What I do:
- Regular weekly potlucks with the neighborhood
- Regular Sun morning walks with a friend
- Maybe soon regular Sat morning runs with a group
- 1 to 2x a week lunch break walks with other friend
- occasional playdates
- 3-4x a year invite friends over for dinner
- once/ year (or less) go camping with friends
Not free:
- 2x annually mom's night out
- 2x annually lunch with a friend
- 2-6x annually baby group lunches out (our babies are 5 now)
Mostly, I make my eating out only fall into the category of socializing, not just laziness. So I don't feel guilty about it.
What I do miss out on:
- Some friends like to go to concerts and lunches or dinners more often. And I miss out on that.
- Other friends who either don't work, or work less, or have more flexible schedules socialize at "the pool" with the kids during the summer, or early fall after school. Because this group socializes at "the pool", they also will have an impromptu happy hour at someone's house. Because I work a full day and pick my kids up at school at 5 pm or later, I'm not likely to be invited to the 4 pm mojitos, because I'm simply not picking up my kids at the same time.
The one time a friend scheduled a happy hour in advance was when hubby was out of town. Got home late, got the kids ready, called ahead to see if they were still going at 5:30. Heard yelling in the background and "OMG DON'T COME, ALL THE KIDS ARE MELTING DOWN, IT IS HORRIBLE".