Frugal Fun in the City

City living comes with a lot of high costs, but the city offers a lot in the way of entertainment. At times when we had little money, we were able to fall back on lots of free sources of entertainment to keep us from being bored while we were trying to stabilize our finances. Small towns offer some of these things too, so even if you live in a small town, look into some of these options.
 

* Go to any free festival you find interesting. Over the years, Trucker and I have gone to countless festivals and have never paid a penny to get in. Big cities often have fantastic festivals, and rarely charge admission. In my experience, mid-sized cities are more likely to charge admission, although there are free festivals to be found. I love going to art festivals or blues festivals. Sometimes, I go to other festivals just to broaden my horizons and experience something new. It's a great way to have fun without spending a ton of money. It can even be free if you eat before you leave and bring beverages from home.

* We love to get out deep into the woods for an all day hike, but sometimes car trouble or gas prices keep us from making the journey. On those days, we make a day of walking and exploring in the city. We'll pick a direction or a street and venture out. I pack a snack and a couple water bottles for the journey and we'll usually have a bit of spending money, although we leave the cards and big bucks at home, just in case. A couple of weeks ago, we walked to an ice cream shop to get $.50 cones before walking home. Other times we'll walk to get coffee and then walk home, foraging for wild berries as we go.

* Find out about free access to museums. In Chicago, you can check out passes at any library branch to get into different museums for free (up to 4 people). In my current city, there is no such option, but most of the museums have some option. One museum is free one (very crowded) day a year, another is free every Sunday (with free concerts in the summer!), and a few small museums are free every day. The summer reading program at the library offers a couple one-time free passes for two small museums after you read 4 books during the summer. These are great options for the curious city-dweller, with or without kids.

* Sign up for newsletters with local events. One trendy local site sends out a newsletter with every kind of event going on each weekend. Many of these are way beyond my price range, but there are almost always a few free events going on. Sometimes the events aren't up my alley; sometimes they are the perfect thing for a fun weekend.

* Enjoy the arts. Go to a gallery opening or hop. Watch an art demonstration. Take a long stroll through a neighborhood with a lot of galleries.

* Check with your local theatres. One theatre near us has free symphony performances a few times a year. Another had a free documentary viewing and a meet and greet (with free gourmet ice cream) with the local actor who made it. Yet another has $10 symphony tickets for several shows each year.

* There are likely more movie options in the city than in a small town. You have several theater chains to chose from, so call around for the best matinee prices. Maybe you even have a discount theater. Our's charges $2.25 admission; on Tuesday's it is $1.50! The fancy theatre downtown has a summer movie program. When you buy a strip of 10 tickets, it is only $2.50 each for a really nice experience. Lots of local parks have drive-in movies, so there are lots of movies to chose from. Bring your own popcorn and beverage.

* Art in the park. Many cities offer concerts and plays in the park. These can be fantastic. At one park in my city, it's an all-out thing. People bring short tables and pile them with fine food and pop open a bottle of wine. It's fantastic and costs nothing to get in.

* Find some coffee house culture. Poetry readings or concerts at coffee houses are incredibly frugal events. Often there is no cover, and you can sip your coffee while you enjoy the entertainment. Cost out can be as low as $1.50 a person.

* Go to the library. Not just for books, movies, CDs, magazines, internet, and ebooks (although, certainly check these out while you're there!), the library can be a fantastic source of entertainment. Ask about concerts, movies, lectures and classes at your branch or nearby branches. In one city I lived in, there was a month of financial classes for free at various branches around the city. We bused it out to several events to learn as much as we could. Made for an educational night out and gave us things to talk/dream about on the bus ride home.

* Go to book releases at coffee houses or book stores. These are great fun, depending on the type of book. The best book release I ever went to was for a true-crime mafia book (Trucker and I are obsessed with Mafia movies, so the real-life stories of people we'd heard about was fascinating).

* Take a walking tour of your downtown or a historic neighborhood. Do your research before hand, then venture out. Make sure you know some good trivia to impress your date/interest your kids. Try to hit places with fascinating stories, intricate architecture, or vibrant street art. Stroll around interesting little stores (unless you've got kids that would get bored or destructive) or maybe hit a tiny, very localized museum. If you'd like, take a bit of pocket money to pop into a candy shop or grab ice cream cones if you'd like.

