53 Activities For a Money-Free Weekend

As a guy that loves sports, I considerable myself more than blessed to have 3 boys that are starting to love sports just as much (if not more) than me.

Some of the best times we’ve had on the weekends is playing outside with any sort of ball: baseball, football, kickball. Heck, any ball will work!

For any family that craves family time without going broke, this is some of the best times you can have.

It’s a solid reminder you don’t have to spend money to have a good time.

Obviously, you need to spend money to live, but you can help your cause by creating days when you don’t spend any money at all.

Money-free weekends are the best times to do this, since money spent on weekends is often more about entertainment than survival.

The idea is to avoid spending money on any unnecessary expenses. That means that while you’ll make mortgage, utility and debt payments, you’ll avoid discretionary spending, such as eating out, going to the movies or attending concerts or sporting events.

It’s something like going on a diet, except you’re doing it with money instead of food. By cutting down on the number of days you spend money, you also cut down on the amount of money you spend.

But in order to do that successfully, you will need to find activities that will keep you busy and engaged, and not feeling bad about giving up the things that money can buy. Here are 53 of those activities.

Not only will they keep you busy free of charge, but many of them will also enable you to either save or make more money even when you aren’t having a money free weekend.

1. Attend a Free Concert

Get a copy of one of those free circulation newspapers that covers your area, and see if there any free concerts being offered locally. A free concert may be given by an upstart local, or by more established entertainers who are being sponsored by a local organization. It can be a no cost afternoon or evening out.

2. Revisit Your Old Music Collection

You probably have a fair amount of old music that you’ve accumulated over the years. You bought it because you liked it back then, but probably still like it now – maybe even more than you last time you heard it. You may even have enough music to fill several hours.

3. …And Your Old Movie Collection

If you’re like most people, you probably have a big collection of old movies that you haven’t watched since the day you bought them. That happens because once you buy a movie you know you can watch it any time you want.

If you’re looking for no-cost ways to entertain yourself, get them out of storage and plan to watch them on money free weekends.

4. And While You’re At It, Watch Your Home Movie Collection

Most people are much better at taking home movies and videos than they are at watching them. But if you’re looking for some no-cost entertainment, spending some part of your weekend watching them can be an uplifting experience of reconnecting with happy times from the past.

Trust me, you can spend hours watching family movies and not even realize it.

5. Clean Out Your Garage (or Basement, or Closets or Spare Room)

You probably have one or more spaces in your house that have become your storage areas. By cleaning them out, you free up space in your house, giving you more room for better purposes.  And trust me, there’s nothing better than decluttering!

A good example is a garage. People sometimes have so much stuff stored in their garage that there’s no room for their cars. You can fix that in a weekend.

6. If You Work at Home, Reorganize Your Office

When you work at home you probably spend nearly all of the time working on the most important aspects of your job or business.

In the process, your workspace can become an organizational nightmare. Take time on a money free weekend to reorganize your office. The better organization will likely make you a more productive worker, and eventually increase your income.

7. Plot a New Future Direction or Two

A money free weekend is the perfect time to sit down with your spouse or your family to plan a serious new direction for your future.

Take a look at every area of your life – your health, your faith, your friendships, your employment or business, or even the place where you live.

Set goals for where you want to go in each of those categories, then create strategies and tactics that will make it happen.

8. Complete at Least One Task that You’ve Been Avoiding

It’s probably human nature that we spend more time running away from an unpleasant task than it would take to actually do it. But once it’s completed, you no longer have to worry about it.

Identify what that task is, and get it done on a money free weekend. That will free up your mind for more productive activities, rather than figuring out ways to not do a job that you been dreading.

9. Get Out in Nature and Just Take it in

This is about taking the saying get out and smell the roses literally. Most of us don’t spend much time out in nature, if only because we know it’s there and that we can go to any time we choose.

But choose to do it now. It won’t cost a thing, and if you get out and just take it all in – the sights, the sounds, the smells, the harmony – you just might clear your head in a way you never imagined you could.

My guess is you’ll be back at this activity again and again. It can change your whole outlook on life.

That’s kind of what you want to accomplish on money free weekends.

10. Organize Photos and Photo Albums

You probably have packages, boxes and piles of photos stashed somewhere in your house (probably in one of those closets that you’re avoiding cleaning out).

But if you want to participate in an activity that will hold your interest, but won’t cost you any money, organizing your photos and photo albums is an outstanding way to do it.

