100+ Best Simple Bucket List Ideas (Free or Cheap) - Ordinary and Happy (2024)

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Fill your entire year with joy, laughs, and memorable moments by getting inspired with our ultimate simple bucket list ideas, and don’t let time or money stop you from having fun!

100+ Best Simple Bucket List Ideas (Free or Cheap) - Ordinary and Happy (1)

Creating memories doesn’t just have to be about expensive vacations and major life moments: we can create incredible moments of joy in even the simplest of experiences.

Our 100+ simple bucket list ideas will help inspire you to get creative and resourceful with what you have around you.

Easy, fun, and inexpensive, with these ideas you can have amazing experiences every day of the week.

Want to challenge yourself to fill your life with as much fun and joy as possible? Scroll to the end of this article to download this ultimate list as a printable PDF, and get checking off all those cool ideas!

100+ Best Simple Bucket List Ideas (Free or Cheap) - Ordinary and Happy (2)

We’ve grouped them into categories, so you can jump to the section you want: fun // solo // friends // couples // family // at-home // fall // winter // spring // summer or scroll through the article for a big list of ideas.

Fun Simple Bucket List Ideas

Get inspired with these simple fun ideas you can start doing today to bring plenty of joy and excitement into your life.

1. Wake up to watch the sunrise once a month for a year

2. Break the rules and have breakfast for dinner

3. Go to open mic night and confront your stage fright

4. Learn how to start a fire without matches

5. Feed the ducks at the lake near you

6. Become an expert at something very niche and random

7. Jump in a pool fully clothed

8. Make a sand mural at the beach and photograph it

9. Host a free walking tour in your local area

10. Try DIY YouTube science experiments

Solo Simple Bucket List Ideas

There are plenty of goals and things to strive for by yourself, and these ideas are a great place to start.

11. Read a book from the New York Times Best Seller list

12. Have dinner at a restaurant by yourself

13. Write a poem inspired by your life

14. Go to a museum on the free day of the month

15. Volunteer at a pet shelter or animal sanctuary

16. Adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle

17. Watch every movie that has won an Academy Award for Best Picture in the last two decades

18. Start a YouTube channel on a hobby you enjoy

19. Go for a run every morning for 30 days

20. Try a new hairstyle

Simple Bucket List Ideas for Friends

Keep things simple and memorable with your closest friends, and try as many of these experiences as you can in your free time, on evenings, and over weekends.

21. Host a onesie game night

22. Play a game of ultimate frisbee

23. Try geocaching

24. Have a 10-dollar thrift store challenge

25. Host a potluck picnic

26. Start a book club

27. Have a dance battle with glowsticks

28. Have a Karaoke party at home

29. Go skinny dipping at the beach

30. Beach car park surf and turf

Simple Bucket List Ideas for Couples

Take your couple’s goals to new heights without having to make grand and lavish gestures with these simple ideas that can bring you closer together.

31. Dance and kiss in the rain

32. Cook dinner together

33. Create your couple playlist

34. Movie night & popcorn

35. Try a new food

36. Dance by candlelight

37. Have drinks while watching the sunset

38. Create your own co*cktail

39. Create a vision board for your future

40. Backyard camping and movie marathon

Simple Bucket List Ideas for Families with Kids

Family fun doesn’t have to cost lots of time and money. As these cool ideas show, there’s plenty you can do with your other half and kids if you simply use your imagination and get creative.

41. Teach your kids how to make a family recipe

42. Take a family photo every month for a year

43. Have a paper airplane contest

44. Make your own kites and have a family competition flying them

45. Play ‘the floor is lava’ with couches and cushions

46. Go fruit picking

47. Host a backyard Olympics

48. Make a giant hand painting

49. Make frozen popsicles with your favorite juices

50. Neighborhood flashlight tag

At-Home Simple Bucket List Ideas

Your home is a playground of potential fun and memories. All you need is a little inspiration and planning, and these at-home bucket list ideas can bring some truly memorable moments.

51. Have an indoor picnic

52. Build a blanket fort and have a movie night in it

53. Make a sourdough starter and learn to bake sourdough bread

54. Make a giant dreams and vision board

55. Host a virtual quiz night

56. Make a duvet slide on the stairs*

* with caution

57. Declutter and donate to a charity

58. Make a calligraphy family tree print

59. Make a unique recipe with fridge leftovers

60. Furniture flipping from Facebook Marketplace

Fall Simple Bucket List Ideas

Embrace the season of color and landmark holidays without expensive trips and luxurious events, and get inspired with these fall ideas you can do on your own, with loved ones, and the whole family.

61. Make a pumpkin-themed 3-course meal

62. Host a ‘tallest leaf mound’ competition

63. Enter a fall photography competition with your smartphone

64. Ride a bicycle through a woodland

65. Thrift shop Halloween costume/fancy dress challenge

66. Carve and name a family of pumpkins

67. Play ‘hide and seek’ in a field of hay bails

68. Make Halloween-themed snacks for trick or treaters

69. Road trip to a ghost town

70. Run through a maize field

Winter Simple Bucket List Ideas

Embrace the weather and magic of winter, and see how many of these simple things you can do before the warm weather comes around once more.

71. Volunteer at a soup kitchen for Halloween

72. Have a snowball fight

73. Build a snowman

74. Have a Christmas movie marathon while sipping hot chocolate

75. DIY Christmas gifts for family & friends

76. Walk around at a Christmas market

77. Rank the Christmas lights in your neighborhood

78. 5-dollar friends Secret Santa

79. Host an iced co*cktails evening

80. Dress pets in reindeer antlers and take photos

Spring Simple Bucket List Ideas

Spring is a time of new starts and new ideas, and these super simple and fun ideas are perfect to get you and your loved ones into a new state of mind.

81. Walk barefoot on freshly cut grass

82. Plant your own herbs in jars

83. Go on a bug hunt

84. Indoor spring clean in your underwear

85. Host an Easter egg scavenger hunt

86. Host a bread baking contest

87. Picnic under a tree

88. Make 2 DIY bird feeders and film which one the birds choose

89. Dance in the rain to ‘It’s Raining Men’

90. Have a spring break staycation

Summer Simple Bucket List Ideas

Get busy with fun and simple activities amid the glory of the summer sun, and make this summer a memorable one for everyone involved.

Vacations are always lovely, but if you need some simple fun closer to home, these ideas promise plenty of joy and happiness.

91. Make iced tea in 10+ different flavors

92. Do yoga on the beach

93. Have a sandwich tea party while wearing sundresses

94. Win a sandcastle-building competition

95. Go Kart racing in costumes

96. Sleep outside and stargaze

97. Go tubing with friends

98. Roll in the sand as the waves break

99. Host a beach potluck

100. Backyard paddling pool party

101. Host a sangria and sandwiches evening

Don’t wait for tomorrow to fill your life with joy and memories. Start today, and get inspired to do fun, exciting, and memorable things in your free time, all the time.

Life is meant for living, so start living it to the fullest today!

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Feel free todownload our free simple bucket list ideas PDF and check off as many as you can!

Looking for fun, easy, and affordable ways to bring joy and happiness into your life? Get inspired by our simple bucket list ideas, and keep this article for safekeeping by saving it to one of your Pinterest boards.

100+ Best Simple Bucket List Ideas (Free or Cheap) - Ordinary and Happy (3)
100+ Best Simple Bucket List Ideas (Free or Cheap) - Ordinary and Happy (2024)
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