* Visit an ethnic neighborhood for fantastic grocery shopping. I love to visit Chinatown to stock up on my favorite herbal teas. The prices are great, and it's fun. This can also help to kick you out of a cooking rut. Since you're just grocery shopping, it doesn't really cost anything out of the entertainment budget and if you do it right, can save you on your grocery bill.

Even if your expenses are high in other ways, city living does offer some great ways to economize in other areas.

Share your favorite frugal city fun tips in the comments.

Thanksgiving Dinner the Frugal Way

With the holiday coming up, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite ways to save on Thanksgiving dinner. It's easy to overspend on the feast, but with a bit of planning, it can be cheaper. Sorry it's a little late, but hopefully you can still use some of the tips.

* Even if you aren't responsible for buying the turkey for the family gathering or if you are a very small family, buying a big turkey may be worthwhile. There is a lot of meat for a good price during the Thanksgiving sales. I always stock up on groceries a week or two before Thanksgiving (staples or sale items that we need) at a store that has a promotion that gives $10 or $20 off of the cost of a turkey if you spend a certain amount. I commonly get 20 lb turkeys for around $7. I toss it into the freezer until February or so when I'm no longer sick of turkey and roast it on a cold day. After we have roast turkey one day and leftovers the next, I package the meat up into chunks or shreds (to use every last bit of the meat)  and freeze in meal-sized portions. I make s big batch of stock from the carcass. We get dozens of meals from that one turkey, making it a fantastic deal, even for a household of two (Here's a post on how I make the most of chicken; use turkey the same way).

* Make your own gravy instead of buying those packets. It's easy and pretty close to free when you use pan drippings, flour and water. If you'd like, you can use stock instead of the water for even more flavor.

* Start saving bread ends or stale bread for stuffing; you can start up to a month before the holiday. Cut into small pieces and allow to thoroughly air dry. As long as it gets really dry (if it's humid, use a dehydrator, then store in air-tight packaging), it won't mold. Make your own stuffing for cost savings, better flavor and fewer questionable ingredients. When bakeries sell bread cubes or crumbs, all they do is save the bread leftover at the end of the day, cube it and dry it in a low oven. Then they bag it up and save it for up to a month or longer before the holiday. It keeps well. Doing it yourself not only saves on the purchase price of the bread cubes, but also reduces your waste since it is the perfect way to use up bread that gets stale before you can use it.

* Make you own pies, even if you have to buy the pie dough. The cost savings of making it yourself versus buying it is phenomenal. At the bakeries I've worked at, pies sell for $12-20, so it is worthwhile.

* Load up on veggie sides. Vegetables are cheap, and if one is going to overindulge, it's better to overindulge on corn, green beans and carrots than turkey and pie.

* As you prep vegetable dishes for main meal, save the peels and trimmings from sweet potatoes, pumpkin rinds, green bean ends and strings, onion skins, carrot peels, celery leaves, garlic skins, winter squash rinds or corn cobs. Put them in a large freezer bag and toss into the freezer. After dinner, package up the turkey carcass in a couple of freezer bags. Later on you can use all this goodness to make a massive batch of turkey stock that will be perfect for warming, healing and practically free winter soups.

* It may be too late for this year, but in future years you can always plan a potluck. My mother's family does this with the host family supplying the turkey and drinks and everyone else bringing sides, desserts and breads. It's not expensive for anyone, and lower income families can bring cheaper dishes. When we were on a very tight budget, I was able to bring bread that I got for free from my jobs. Everyone enjoyed the bread that was fancier than we'd usually had, and no one knew that I hadn't spent a penny. There's always enough leftover for anyone who wants to bring home something to eat later.

* Excess is not necessary. I don't know where "thankful" turned into "stuffed-full". Especially if you're trying to watch your weight/eat healthfully, avoid going to extremes. It's not a failure if you don't have to undo your pants buttons. Plan a nice, special meal with plenty for everyone to eat, but there is no need for everyone to have 4 desserts.

What are your favorite ways to save money on Thanksgiving?

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World's Longest Yard Sale Adventure, and tips

Late last night Trucker and I got in from our annual adventure to the World's Longest Yard sale. This yard sale runs from Addison, MI to Gadsden, AL for a total of 690 miles. Some regions there are only a few sales per mile, and some regions go all out and have festivals, city-wide yard sales and church rummage sales. At some point over the years we've gone, we've covered 150 miles of it.

