Before summer vacation begins we are always faced with the question of what our plans for the summer will be. 

Will it be going to the beach, going to camp, going to the movies, hanging out with friends? It’s always the same handful.

But all of these options require two things that are not always accessible: large sums of money and other people.

That’s why it’s important to find money smart, lone rider activities to do. 

Doing things by ourselves allows us to save money as well as have complete authority over the plans. That makes summer way more stress free. 

Let’s dive into the value of having time to yourself, saving money, and activities to do that include both things.

Spending time by yourself doesn’t make you a “loser” 

In more recent years, the idea of doing things by ourselves has lost it noritory and became something that is more celebrated. 

Having alone time has been shown to have benefits for our mental health as well as our physical health. 

Alone time, mentally, allows for more personal growth, as well as our confidence and creativity. 

Where there is an emptiness without others to please, your brain starts to form new ideas and new things to do, which can allow more exploration of the area surrounding you.

There’s also a large element of self reliance that comes with spending time by ourselves, which consequently increases self-confidence. 

When it’s left to ourselves to make our own choices and trust what we do, it can increase our confidence in our ability to do things by ourselves as well as with others. 

Dallastown Senior Ashley Kenney sees self reliance as something to achieve, saying that “Relying on yourself can make you more confident, but you have to work up to it.” 

And that’s very true. Alone time can be uncomfortable at first, but learning to grow comfortable with it and its benefits will improve life because let’s face it, loneliness is something we’re all going to live with in our lives, so learn to adapt and accept it, rather than run from it. 

Solo = heftier pockets 

Forget about having to worry about paying for the friends who never have enough money on them since you can now only prioritize your expenses when hanging solo. 

Having alone time can have more cost efficient things to do. Like it’s been seen, alone time produces more creativity, so, wouldn’t creativity find the cheapest things to do? 

Yes, creativity will spark up cheaper options.

Crafts, painting, drawing, even just photography can be achieved without spending a pretty penny.  

All of these activities cost less than $50 and have a great deal of longevity, being able to extend longer than just summer vacation.

Rationalizing how your money should be spent is easier when hanging out by yourself since you won’t have others influencing you to buy stupid things. 

Money savvy Dallastown Junior and fellow friend Lilyanna Muniz has even experienced being pressured into buying inadequate items by friends (potentially me) before. Muniz recalls a moment when her “…best friend pressured [her] into buying a porcelain squirrel for $20 to which was then already broken and glued together.” 

Oftentimes buying funny things with friends is entertaining, but over time it starts adding up. When spending time alone, the debt will stop piling up when you’re in direct control over your spending. 

But now, let’s look into solo plans that can happen over the summer that won’t even require to think much about saving money since they are cheap 

Solo Plans 

As mentioned before, crafts, painting, drawing and photography are all creative and extremely cheap activities to do by yourself (or even with others if wanted.) 

Brain stimulating activities can also be done. Playing games like solitaire or sudoku, or building a puzzle can all be fun solo activities that will even help cognitive development. 

One of the most annoying answers to the question of what to do over the summer is to read, but seriously reading can be one of the best things to do. Change the location of where you read; sit outside, in the kitchen, even the bathroom. Spicing it up makes it more fun. 

There are also places to visit for cheap that can be done by yourself.

Going to the local park lets you soak up the sun, play on playground equipment and can all be done by ourselves. But a little disclaimer, there might be little kids there so bring earbuds to listen to music to drown out the noise. 

On the topic of music, visit local music shops or thrift stores and get into collecting physical copies of music. This is a great way to discover new music as well as get alone time searching through stacks of records. 

Dallastown graduate and my sister Paige Jordan spoke about her love for going to record shops independently. Jordan said “…I feel like I’m traveling back to a different time before tech, phones, social media, and streaming services and often discover a lot of new music looking for it by myself.”