It’s the end of a long year, its summer, we’re on leave and school holidays have kicked in… it’s so tempting to be doing all those fun, glitzy, end-of-year party type things. Living in Durban, we have an amazing offering of great restaurants, stunning pantomimes, live music, carols and dolphins by candle light and funky markets. Trouble is they all come with a steep entrance fee or far too many tempting things to buy. They are not considered cheap fun!
Those of you who have been reading my column for a while will know that I feel quite strongly that we should be finding ways to have fun without breaking the bank, check my column from last year – Saving money on holiday.
My first rule for having cheap fun this holiday season is to avoid many of the fun things that come with a big price tag. So I am going to sit down with the kids and we can each choose one glitzy, fancy, fun thing to do, and the rest of the fun will be done on the cheap.
The amazing thing about living in sunny, warm South Africa is that cheap fun can still be awesome fun. Here are some of our firm favourites: if you are child-free then night picnics are truly awesome fun and if you have kids well, frankly, life can’t get more fun than a picnic in a park, on the beach, near a dam or even your granny’s back garden. On rainy days we just picnic in the lounge; it’s so crazy but super fun. Then, my time-old favourite is movie night. These days, everyone has a way of streaming movies, so I love to get some friends, a bottle of wine, some nibbles and settle down to watch some great movies. Sometimes we borrow a data projector and have an outside big-screen showing (just drape a sheet over a wall – instant silver screen). This is such cheap fun it’s almost crazy.
I also love to have ‘A Holiday Project’ – something you’ve been meaning to do all year and finally have the time to get around to doing, maybe even as a whole family. We are going to mosaic the shower all on our own (what a great luxury). This is a wonderful way to really enjoy yourself, and leave behind the stress of the year by accomplishing something brilliant! It feels good, it saves money, and you have a great output!
I really believe in cheap fun, and there is just so much to do for so little money!
For my last column of the year I am going to do a quick appraisal of where I am at financially – how did I do against my annual financial goals.
Donna
Meet the Just One Lap team at these free live events
Click here to meet the Just One Lap team at one of our live, free events.