Bottles were $.50 apiece. Bottle cappers/stoppers were $.10-.50 each

I worked a short morning shift on Saturday, and Trucker met me at my job so as soon as I got off work, we headed out. I'd packed a lunch for us and we ate before heading out. We arrived at 127 at 1 PM and had about 5 hours of shopping before most of the vendors were closed for the evening. We visited several yard sales, a few barn sales (always my favorites), and many church rummage sales and flea market style sales. The latter two are wonderful because you park once and hit a dozen yard sales at once. It's time efficient and saves on gasoline.

Half apron for $1.

Around 6, most of the vendors were covering their tables with tarps, so we just drove to the hotel. I knew that generally we cover 30-760 miles in a day, so I made reservations at a hotel that was 55 miles from our starting point. We were about 8 miles from the hotel when most of the sales had closed for the day, so we didn't miss much. There was a pool at the hotel so we took a short swim. Since I'd packed all of our food and drink for the trip, we went out for dinner (When travelling we do one meal out per day and eat from the cooler for the other meals). I'd found BOGO coupons for a Mexican restaurant that was located a half mile from the hotel. The next morning, we got a free continental breakfast at the hotel which, while not the healthiest, was good enough to start the day.

Before we headed out in the morning, we took everything out of the car and rearranged it. We packed small items in multiple bags into fewer bags, and played tetris with the wine cabinet, barbell set and garden tools we'd purchased the previous day. The car had seemed to be almost full since everything was tossed in haphazardly the previous day. By rearranging, we freed up over twice the space. We filled our travel mugs with coffee from the hotel room (terrible though it was) and we were off!

We were a little early getting started at 8 AM, so we drove past several sales that were still covered up. We hit a lot of community sales on Sunday and most places were ready to haggle. We would both wander around and pick up everything we wanted from a particular sale, then go together to pay so we could offer a slightly smaller amount for the lot. We were rarely turned down. The only time I had a bad experience was when a woman snapped at me for not wanting to pay the price she stated for a wooden crochet hook. I hadn't needed one, but thought if the price was low, I'd buy it to put in my gift stash. Oh well. Otherwise, I didn't have any bad experiences.

$5 for 6 lbs of Kentucky Wonder beans and $1 for 3 lbs of squash

Most of the people were lovely. I talked with one person on dehydrating. One woman's grandmother had recently passed and they were selling the contents of her house. She told me a couple of endearing stories about her grandma. A little boy had set up a stand to sell his garden produce, but he was off petting a puppy someone else was trying to sell, so I talked with his dad and grandpa as I loaded up on chemical free, homegrown squash and green beans (I paid $5 for 6 lbs of green beans and $1 for 3 lbs of squash)



Driving through the back roads of Kentucky, I fell in love with the hills. It seems every half mile we were hitting a spot with a view. At one point, Trucker pulled over to hit a yard sale and when I got out of the car, I gasped and called him over. We stood at the top of a hill overlooking a meadow with a pond tucked away off to the side and a view of rolling, wooded hills. I told him, "Now THIS is what I'm talking about when I say I want to move away to the country."

I bought this dehydrator for $5. It's
older and cheap, but it will help as I
preserve the harvest this year.

Socket set for $15 and was on Trucker's list.

All told, we spent $50 on the hotel (hotel.com deal, along with swagbucks points earned, along with credit card cash back), $40 on gas (And how I love the gas mileage our new car gets compared to the truck!), and $150 in cash for all food purchased out, yard saling, and incidentals. We had budgeted $300 in cash, but were picky in what we purchased. Some of the purchases were to resell or to use in crafts to sell online this winter. Other items were on our list to purchase at some point within the next few months. We spent some money on books and CDs and a couple oddities, but the non-essentials totaled around $40.

Two of my sisters work for a nursing home.
I found these scrubs for $1 each.

I like to keep an eye out for things that friends and family members need. This year, I was looking out for yarn for one friend, a giant stock pot for a coworker, an industrial mixer for my boss (I knew it was a long shot, but I was sure hoping) and scrubs for my sisters. I found some yarn and scrubs, and loved being able to find a good deal for the people I care about.

Bench Scraper for $1.

Tips:

$1 for a book by my favorite author? Yes please!

