Eight Things to Do When You're Broke

Stuff to Do when You Have No Money 

If you are living on a tight budget, you aren't alone. Not everyone is included in todays economy.  Fortunately, you can still slow down, take a deep breath, and have a good day. Here are some things to do when you don't have any money.

The good news is that the bills for this pay period are covered. But, the bad news is that there is barely enough left over for food and gas to get to work. It looks like another flat broke weekend. We're a little stretched for funds so we'll have to find a few things to do on a really tight budget. If you don't have any pocket money, here are a few basic activities that we do when we are broke:

1. Savor an Old Rerun. We still have cable. It's good for a few things. In the morning, my wife enjoys an old episode of 90210. In the afternoon, we'll check out a couple of episodes of Miami Vice during a marathon. The critics will say what they will, but television remains one of the best deals going. Even if you are watching free TV, old re-runs are great.

2. Cuss. If you are broke and frustrated, go ahead and cuss. As comedian Lewis Black has noted, you aren't going to say something like, "Oh fiddlesticks!" There are lots of things to cuss about in today's economic climate. If you don't have kids underfoot, a little creative cussing will go a long way towards relieving the tension. Let loose. You'll feel better.

3. Make a Good Lunch. If you are going to be home, you might as well make eating a good experience. I bust open a can of chicken breast and slice up half an onion, a tomato, and a stalk of celery. A couple of spoons full of good mayonnaise, a few shakes of cayenne pepper, some hot sauce, and the last four pieces of bread are all I need to make a good chicken salad. I kick it up a notch with some Doritos Flamas from the local Dollar Tree Store. I went a little heavy on the cayenne so I'm glad we have an ice tea machine. If you don't have any money to go out, it's important to savor the food you have in the house and make the most of your dining experience. Even if you are having super cheap food for a recession, presentation is everything!

4. Blog. My wife settles in for some online gaming and I update my blogs. I've got nine blogs now. From The Watch Dude to the Daily Diecast Car, I have a lot of fun blogging. Plus, if people keep on clicking through on the advertisements, I'll get a handy hundred dollars about seven months from now. In retrospect, I guess it's a good thing I didn't throw out the leftover heels on that lunchtime loaf of bread.

5. Write. It's time to write a few articles for online media outlets. May be you'll be able to write your way out of financial problems. I'm trying. I've even started a book. Of course, starting books is easy. Finishing them is kind of tough. But, I find that it's pretty easy to write on a tablet like the Kindle Fire.

6. Walk the Dog. Even if you are broke, it's good to get out of the house. You can't beat the companionship of a faithful dog and dog walking is good exercise. If you even say, "park" our dog is ready to go. Having a dog is one of the great joys of life and, no matter what your station or circumstance may be, a dog will have a great attitude about it.

7. Take Digital Pictures. As much as I love my old film cameras, when money is tight, it's great to have a nice digital camera. I throw my Kodak Z950 Digital Camera into my pocket for the walk. I can take a ton of pictures and it won't cost a dime to put them on our computers.

8. Go Scrapping. There is lots of free stuff on Craigslist and around apartment complex trash compactors on move out weekends. If you look around, you can probably find lots of cool stuff for absolutely free. A few weeks ago, I found a free television that works great! It's easy to find old tables, cabinets, dressers, and book cases that will look great with a coat of paint.

If you are broke, there are still plenty of ways to pass the time. While your day might not be as fun or fulfilling when you are broke, you can at least take a deep breath, relax, and have a decent day.

(This article was reprinted from Yahoo Contributors Network.)

Dirt Cheap Hobbies - Birdwatching (or Birding)

Even if you are flat broke, it's important to have hobbies, interests, and passions.  It's important to maintain them to relieve stress.  Unfortunately, many hobbies require expensive equipment.  However, one hobby is practically free - Birdwatching.  Some serious hobbyists call it birding.  No matter what you call it watching birds is cheap.  To learn more, here is the run down on what you need to get started on the cheap:

Dirt Cheap Hobbies - Birding

You can spend hours looking at birds, taking notes on their behavior, and checking them off of your list of birds that are native to your area.  If you have a camera with a zoom you can take pictures of them.  If you have a few crumbs or just a few dollars for birdseed, you can feed them.  You can improve your environment buy setting up a birdbath or making sure that plants grow to sustain your local bird population.  But, best of all, these things cost little or no money.

