10. Hobbies
I would like to live as poor man with lots of money. -Pablo Picasso
1) Turn a critical eye to your collections: Most people collect something – what do you collect? Is it something that consistently brings you joy? Or is it something that you just do out of habit at this point? Does the collection itself have value? Could you perhaps “trim the fat” from this collection by getting rid of duplicates or getting rid of the items you no longer use? Also, could you perhaps cut down on your spending on that hobby? Focus on trimming the things you don’t feel strongly about – if you dig into things that bother you, you’re going to eventually relapse.
2) Swap thinks: You can very easily swap the books/CDs/DVDs you’ve grown bored with others. Clean out your media collection, and trade them with friends/online. The best part? You’ll get a flood of new books (or CDs or DVDs) to enjoy.
3) Cancel unused club memberships: Are you paying dues at a club that you never use? Like, for instance, a gym membership or a club membership? Cancel these club memberships, even if you think you might use them again someday – you can always renew the membership at a later date if it turns out that you actually do miss it.
4) Start a garden: Gardening is an inexpensive hobby if you have a yard. Just rent a tiller, till up a patch, plant some plants, keep it weeded, and you’ll have a very inexpensive hobby that produces a huge amount of vegetables for you to eat at the end of the season. I like planting a bunch of tomato plants, keeping them cared for, then enjoying a huge flood of tomatoes at the end of the summer. We like to eat them fresh, can them, and make tomato juice, sauce, paste, ketchup, pasta sauce, and pizza sauce. Delicious and very inexpensive!
5) Hit the library – hard: Don’t look at a library as just a place to get old books. Look at it as a free place to do all sorts of things. I’ve used it to learn a foreign language, meet people, use the Internet, check out movies and CDs, grab local free newspapers, and