Ways to Entertain Yourself at Home to Keep from Spending

In these lean times, it’s important to find ways to entertain yourself and even more important to keep yourself from spending your hard earned money on things you don’t need.

We’ve all been there, bored at home on a Sunday with nothing to do. Where do we end up? Most often shopping, or at the mall, going to dinner or the bar. Spending money on things we really don’t need.

Here are a few ideas’ to keep you occupied free or very little.

Read: I love to read and suggest it to anyone writhing in boredom. I’m not talking about trips to Barns & Noble or Borders. No orders from Amazon…although Amazon.com is a great place to find used books at a discount and I often take advantage of the wish list option to keep a running list of the books I’d like to read.

Used bookstores like Bookman’s or Goodwill are the best place to find cheap books. You can usually find recent new releases that people have already gone through as well as unusual finds that you may have never considered while shopping a traditional bookstore. There are also used book exchanges online that allow members to swap books at very low cost. You could always trade or borrow from friends; everyone I know has a couple of books sitting around collecting dust.

Exercise: We all need to do it and the biggest excuse not to is “not enough time”. So why not check this off your list when you’re bored at home? Many simple exercises don’t cost a penny. Go for a run, do some push ups or sit ups.

Comb sites like craigslist.com or visit the local Good Will to find cheap workout equipment. Many apartment complexes also have workout rooms available to residents at no additional cost. If it’s already part of your rent, take advantage!

Garden: Save money on your grocery bill and entertain yourself. Gardening doesn’t require much space. Find pots from garage sales or on craigslist.com and great an indoor potted garden or use any available space in your yard.

Surf the Net: The internet is where I spend most of my time and it can be a great place to blow a few hours. Surf forums, read articles, look for helpful information, watch movies, listen to the radio, there is a plethora of things to do in cyber space.

Movies at Home: Just like cheap books, you can rent cheap movies. RedBox is a great place to find rentals for just $1 each. You can also find movies at your local thrift store and Netflix is a great place to get a range of new releases for very little cash. Invite friends over and have each of them bring an item for a movie night.

Play: Remember when we were kids, playing outside was the most entertaining thing you could ever do. Go for walks or runs outside, play in the snow if you live in an area where it snows, or play in the rain.

Color in coloring books from the thrift or $.99 store, print your own coloring pages online or draw your own scenes and color those. Make play dough from salt, flour, and water.

These are great activities to do with your kids if you have them, but nothing says you can’t do these things as an adult either. Get creative; it’ll be good for your state of mind to act a little silly!

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Tags: pennies, People, Shopping, Time