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Viable Inexpensive Alternatives

Even though you are trying to actively save your money and reduce your debt, you don’t want to stop living your life. Limiting your spending and sticking to your monthly budget now call for a greater degree of creativity when engaging in your life.

While it is important to maintain discipline in regards to financial matters, you shouldn’t lose focus on the most important things in life: your friends, family, and loved-ones. It’s also important to lead an active life. Actively living is what makes memories. But now you are charged with the difficult task of seizing the day…on a budget. Here’s how to approach these areas of life with that creative streak that’s slumbering somewhere inside.

Family Vacations

There are ways to run away from it all for a couple of weeks during the summer and still operate well-within a budget. On top of it, you can probably eliminate some of the stress inherent in travel, as well. Forgo the crowded airports and the stuffy airplanes. Opt out of the pricey hotel rooms and having to eat every expensive meal at a restaurant. Instead, pull your car out of the driveway and go camping in a state or national park. You will finally have a restful week spent away from the office and the stress of the city. Best of all, these are the types of vacations that kids remember. Involve them in the planning. Involve them in setting up the camp site and make them responsible to catching dinner by fishing (you’ll bring along some extra hot dogs, of course). All of this can be done for a fraction of a “bargain” vacation found on an internet travel site.

Date Nights

There are so many ways to spend an inexpensive–yet romantic–evening with your loved one–and still leave the house! As summer is approaching, call your city’s park and recreation department and find out if they host a “summer movies in the park” event (many communities do). Have a night time picnic in your back yard, complete with a bottle of wine and some candles (don’t forget the blanket). Find out what evening events your local museums are planning and then attend those. I’m sure your community has a plethora of events that you haven’t yet discovered. Open your community newspaper and research your options. Your budget will thank you.

Sometimes You Just Need To Get Out

I completely agree. There are those nights when you need to escape the day you had and spend the evening laughing among your friends (and away from your kids, even). Research what types of “happy hour” events are hosted in your area. And I’m not talking about the “Oh-My-God-This-Place-Is-Depressing-Happy-Hour-All-Day” type of place. I’m talking about finding a fun environment with excellent happy hour drink and food prices. They’re out there. You have to look for them. A friend of mine discovered a bar years ago that–in addition to happy hour–also had karaoke. He would joke that he found “a dinner, a drink, and a show for less than twenty-bucks.” If it’s a fun environment and you don’t feel too cheap–EUREKA–that’s the way to do it.

This newfound financial commitment requires some creative thinking on your end. But if you invest the time and the energy into lowering your standard of living today, you’ll find that you won’t be boxed into too tightly in your retirement years.