Family movies, videos, and photos are a chronicle of your life, and spending time getting them organized can be a lot of fun.

And if times are a little tough in your household right now, looking at photos of better times could remind you that even better times are in store for your future.

11. Plan Out Your Next Vacation

Just because you can’t spend any money this weekend doesn’t mean you can’t plan for the time when you can. And this can be a real stress reliever in the dead of winter. Check out prices, plans and photos of where you want to go. Videos are even better. As you make your plans, the upcoming vacation will become real, and provide some relief to your money free weekend.

12. Have Family or Friends Over for a Potluck Dinner

This should be as informal as possible. Prepare a dish that you can make using only ingredients that you have in your home already. Your guests should do the same.

It won’t matter that you won’t be eating gourmet fare – the fact that you’re getting together with other people is the real pay off. If need be, let your guests know that you are working this into a money free weekend. They may even start doing the same thing themselves.

13. Start Learning a New Skill

Is there a skill that could improve your life, your job performance, your relationships, or even your golf game? Spend some weekend time learning that new skill.

Plan to learn several skills on your various money free weekends, and those weekends will literally become life-changing. As far as cost, you can learn a lot just from surfing the web.

There’s plenty of free information that can provide the basics for just about any skill. Once you learn those, take it as far as you like.

14. Start Learning a New Language

This is another form of learning a new skill, but extending it to a new language. You can start your study on the web. For example, go to YouTube, and enter “how to learn Spanish” and you’ll see dozens of videos that can get you started.

No, you’re not likely to master another language on YouTube, but it will get you started free of cost.

15. Cook a Meal You Never Have Time to Make

Busy schedules take a real toll on meal preparation. This is the reason why more meals are consumed outside the home than ever before, and why many at-home meals are prepackaged.

People simply don’t have the time to prepare meals anymore. But a money free weekend can give you just the time you need to prepare a more complicated meal.

Pick one you ordinarily don’t make, or even a recipe that’s brand-new, and make an adventure out of it.

This has an added dimension if you have family. Involving everyone in your family in the preparation of a major meal is an excellent family bonding experience. Everyone will be more likely to appreciate a meal that they helped prepare.

16. Do a Detailed Review of Your Retirement Plan

Retirement planning is a passive activity for a lot of people. They participate in a retirement plan at work, set a contribution percentage, make a portfolio allocation, and then let the whole process run on automatic pilot.

But once or twice each year you should do a detailed review of your retirement plan. That will help you to know if you’re on track to reach your retirement goals, or if you need to make changes, either in the amount of your contributions or in your portfolio allocation.

Check out one of the several retirement calculators offered by Bankrate.com and other financial sites. They will help you to know if you’re where you need to be for your retirement.

17. Karaoke Night at Home

If you’re too timid to do this at a club or party, doing it at home could be a way to bring out your inner rock star. It’s a lot of fun, and who knows? You might be preparing yourself to do it in front of more people if you get comfortable with it.

18. Make a YouTube Video on a Topic You’re Interested in

Does this sound like something you’d never do? It doesn’t have to be – millions of people are making videos and putting them on YouTube. All you need is a decent digital camera with video capability. You can create the video, download it on your computer, and then add it to a YouTube account.

The video can be about anything you like. It could be something novel or even downright silly (like a video of your karaoke night at home). Or it could be something more serious, like a how-to video, or a recording of your opinion on an important subject. Remember when the Harlem Shake was a big deal? Yeah, we do, too.

Here’s one good example how a family can have a good time on a Saturday night:

A video could go viral, which opens up a lot of potential opportunities for you. But even if it doesn’t, you’ll acquire a new skill, one that you can use either for professional or entertainment purposes.

19. Figure Out a Way to Lower or Eliminate One Recurring Expense

One of the best uses of a money free weekend is to create strategies that will save you money on an ongoing basis. Finding just a few of these expenses over the course of the year can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year.

That will be over and above the money that you are not spending on your money free weekend. Talk about a win-win!

20. Plan a Quiet Night-In With Your Significant Other

A quiet night at home with your significant other can do more for your relationship than an evening packed with high-cost activities around town.

A candle light dinner, followed by a night of listening to music (or practicing karaoke) can create a bonding experience that more formal dates can’t.