Here is a basic pair of binoculars to get started:

Things to Do When You're Broke

Broke?  No money except for some very basic essentials?  Eating Ramen Noodles and waiting until your next paycheck rolls in?  Gotcha!  Been there.  Done that.  It's kind of boring, too.  Here are a some things to do when you're broke:

Eight Things to Do When You're Broke

If only we'd saved all our extra coins . . .

How to Go Sailing for Free

The wind is free, but sailboats and boat maintenance can be expensive. Fortunately, there are some free ways to go sailing without incurring the expense of a boat.

Photo by Ankalole [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

The wind is free, but sailboats and boat maintenance can be expensive. However, there is an inescapable reality that makes it easy to go sailing for free. It takes people to safely run a sailboat. Typically, a sailboat needs at least one crew member to handle the front sails on the boat (jib and spinnaker), and to help during docking. If you know how to sail and are willing to volunteer as a crew member, all you have to do is find a boat and skipper in need. 

Of course, before you can sail for free, you need to acquire at least some basic sailing and seamanship skills. Sailing classes are offered by a variety of organizations. A couple of weekend classes from a local recreation department or sailing club should be sufficient for sailing in confined waters of a lake, river, or bay. For open-ocean sailing, more advanced coursework and experience should be acquired. You'll also want to take a basic seamanship class from the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary or U.S. Power Squadron to understand the basics of safety, seamanship, marlinspike skills, navigation, and communications. These classes will equip you to contribute aboard a boat and can also be valuable places to make connections with boat owners.


Once you have the rudimentary skills, you'll need some basic sailing gear and attire. First, you'll want to have some boat shoes from a reputable company. While some department store shoes may look like boat shoes, you'll want the grip of genuine boat shoes like Sperry Topsiders. Conventional sneakers can leave marks on boat decks and will also mark you as a beginner. You'll also want suntan lotion, a good hat, a water bottle, and sunglasses. If you always bring your own bottle of water, you'll be prepared if your skipper offers drinks that you don't like. You should also get foul weather gear and some safety equipment as your sailing career progresses.


After you've learned to sail and gotten a minimum of appropriate gear, you'll need to scout out sailing opportunities. You can use the internet to find sailing clubs and sailing marinas in your area. You can also find many websites dedicated to matching skippers with crew. A simple search on "sailing + skippers + crew" will yeild a treasure trove of crew matching opportunities.

To pursue the sailing club option, if you find a sailing club, find out what kinds of activities they sponsor. Many clubs sponsor sail boat races in the evenings or on weekends. You may be able to join one of these racing-oriented sailing clubs as a crew member. They'll make your name and number available to skippers needing crew. Alternatively, you may also be able to help the club out on a race committee boat. These opportunities will help you make the connections needed to secure a crew position. More casual recreational sailing clubs may sponsor group sails, cookouts, and even own boats that they will loan out to qualified members.

If you find a marina with sail boats, but without clubs, you may still be able to secure a crew position by visiting the marina and looking for bulletin boards. Many marinas and boating supply stores maintain bulletin boards where people can look for crew or offer to be crew. You could post some contact information and see if you can find a skipper through a bulletin board. If you are visiting the marina, you can strike up conversations with various boat owners that you meet and scope out the sailing community in the area. They may be able to point you towards clubs that are poorly publicized or towards skippers who need some help. Sailing is a community. To go sailing, you simply need to become a part of it.

It takes a little time, but once you have the skills and the connections, it is easy to go sailing for free.

(This article is a republication of an article that I originally posted on Yahoo Contributors Network.)

Dirt Cheap Hobbies

You may not have any money, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun.  You've just got to cultivate some cheap hobbies.  It's cheap to roll dice, play cards, watch birds, watch the stars, play Dungeons & Dragons, or just go hiking.

Photo By:  Javier Mediavilla Ezquibela (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), 

CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or 

CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons