Celebrating without spending money?

[lsimpson33]

What are ways you celebrate without spending money?

Our society conditioning is that big milestones and holidays = spending money on a fancy dinner, gifts, and/or a big vacation.

What are your best alternatives? Especially for couples?

Upcoming for us is Valentine's Day, our weddding anniversary, and one of our milestones on the way to FIRE. The last would be especially ironic to celebrate by spending lots of money.

[RobbieB]

Cut out hearts with scissors from red paper and write each other love letters on them

[Teacher Terry]

If your wife usually cooks you could make a good meal, buy wine and get flowers at the grocery store.

[ivinsfan]

Valentine's day is a made up retail driven fake holiday .Anniversaries are pretty low key in our house too. Our favorite homemade meal, some flowers from Aldis and maybe some ice cream.

[bingybear]

on DW b-day this year we went out for gyro and spicy chicken shawarma.

[Lewis Clark]

We've celebrated by going on a long bike ride. Departed from home so no need to use any gas.

[Bigdawg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivinsfan Valentine's day is a made up retail driven fake holiday.

DW will actually get mad at me if I buy her flowers on Valentine's day. She definately likes the other 10X yr that I get her flowers. She also enjoys the chocolate truffles she receives on a regular basis.

[Rianne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lsimpson33 Our society conditioning is that big milestones and holidays = spending money on a fancy dinner, gifts, and/or a big vacation.

So true. Often, if I tell someone my birthday was last week or our anniversary was last month, people say "what did he get you?" or "where did you go?" If I say "nothing" or we didn't go anywhere, they look like they feel sorry for me. I think that's pretty funny. My life is a vacation as far as I'm concerned.

[Scuba]

One of our favorite celebratory activities when the weather is warm is having a picnic at a park with some nice food and wine that we pick up at the grocery store, possibly combined with kayaking/stand-up paddle boarding or a walk or bike ride.

If it’s chilly, we like to either stay in and cook a nice meal together or go out to a nice dinner with a wine pairing.

[Red Badger]

On special days (to us), we make a point to spend time together. We're very independent spirits and tend to do our own things for the most part.

And yeah, Val Day is a fake holiday.

[NW-Bound]

Oh, come on. You've got to spend a bit of money. Maybe a dinner out with a drink or two.

It does not have to be a lot of money, but no money at all? Just stay home and watch TV like any other day?

[Winemaker]

We celebrate life every day, with a home cooked meal and a $40+ bottle of wine that I made for under $8. If we do go out it's with gift cards that someone gave us. Any other celebrations, we BTD like Robbie!

[Badger]

A long bike ride or a walk in the woods while we still can is a celebration for us. Maybe a small backpack with a picnic lunch. Although we do travel, the amount we spend is not our measure for enjoyment.



Cheers!

[RobbieB]

Valentine's day is not a fake holiday, it goes back to 496 AD.

But more important, wifey (the romantic) loves it, so therefor we celebrate!

Happy wife...

[Teacher Terry]

We always go out for our anniversary and birthdays. We go out a day early for Valentine’s Day when there are no crowds. We used to do gifts but stopped about 15 years ago.

[NW-Bound]

This thread just reminded me that our 40th anniversary is coming up.

Darn, almost forgot.

[HFWR]

I was going to mention a “romantic encounter”, but then I saw “no spending”...

[lucky penny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbieB Cut out hearts with scissors from red paper and write each other love letters on them

What a wonderful idea!

Now all I need is someone to do this with.

[audreyh1]

We don’t worry about whether or not we are spending money when we celebrate.

[daylatedollarshort]

We usually just give token gifts like flowers, wine or chocolate. We try to go out pretty often without spending too much, Hallmark holiday or not.

I spend around $500 - $1K on annual passes and memberships each year and then a lot of what we do each month is free or cheap - winery visits, plays, museums, gardens, parks, half price restaurants, parks, etc. Our library has free tickets for around 50 cultural attraction or live events. There are colleges and universities in our area with great plays and concerts for free or at modest prices. We go out dancing with friends at local venues with live bands with no cover charges and just have to pay for drinks.

We live in a big metro area so there's really always a ton of stuff to do that doesn't cost a lot. I find cheap and fun events on Facebook by following bands, theater groups, local tourist boards, etc. Goldstar also has some good deals including some free or almost free events. If you are a vet there is vettix.org which has unsold tickets for vets for events like concerts and major league sports. If you live in an area with seat filler memberships those can be good deals for retirees for picking up unsold tickets on short notice. One we belong to has over 100 live events each week and the membership price is very reasonable.