* Make a list, but don't stick to it. I always make a very detailed list to carry with me. On it I list everything I need for the house or projects I'm working on with measurements and other items needed such as seasonal clothing, items for hobbies, or the last few Ray Bradbury books I don't have yet (he's my favorite author). I have a missing drawer pull on my desk, so I wrote down that I needed 7 drawer pulls (so they'd match) and the measurements needed. However, I didn't find any drawer pulls or the fluted pastry wheel I was looking for. I did find Bradbury's Zen In the Art of Writing, so the list was useful. Generally, make the list, and read over it in the morning before heading out and perhaps again in the afternoon. This will remind you to look through the boxes of kitchen utensils or tools for items that you might forget to look for otherwise. However, don't be a slave to the list (this is one of the few times I will ever say this). Sometimes you'll find something perfect that you just wouldn't think to add to the list. Case in point, I found reusable bottle caps. I never would have thought to put that on the list, but now that I ferment water kefir and am going to start home brewing beer, these will save me a lot of money.

This small cast iron skillet cost me $3.

* Clean out the car before you go and pack light. Take out an items that you absolutely don't need and don't pack extra stuff if you are planning on making a multiple day trip of it. Every item you bring takes up space that you might need for a big purchase. You don't want to have to pass on the bargain wood burning stove that you need for the house you're building because you packed a second bag for the overnight trip and now have no room in the trunk. Packing light will also save you on gas, at least for the first half of the trip.

Cloth napkins for $.25 each.

* Budget. Figure out how much you are okay with spending and pull that much out in cash. Lock your credit/debit cards in the glove box. Spend only the cash you have (exception, if there is an item that you need to purchase that you find at a fantastic bargain, you could always hit an ATM). If you are going for multiple days, divide your cash into an envelope for each day so you practice self control the first days and don't blow the entire trip's cash right away.

$1 for the tea ball; $.25 each for the jacks and thimble.

* Bring small bills and coin. It's easier to haggle when you have small bills than to ask someone to come down from $20 to $15 for an item, then hand them a $20 bill and ask for change. I like to have a roll or two of quarters to avoid having to fuss with change.

Outlet covers for $.50 each for the bathroom redo.

* Bring all of your tote bags. A lot of folks come prepared with a year's supply of plastic bags for their yard sale, but some people don't have bags on hand for you. Plus, you may not want to bring any more plastic into your house than you have to. Sometimes you'll park the car and walk around a town-wide sale, or a flea market style sale. At these times, it's really helpful to have a tote bag to slide small purchases into so you don't have to walk around with armfuls of stuff while trying to shop. When it's full, you can just toss it into the trunk and grab another. It's also helpful to have some larger totes so you can place medium-sized items in them to keep items from rolling around.

* Bring your own food and drink. It will save you money over going to a restaurant or buying from one of the stands set up. It will also allow you to stay on the road and not have to stop and wait for your food to be prepared. Since these sales only last a few days, you don't want to miss a moment! We bring travel mugs and a thermos with coffee for the morning and a small cooler of iced drinks for the afternoon. Don't bring too large a cooler or you'll waste valuable space that could allow you to purchase that bulky item. Bring a lunch that won't go bad like pasta salad with a non-dairy salad dressing. Bring some dried fruit, trail mix, granola bars or easy-to-eat fruit like bananas or apples.

Lavender scented candle, free the last few hours
of the sale.

* Be prepared to haggle. Sometimes people are weird about their items and think that because they paid $20 a decade ago, you should be willing to pay $15 for it. Most people will consider reasonable offers, so it can't hurt to ask. The best times to haggle are Saturday evening right before closing because some people aren't going to set up on Sunday and all day Sunday is fair game. The last couple hours of the sale, some people are willing to take pretty much anything. Last year I was at a sale at closing bell where a woman wouldn't consider even budging on her $15 cookbooks, but this year there were many sales where people were saying "All items on the tarp are 4 for $1" or "Everything except the furniture is free."

* The first day of the sale is the best for selection. The last day of the sale is best for bargains. Plan accordingly.

I found this leather purse in a $.50 bin.

* Make it fun. In other years, we'd go for one day then come home in the evening. This year we made a trip of it. There was a pool at the hotel, we went out for dinner (using a BOGO coupon I found online) and enjoyed relaxing in a new city for the evening. The next morning we headed back out, refreshed and ready to go. If you start to get burned out, take a break. Just drive for a bit, or stop at a park for an hour to just relax. Stop at a coffee shop.

$5 for three medium sized woven rugs.

50 lb scale, $10.

