was still fine because i had very similar access to amenities. short walk for groceries and transit, access to museums and parks, loads of architecture to admire, and hella döner.

if you've only experienced cities in north america... i'm sorry.

Walks (less nature, more architecture), go-out in parks. Free museums and cultural event (you have to know the city a bit to know place and times), librairies, charity work, outside sport in the park or the street...

I think you cannot do activities that requires a large natural space or absolue quiet or isolation but unlike small town or country side, you can do all the think that requires grouping lots of people much more easily.

I'm in a mid-sized city. Beaches are public, parks are free or $5ish per carload if you drive in, the library system is amazing, there is a Riverwalk.

I don't quite understand how you think being away from the stuff a city offers = having more stuff you can do at home. What exactly can you do in your house that you couldn't do at a home in the city? We have parties, a TV, a computer, a bed, and personally we have also a yard, food garden, pets, kids, but even in an apartment you can grow plants on the patio and have a cat, you just don't have to drive a long way to do anything.

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

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.

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.

swinger orgies

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

i stay home.

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

I know not everyone loves church, but my church has an open building day you can come and co-work or just read or sit and relax and chat or whatever, we put out good local coffee shop coffee and tea, and you can hang around as long as you want in an old building with beautiful stained glass windows and use the WiFi, etc. We were talking about how there's not really anywhere much else you can do that without spending money, you can sit in the library but it's not like you can heat up your leftover spaghetti and sit on a comfy couch. It's really a nice way to spend a day.

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

The ducks in my local park are free

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

I spend a lot of time taking photos. There are apps that tell you what plants are. I also contribute to an app called StreetComplete which is like Pokemon Go but for filling out open source map data.

Hah, let me turn this around - what do you do for fun without a whole city to explore? Hike, swim in the creek/at the beach, BBQ with friends? Same here, we just do the first two in public places (parks, pools or community beach, etc)

This has little if anything to do with being in a city, and more to do with how expensive a person's tastes are.

Making fun for oneself is easy if need are simple. I enjoy a walk with another human because I'd rather do that than go to a shitty steakhouse. I'll make art on a Saturday afternoon, or cook. There's always free events of all kinds just check the local promotion groups. Lots of local socializing and board game groups. Bird watching. Bike rides are effectively free, so is going for a picnic in an area you haven't been to.

Grab a ball and go to the park. Get some unsalted sunflower seeds at the dollar store and feed the chickadees. Hit the local Ultimate pick-up game. Go to a bar and *gasp* don't drink and just enjoy the live music. Hell if $20 is in the inventory, go to the pinball arcade for 2 hours.

You can have fun for $10K and you can have fun for $0, it's up to you.

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.

Library and park?

I go to the park, visit friends, join clubs, do volunteer activities, play with pets, visit garden centers (just to look), walk along the river, etc.

I don’t live in a big city. But, disc golf generally isn’t expensive to get into. Really fun. If you can get around a bit to courses.

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

Someone else already said "library and park". That's essentially right, but there's more.

My city does movies in the park all summer. There's a similar music in the park set of events. Both free.

We have pretty good biking trails (just don't try to commute by bike!).

Most of my friends are homeowners. We don't all host the same amount, but we regularly get together at each others' houses.

There's a free zoo and a free art museum here. Other museums charge for admission, but the tickets are decently cheap.

We have some sports in the area, but our teams aren't very trendy. I'm not sure what the pricing is like tbh.

There's a lot of live music at some of the bars in the area. I don't do a lot of this myself, but I think the cover was pretty minimal last time I went to one.

(OK, yes some of these things do cost money, but they're not super spendy if you have any sort of budget)

I watch tv with my friends once a week 😎

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.

In my small country town where I live. I am miles from anything there is lovely parks that are free but I have to drive there. Anything I want to do at home I have to buy. In the city where I work my job gives me puppy days, baseball events, free massages etc etc. In walking distance from work and if I were to live in the luxury apartments near by I had a beer garden(free to hang out or relatively cheap to enter like 5$ a wrist band) in the beer garden we had corn hole and lots of bar games free to use. I have a riverwalk, an art museum, a real cheap dinosaur museum, and tons of public parks with movie events and local stargazing clubs etc also more pickup sports games since more people. In the city there is tons of 3rd places that let you hang out for an hour or more for less than $20 with tons of people.

At home it costs me 5$ in gas to drive anywhere and 15 mins to get to the closest thing and will cost me the same $20 in my rural town to hang out in my 3rd place with 0 young people or just the same 5 locals. If I have a hangout at home with stuff I purchased all my friends live 30 + mins away if I made plans to fit their schedule. My local parks are neat if I wanted to walk or do things solo or had a local friend group but that is lots of planning and no one is using the facilities normally. I think 1 local park has a movie night for Halloween once a year

Essentially the city has everything rural does in amenities but just more of them closer together so there is more free things and with more people there is more possible random fun if you are outgoing. Vs rural you have to plan your fun, travel further and have less access to more of everything. But if you have everything at your house and are more of introvert it is a bit better. One of the reasons Why people like to retire to the suburbs is they have access to alot of the city things they like but have just enough room to have all the things they want at home

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

When I was younger I spent everything I earned on having fun, drinking heavily, sex and drugs and techno and all that good stuff. Now I'm older, I put it in a savings account and spend my free time reading, playing computer games, and gardening.

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.

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.

Feed the ducks

Walk around the city or hit up a park. Also sometimes friends host get togethers

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.

