Tag Archives: cash budget

Rediscovering frugal fun on a cash budget

cards
Photo by qisur

Back when it was easy for us to head out and spend a little extra money on entertainment, we neglected all the free entertainment we have available. Since we started living on a cash budget, we’ve had to get more creative about how we entertain ourselves on the weekends. A lot of it isn’t really creativity, though, as much as it’s rediscovering all of the entertainment right in front of us.

Here are some of the things we’ve rediscovered:

Card games

We picked up a pack of cards on our frugal camping trip last month, and we discovered a website with a huge directory of card games. We’ve been playing together and learning new games ever since. I hadn’t played cards since my dorm room days, and even then it was rare, so this is a really fun new activity. Aside from the $3 we paid for the cards, it’s absolutely free! :) If cards aren’t your thing, you might like to play dice games. My family loves to play an old fashioned dice game called 1000, and all it requires is a pair of dice and a scratch pad for keeping score.

Board games

We have a stack of board games in our coat closet that hasn’t been touched in several years. Scrabble, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit … we’ve rediscovered all of them. Chances are you have some neglected board games lying around somewhere. Dust them off for some free fun tonight!

Crossword Puzzles

We have a book of New York Times crossword puzzles that we bought a few years ago for a road trip. I think it was about $4. Lately we’re been solving them again. Lots of fun if you like words and puzzles! You can also find free crossword puzzles online.

DVDs

During our college days, we both amassed a pretty good sized collection of DVDs. We often neglect them in favor of rentals, which isn’t too expensive with Netflix and Redbox. But lately we’ve been dusting off our old collection and rewatching some of our favorites. It’s been long enough since we’ve seen some of them that they feel almost new.

Reading

Between the library and our personal collection, Tony and I have been making a pretty good dent in our summer reading list. Books are another thing we both spent a lot of money on once upon a time. It’s a good thing they can provide so much entertainment! We don’t buy books anymore, but we’ve been going through the book shelf reading each other’s collections and checking out a ton at the library.

Nature

Now that we’re looking for free entertainment, we’ve found ourselve venturing outdoors a lot more. Whether we’re hiking or heading to the beach, we’re appreciating all the frugal fun that nature has to offer.

I’m actually surprised at how much fun we’re having with these simple frugal activities. They feel brand new, and enjoying them together has brought Tony and I that much closer!

Unexpected benefits of our cash only budget

cashWhen we decided to live this summer on a cash budget, I was nervous. Not only did I know it would be a challenge, but I feared that we would feel deprived and miserable. Almost three weeks into the experiment, that’s not the case at all. In fact, there have been several unexpected benefits.

Weight loss

After almost 6 months of minimal success with dieting and exercising, I was pleasantly surprised this week to discover I’ve lost three pounds. This could be due to any number of recent lifestyle changes, including my limited bread and pasta consumption over the past 3 weeks. But I also suspect our new lifestyle has a lot to do with it. We’re choosing frugal, more active fun instead of pricier sedentary activities, and we’ve cut out restaurant meals. We didn’t eat out more than once a week before, but apparently that was enough to slow my weight loss down.

Camaraderie

Since my husband and I are facing this challenge as a team, it’s definitely bringing us closer together. It’s been fun discovering frugal alternatives to our more expensive date nights, and we’re working together to solve problems and overcome challenges.

We’ve been living frugally for almost two years, but this is extreme even for us. Spending the evening playing a board game instead of going out to dinner is a great way to reconnect, and it really feels like we’re breaking out of some of our old routines and enjoying a lot of new activities. Fun!

Less budget stress

One of the worst feelings is checking the budget Monday morning after a weekend of overspending. Since we paid off our credit card debt and increased our income a little, we started getting more and more complacent about our frugality. It happens.

This cash only experiment has helped us get back on track. Now when I look at the budget Monday morning, I know exactly what we spent Friday through Sunday. The weekends no longer derail us, because we only have so much in our pockets to spend.

If nothing else, living on cash only really has led to more mindful spending. It’s not necessarily because I put a premium on cash, but because when you only have so much in your pocket, you’re forced to avoid spending more than that. Knowing exactly where we stand at the end of the weekend is incredibly freeing.

Downsides

I miss the occasional lunch out at work. Last Friday the entire office left for lunch at my favorite inexpensive restaurant. Because of my diet and my budget, I ate my boring salad. That was the first and only time I felt a little deprived on cash only.

The biggest downside? Oh my goodness, I hate dealing with cash. I hate having change everywhere. I hate that I have to stop and get myself organized after the cashier hands me my change. I really hate that I have to fish around in my wallet for the correct amount when I pay for things. It seems to hold everything up, and it’s just such a hassle. Holding on to receipts and manually splitting transactions on Mint to track our spending is inconvenient and confusing at times. What do you do, though? It seems a small price to pay considering all the benefits so far.

Photo by nicmcphee