* Control your spending for the first few sales. At first, you may get excited and think you're finding some great deals and spend a lot right away. However, I've found that a lot of items pop up at many yard sales at various prices. By not buying right away, you leave yourself open to finding the same item in better condition or at a lower price. For example, I have been passively looking for a vintage scale for awhile. I wanted to be able to weigh my garden produce to see what varieties are powerhouses and which ones aren't pulling their weight. I saw a couple for $50 and that was too much for me. I was at another yard sale when I saw another, right before a woman picked it up. I heard her haggle with the vendor and she bought it for $30. I was disappointed, but two yard sales later, I found one for $10. I knew that it was a great price since I'd been comparison shopping all day long and didn't hesitate to scoop it up. Another time, I was looking at some woven rugs, but didn't buy them because they were a higher dollar amount and would take up the rest of the cash I had for the day. At the very next sale, I bought 3 smaller woven rugs that were equally beautiful for 1/4 the price of one larger one.

Knives were 2 for $5; wrench was $.50

* Be careful when going off route, especially later in the sale. While you drive the route, you'll see signs for yard sales off the beaten path. These can be fantastic. Since most people don't go off-route, you may find a better selection, and since they haven't gotten as many customers, they may be more willing to haggle with you. On the other hand, sometimes you'll follow signs for 8 miles before hitting the sale only to find a few odd items. When deciding whether to go off-route, opt for "Huge sales", "Barn sales" and "Multi-Family sales" as these are more likely to be worth the time and effort. If you are going on the last day, don't go off road for any sale that doesn't list that day as many people don't have sales on Sundays, but don't take down their signs.

Cast Iron pan, $3.

Here are some of the weird things we found that didn't come home with us.

To find a long yard sale near you, check out the list at Frugal Living.

Have you ever gone to a long yard sale? Any tips you have that I missed? Any fun stories or fantastic finds?

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Frugal Tips I Learned from My Grandma

My wonderful Grandma passed away this past week. She was a passionate and fun woman and I adored her. She taught me a great many things about frugal living, many of which are a part of my daily life. Here are some of my favorite tips.

Shop at thrift stores. Grandma used to drive me all over hitting the coolest thrift stores. I still visit tiny hole-in-the-wall thrifts that she took me to 20 years ago.

Forage for free food. She used to take me out to pick wild berries or cherries from trees on her friend's property (with their permission, of course) that would otherwise have gone to waste.

Visit farms for the best produce. My grandma would take me to pick your own farms and orchards. We would pick 5-gallon bucket after 5-gallon bucket for much less than purchasing at the grocery store. This would be the best way to have enough produce to...

Preserve food when you have a surplus. The basement of her home was lined with lots of canned fruits and veggies. She always got the food for free or at a bargain and could stockpile summer's bounty for winter, when produce would be more expensive.

DIY can be a fun and cheap way to decorate your home. My grandma's house was filled with crafts she made with friends. She was re-purposing items that would otherwise have been thrown away long before it became cool.

Remember that time is a better gift than money. When I would spend the night at her house, Grandma used to stay up til 3:30 or so watching movies and giggling with me. While she also gave me many gifts over the years, those late nights eating sherbet and spending time together were the best gifts.

Happiness is Recreating Memories

Tonight Trucker and I recreated a date night we had over 5 years ago when we had just moved into our first apartment together. We were hard up financially. I'd just moved from two states away and didn't have a job lined up yet. We had spent what little money we had stocking up the pantry with some of the basics, filling in the gaps with cleaning supplies and buying a new bed. So even though we were young and crazy in love, we didn't have any money for fancy date nights.

One of our early evenings in that first little apartment, I was craving smores. We didn't have a yard, let alone permission from the landlord to start a fire on his property. So we grabbed marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate and chop sticks. We roasted our marshmallows over the flame on the gas range and giggled and talked while we ate our delicious snacks.

Now we're living in our first house together. And while our income is a little higher, we're spending every little bit of extra money painting the bathroom, putting up shelves in the laundry room and all the hundreds of little things that need done. And so tonight, we grabbed our marshmallows (on sale for $.79), graham crackers (generic brand $2), chocolate ($1) and chopsticks and made our smores over the gas range and talked about how far we've come.

Romance doesn't have to be costly. Sometimes the very best date nights are the ones where you spend nothing but time together.

