Like many Vancouverites, we love the outdoors, we love good drinks, and we love us some good food. Also like many Vancouverites, we can’t afford to go to the bar every Friday night, to go for brunch on Saturday and Sunday morning, and to go out for fancy hipster burritos or baos each evening with our friends! Nor do our waist-lines appreciate too much rich, indulgent food, mixed with too many beers or high-sugar craft cocktails.

So how does a practical Vancouverite on a budget still experience delicious food with friends on the regular? Our answer was creating the “Sunday Social.”

To kick things off, we created a Facebook Group that was pretty much an open invitation to the same homies each week to come to join us for a hike, make some food, eat said food, make drinks, and drink said drinks. AKA, The Sunday Social.

The ideas behind these get-togethers are always the following:

• That they are egalitarian (everyone pitches in for dinner)

• Low-key

• Casual

• Nothing crazy fancy

• Engaged with nature

• They are cozy!

All of this inspiration came directly from “The Little Book of Hygge”.

This book dissects the Danish way of living, as they have been studied to be some of the happiest people in the world! Throughout the book, simplicity, nature, good food, egalitarian methods of helping cook, clean, and provide ingredients were constant themes that worked together to create meaningful gatherings.

What is super neat for people that live in cities like Vancouver, or anywhere that has a high cost of living but also happens to be near nature, is that these methods seem to solve a lot of our problems in one clean swoop. It lowers costs, helps us feel more social, and gets us connected to beautiful BC.

With these principles in mind, we decided that each hang-out would consist of a hike (which happens to be free), and a cooperative dinner, where everyone brings 1 or 2 ingredients and we all make it or prepare it together.

Here is an example of one of our affordable things to do in Vancouver Get-togethers

The Hike!

For the hike, we kept things local, easy, and beautiful at the wonderful Belcarra Regional Park, which is a 25-minute drive from our house. The sheer size of the perfectly green grass lawn at the picnic area was shocking and had me planning how many blankets I should bring the next time I swing by. The hike was easy with a lot of beautiful views, hidden beaches, tall trees, and fun terrain. At the end of the trail was a gorgeous lookout point with a tiny adorable beach where some adventurous people decided to swim.

Dinner!

After the hike, we all headed to our place. Dinner was a Burger Bar. It went far beyond our expectations! Turns out when you split the cost of ingredients, you can create some rather epic burgers! Everyone brought some ingredients plus their favorite condiment/ hot sauce.

Ingredients we collectively provided are as follows:

• Lettuce

• Tomato

• Fresh onion

• Sauteed onion

• Cilantro

• Pickles

• Olives

• Roasted Red Peppers

• Sliced Jalapenos

• Daiya Cheese

• Regular Cheese

• Vegan Mayo

• Big Mac Sauce

• Ketchup

• Mustard

• Relish

• All the different hot sauces

• Buns

• Avocado

• Veggie Burgers

• Beyond Meat Burgers

The Drinks!

The Games!

In the spirit of coziness and simple pleasures, we got all the blankets we could and laid them out on our deck as well as some outdoor throw pillows. We got super cozy with our cocktails and played Secret Hitler. Highly recommend this weird game!

When everyone chips in with these get-togethers, it feels more like a group effort and breaks down formalities. Instead of just feeling like ‘guests’ at our house, people feel like they are a needed part of the festivities. It melds everybody into a group of contributors and gives guests a common ground they wouldn’t have had before. On top of that, it is far more affordable for everyone. If everyone just pays a bit to bring some ingredients, the more everyone saves some money and the crazier we can get with our burger spread!

If you want to have more parties and save more cash, I recommend this method!

To be clear, you don’t just have to do this on Sundays.