8 Delightful Activities that Save Money While Building Your Social Connections

Busting myths about how trust and relationships are built.

I wish this were me rn!!

There are two myths about building social connections I want to debunk. Often, we think that getting to know people and building trust has to be a specific, focused activity, planned weeks in advance, and that we set aside precious time for it. Building connections and everyday obligations are NOT locked into a zero-sum battle for your time. In fact, strengthening relationships often comes from more casual, more frequent interactions than from a single marathon bonding session. The second myth is that if you are on a budget or looking to save money, you’ll need to cut back on socializing. Don’t believe the lie that meaningful time with people always costs money -- like meeting up always requires going out to restaurants or bars, for example.

These days, for many people, money is tight due to higher prices and greater job insecurity. And Americans pretty much always feel time-poor. That’s why I’ve got eight great ideas to invest in your social connections while keeping money in the bank.

1️⃣ Carpool and ask/offer rides: Carpooling is not just for kids! My family was effectively a one-car family for years, and I would often ask my friends for rides when we were doing something together. You save on gas and parking, and the chat to and from whatever we had planned was often a highlight.

2️⃣ Consider a babysitting swap: Our childcare situation is changing this year, just as our budget has tightened. I have also heard from people in our mid-size city that teens are charging up to $30/hr for evening babysitting (!!!), which is a REAL budget buster. With less cash to spend on babysitters this year, we are trying out a new arrangement with the family we went to Costa Rica with. They’ll watch our kids once a month, and we'll watch theirs, so we can have a date night without childcare costs.

3️⃣ Try a dog walking and pet sitting swap. I am not a pet owner, but I imagine the pet-sitting costs associated with travel and regular dog walkers can be quite expensive. Find out if there are people in your neighborhood or that you’ve met at the dog park, where you can work out a deal where you watch each other’s pets when you go out of town, or walk each other’s dogs as needed. Madysen Luebke wrote a great guest essay with a lovely detail about how asking neighbors to dog sit made their relationship closer.

4️⃣ Host a Hair Dye Party (or 1:1 swap). Ever since the pandemic, I’ve been doing about half of my own hair dye at home (hello, very premature grey), which saves a ton of money over getting it done by a stylist every six weeks. However, I still get it done at the salon about three or four times a year because I’m not THAT great at doing it, especially in the back, and I sometimes miss spots. I’m hoping to pair up with a friend who also dyes her hair so we can do each other’s hair dye at the same time from our own online color kits. This seems like a very fun hour and a half of chatting while saving serious $$$.

5️⃣ Clothing Swap. Sometimes nothing beats the dopamine hit of getting something new (to you). And what’s more bonding than a bunch of fun people trying on clothes and complementing each other’s outfits in a big gaggle like a Loehmann’s dressing room? (IYKYK) I feel like once a month, I have a conversation with friends where someone says, “We should have a clothing swap.” If you want a fun, low-cost indoor activity to bring people together, consider hosting one!

6️⃣ Join a Bulk Buying Club: While they usually aren’t widely advertised, many areas have informal co-ops and bulk buying clubs for non-perishable staples purchased in large quantities at wholesale prices and distributed to members. They usually rely on members for logistical and distribution help, so joining may help you get to know some people in your area while also getting very good deals on food. Try asking in Facebook groups or local subreddits to find out if there’s one already up and running near you. Also, if you have a membership to a traditional bulk-buying club like Costco or Sam’s Club but don’t have a big family or a lot of space, you could team up with a friend or neighbor to split the goods, getting more of what you need at a good price.

7️⃣ Lean into Trading: Are you an amazing cook or baker, and really need help with your gutters? Are you a guitar teacher who needs someone to pet sit? In local online groups and listservs, I often see items for sale, services people need, and items people are offering for free. But I hardly ever see people offering good old-fashioned trades! I think this is an amazing way to get to know neighbors (while keeping safety precautions in mind when meeting strangers from the internet), but it only works if people start offering trades and make it a more regular, visible thing. If you’ve done this, please comment and tell us how it went!

8️⃣ Collectize Yardwork: Ask to borrow people’s tools and lawn mowers and offer to share yours. Get a group of neighbors together in spring, where you take turns prepping each other’s yards. This is a more fun, social, and efficient way than spending many hours working solo on your own property. This could also be useful for snow removal if you live in a cold climate.

If you are thinking, “How do I even meet people to propose some of these ideas to?” My first piece of advice is to start small and local. Making conversation with your neighbors can be a great way to start to build connections, and thinking about people that you are already in groups or communities with, like a church, your kid’s school, or a hobby group, could be a good place to start.

If you’ve tried any of these ideas or have more to add, leave them in the comments below!