If you're a musician, look for open mics / open jams and try to make friends in the scene. Musician-organized diy events are cheap and fun. Especially punk events are cheap.
If you're interested in art, look for local diy group exhibitions and performances and ask if you can volunteer for support.
If you're into hacking/diy look for local repair cafes and ask to volunteer.
If you're into rpg go hang out in local game shops and find a group to play with.
It really depends on what you consider fun!

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.

Thrifting can cost money if you buy things, but walking around is free. Bigger city = more thrift stores.

Similarly, I love walking having access to ethnic grocery stores. Spices are cheaper, you have access to organ meats, etc… that are also cheaper. It’s fun to walk into a Filipino or Korean grocery store, do a little research and try to cook something with ingredients I’ve never tried before.

My tiny apartment is on a busy street so it’s also fun to do a little people watching. If I walk to the gas station to get a soda ( <10 minutes) I get to see a ton of activity any time of day.

Festivals are pretty frequent and fun to walk around even if I don’t spend anything. I live near a university as well so there’s always stuff going on.

I’ve lived in a rural area before and couldn’t stand it. Absolutely nothing to do other than go walk around Walmart.

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. 🫨

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.

That's the ne- oh, you already meme'd that.

I guess that's one more reason why many people would rather scroll endlessly on social media, it's free*

Depending on the city you live at, the simplest solution would be to find a sports area and do sports there with others - basketball and football (soccer if you're 'murican) might be the most common and easy to find, as a good number of these are public and free to use

hobbies, most of them still cost something but it varies and you can usually keep or re-sell the equipment, bonus points if you can find someone else to enjoy them with

I'm surprised I don't see people adding the beach to list of free activities, in LA that's a great option as well as a ton of hiking options. I grew up poor here so I'm quite used to all the random things you can do (my favorite might be Getty Villa, a rich guy made that free forever and you can look at really cool artifacts).

Also there are cheap eats in the city if you know where to look, although even my 7 dollar burritos are up to 12 post-Trump. Still cheaper, though. Don't judge a huge place like LA by how much they charge tourists at the boardwalk or something.

Edit: oh and shit like Pie Fest. Our local NPR affiliate hosts and promotes a ton of really neat and often free activities. (They just started their fall drive)

Edit 2: oh and being a live studio audience is free. Probably true in NYC too.

I realize im still spending money by being in my house

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

When you live in a big city you learn where you can spend time on the cheap. Look for libraries, beaches, parks.

If you find the right Cafe/bar/tavern, be kind and tip well a couple times and they won't get sore if you nurse a pint while grinding out the last hundred pages of Dune.

Crack. The trick is you forget you spent the money in the first place.

I live in a big old house from the 1800s with my fiance and a roommate and a dog, with a little yard but it's tucked away from a lot of the hustle and bustle. My closest neighbor is about 100 feet away.

This is still in city limits. I can just as easily walk, bike, bus, drive wherever to go do fun things. But what you were describing of being occupied at home by hobbies and things to do still applies to me. I've been slowly renovating the house myself over the years. Just been working a lot of overtime lately so it's a bit hard to find the time.

This is in Pittsburgh PA. Most of where people live is in similar situations of old 100+ year old multi-bedroom homes. There are some new "modern" or "luxury" apartments going in around town but if you live in one of those you're literally just an idiot or an outsider to the area and think that $1.5k rent for a 1br is "cheap" (my whole mortgage is $860 split 3 ways for context)

I'm an Uber nerd andI learn to pirate content. Yes you still need an internet connection and a computer or phone but I can spend days trying to figure out how to install Graphene on my old phone or do something fun or crazy for my home assistant.

Btw, I'm not poor. I just enjoy doing these things.

Exercise are good ways to learn your city on your own or with friends.

Libraries.

Parks.

I spend a lot of time in my workshop. It's not free but upcycling materials into something new is infinitely satisfying and often saves money.

Church activities

They don't.

That's why they think cities are the only places in the world worth living. If there's not an endless sea of shit to waste their money on, they're lost.

A lot of interesting answers here. I'd like to talk about something related: everything is rented. Especially in a big city.

You'll pay to rent a home, a car, a bike, a seat (on a bus or in a place). Especially when you're in a big city, you don't own much of anything. You'll rent a car by getting a taxi or using a ride share service or similar, just so you can get around, or rent a bike to do the same in one of the many variations of public bike sharing services. Then you'll rent an apartment for a place to live, never buying or owning property of your own. Some people even rent to own their furniture and appliances.

Even those that "buy" a car are often on a lease agreement, which is just an exclusive rental with the option to buy at a discount at the end.

Your phone is probably on some kind of payment programme with your carrier so technically that's a form of rental as well.

You'll finance computers and other expensive items, which you don't technically own until the balance is paid in full.

When living in a city, I'm not sure exactly what you personally own.... At most it's a short list of personal effects... Maybe a few things from Ikea? Some dishes and utensils?

... And it's only getting more and more extreme. There's subscription and rental services for almost everything now.

I live outside of any major cities in my area and I own most everything I have. I still have a mortgage, which is a sentence I wasn't sure I would ever be able to say, but here I am.... And I have a few debts, but my name is on the deed to my property, my car is paid off, I paid back my student loans... Other than some credit cards and my house, I own everything I have, outright. I used to live in a city and bluntly, I didn't own much when I did.

I had somewhat of a debate going with, of all people, a prospective employer, during an interview even. His position was that everything would end up being rented/leased/whatever, with the only exceptions being subscription services for stuff like food and services. He was convinced that was the way things were headed and it was only a matter of time. At that time, I disagreed with him, but looking at everything now, is only proving his point. I got that job by the way.

So my answer for OP is, not much, and the list is getting shorter all the time.