Social life breaking the bank? Find frugal friends.
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Trent Hamm Guest blogger
When you spend time with your friends, what do you do?
Do you go to each other鈥檚 houses for potluck dinners, or do you go out on the town for dinner?
When you watch movies together, do you toss a DVD someone already owns into the DVD player at a friend鈥檚 house, or do you head to the theater?
When you have a party, do you try to outdo each other with expensive finger foods and beverages, or do you just enjoy whatever鈥檚 available?
When you鈥檙e bored and call up a friend for something to do, do you get together and play a board game or do some crafts, or do you head out for a round of golf or some shopping?聽
The answers to these questions aren鈥檛 absolutes, but your answers likely trend a certain way. If they trend toward the side of spending, you might want to look at rebooting your social circle a bit and find friends that will encourage you to have a lot of fun on the cheaper side.
How do you find frugal friends, though?
Your best bet is to聽go where frugal people would go.聽Look for social groups that don鈥檛 require a significant amount of money to be spent to enjoy the activity. Free classes at the community center is one good place, as are book clubs sponsored by the local library. Volunteer activities are another good way to meet people whose social activity isn鈥檛 necessarily focused on spending.
When you engage in these activities,聽look for people to build friendships with.聽Be outgoing. Get to know as many of the people there as you can. Look particularly for the ones that click with you in some fashion.
罢丑别苍,听engage in frugal social activities with those people.聽Invite them over for a potluck dinner. Or to watch a movie. Or to play a board game. Or to work on a craft project. Or to make a bunch of meals in advance. The number of frugal things people can do together and have fun is almost infinite.
Before you know it, you鈥檒l have cultivated a social circle whose normal behavior is one that conserves money rather than a social circle that spends money. Not only will that save you money in terms of your social outings, but it will also save you money in terms of the social reinforcement of frugal behavior when you鈥檙e聽not聽around your friends.
This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available聽at Amazon聽and at bookstores everywhere.