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Family Gatherings that Save Money

Getting together with friends or family almost always costs quite a lot for a day's entertainment. When I want to spend time with Trucker, my parents and three sisters, if we are going a traditional entertainment route, it is going to cost $100 or more for a single day. We avoid the traditional and found some great alternatives. We have just as much fun, sometimes much more, save money on the costs of entertainment and often find ways to save money as well.

Fishing is a great way to spend the day. It's relaxing and quite pleasurable. A family friend allows us to fish in his two ponds for free. If we are ever unable to fish there, we will buy fishing licenses. They cost around $15 apiece for a year. Spread out over the warm months, it is a very cheap method of entertainment. An added bonus is that we take our meager catch home, where my dad and I clean the fish. We usually only have enough for a fish fry. Perhaps eventually we will bring home enough to freeze some for later.

Mushroom hunting is great exercise and great fun. Several friends throughout the state allow us to wander through their woods searching desperately for morels and puffballs. Sometimes we find none, other times we bring home enough for a few meals  and some extras to dry.

Wild-crafting is a favorite pastime for my sister and I. We go for walks , talking and picking wild berries, acorns, wild onions, chickweed, chicory, red clover blossoms and digging up dandelion roots. Then we'll sit in the kitchen to clean it all up and preserve it, often by drying.

My mother has a few apple trees on her property. During the harvest season, I go over to her house for processing day. My grandparents come over, my sisters stop by after or before work and the seven of us preserve it all. Mum is known for her apple pie, so most of the apples are chopped and frozen in batch-sized portions. Seconds are peeled and chopped for applesauce. The peels and cores are made into cider (see here for instructions on making cider without special equipment). The seven of us can get through more than two wheelbarrows full in a day. We split the cost of cinnamon, sugar and freezer bags and share all of the proceeds.

 Preserving food is a great way to spend time with a couple friends. Split up the costs between everyone for produce, ingredients, equipment and supplies. You can plan to can tomato sauce or jam/jelly. You can chop up vegetable blends to freeze for stir-fries or casseroles. You can dig up dandelions to dry and roast for dandelion "coffee".

Pick-Your-Own-Farms are great fun for an afternoon. Go to a strawberry field or a cherry or apple orchard. Split the cost and the harvest. If you'd like, you can then go home and make jam.

Other ideas are quilting bees, knit-ins, chopping firewood, planting a garden, and cooking dinner together.

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Longing for Poverty

I am not rich. My income is in one of the lower brackets. However, I'm making more money now that I have in the last few years. Truth? I kind of miss being poor.

Sure, I know that I'm in a good place. I have stability and am saving for a house of my own. I own my truck, and am not without anything I need. I suppose I should be glad, but I still long for some of the aspects of my lower-income life.

When the stock market crashed in 2008, my business failed and Trucker's hours were cut back. Once I got a job after 3 months of looking, I still only got 15 hours a week. Trucker was working 25. Since we were living in Chicago, rent was high. We had very little money left after paying rent and our utility bills. I only had $10 a week for groceries and had only a few bucks (literally) left for fun money. We were really happy.

We had lots of time to explore our city and spend time together. We played board games, went swimming in Lake Michigan, and used the library extensively. -

We had dollar date night twice a week. It wasn't anything particularly grand, but we had some of our best dates during that time.  For example, McDonald's rolled out their McCafe and gave away free 6 oz lattes on Mondays. We would walk a mile to the nearest location, each would get a latte and we'd purchase two pies for $1. We would sit and laugh together or walk around the neighborhood. Other times, Baskin Robbins had 59c ice cream cones on Wednesdays, or Dunkin Donuts would offer 25c iced coffee. During the worst month, we would walk to the grocery store and get a 25c soda from the vending machine to split as we'd take a two hour long walk.

We would spend one of our many days off by walking to the Chicago Public Library and check out a museum pass. We would walk or bike several miles away to enjoy the displays. We went to nearly every free festival in the city, from Blues Fest to Celtic Fest. We went to the free movies in Millennium Park.

We didn't have money, and sometimes did without the things we needed (such as new socks; ours were darned over and over). We weren't saving for future goals, and we weren't very secure. But we had something that is too easily lost: time. What we lacked in funds, we more than made up in creativity and innovation. We weren't bored and it was the time that we first really got to know each other and became incredible friends.

I may never be in such dire circumstances again, and I should hope to never be so close to the edge. However, I try to find a balance, somewhere between enough time and enough money.