21. Take a Long Walk in Your Own Community

Not only is this completely free and good for your health, but it’s a way to learn more about your community than you ever can by driving through it every day. When you walk, you will learn about various neighborhoods, buildings and local attractions in a more intimate way. There is also a greater likelihood you’ll interact with people that you may never meet otherwise.

22. Take a Long Bike Ride

Another activity that is both cost free and good for your health. It’s also an excellent activity for couples and families. Once again, biking through your community provides the potential to learn more about it, and to meet more people that you won’t in the normal course of your life.

23. Participate in a Physical Activity You’ve Never Tried

This could be some form of exercise, like jogging or biking, but it can also be something fun too. Join a local pickup basketball game or volleyball match. You can also try in-line skating or even skateboarding.

The idea is to pick a new activity. The challenge itself will make it a rewarding activity, and one that won’t cost you any money at all.

24. Call or Visit a Friend or Family Member You Haven’t Seen in a Long Time

Do you ever have those moments of guilt over not calling or visiting certain friends and family members? It happens to all of us – we get busy, the time passes, and we never follow through on our good intentions.

But since new activities are one of the best ways to successfully manage money free weekends, making that call or visit can be just what you need to do something productive and enjoyable. It’s also an excellent way of renewing old relationships.

25. Update Your Resume

Most people only do this when they’re facing the threat of a job loss. But updating your resume is one of those activities that’s always best done when everything is calm.

It enables you to make a realistic assessment of your situation, skills, abilities and goals, and in a way you can’t when your financial survival is threatened.

26. Volunteer – There Are Opportunities All Around You

There’s a Bible verse that addresses this – “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” – Matthew 9:37. So it is when it comes to volunteer work. There are opportunities to serve all around us – in the community, in churches and synagogues and even hospitals. A money free weekend is the perfect time to step up.

Seeing and serving people in need is also a perfect way to reinforce your decision to have money free weekends, since you’ll be exposed to so many people who are experiencing money problems. Volunteering is also an excellent way to give apart from giving money.

27. Put Together a 1,000 Piece Puzzle

If you can get past the fact that this can be tedious, it’s a good way to get deep into concentration over something that has nothing to do with the rest of your life. We all need that from time to time. A 1,000 piece puzzle can keep you busy for as long as you need it to, and probably won’t be done in just one weekend. That’s fine – you can complete it in as many money free weekends as you like.

28. Read a Good Self-Improvement Book

What better way to come out of a money free weekend than with a fresh perspective on your life? There are plenty of good self-improvement books out there, you just have to choose one that’s most relevant to your own situation.

What’s good is that you can choose a book that focuses on a specific area of your life that you want to change. That challenge can be exhilarating to say the least.

29. Start a Vegetable Garden

Nothing gives a greater feeling of control over your existence than the ability to grow at least some of your own food. A backyard vegetable garden won’t enable you to feed yourself or your family completely, but seeing the cycle of planting, growing, harvesting, preparing and eating your own food is downright liberating.

Apart from developing the ability to grow your own food, you may even develop a greater understanding of the importance of healthy eating.

30. Start a Diary or Journal

This can be more beneficial than it sounds on the surface. Writing about your own experiences and feelings has a way of giving you a greater understanding of yourself and of your life.

Thoughts come and go, but writing them out takes time and concentration, and the diary or journal will allow you to go back later and recount earlier times in your life. That can give you insight as to who you are and where you’re at today, as well as provide inspiration on your future direction.

31. Get Some Much Needed Rest

You know all of those weekday mornings when you can’t get out of bed – or those afternoons at work when the 3 o’clock droopies hit hard? Now is your chance to catch up on some much needed rest.

It will prepare you for greater accomplishments in the week ahead.

32. Start Tracing Your Family Tree

You know all those commercials you see for Ancestry.com – admit it, you’re curious, aren’t you? A money free weekend is the perfect time to get that going.

Start by recording your own family history, as far back as you remember it. Then follow Tip #24 above, and start contacting some long lost family members to get even more information.

Once you have the names of people in your lineage from two or three generations back, start searching the web to see what other information you get.

And if you run into any roadblocks, you can sign up for Ancestry.com when your money free weekend is over.

33. Start an Exercise Regimen

Have you been putting off starting an exercise regimen? If you have, a money free weekend is an ideal time to launch it. Activities that have benefits beyond the money free weekend are the best kind.

And exercise is a very real investment in your health. You can walk, jog, bike ride, or do exercises on the floor without spending any money.

34. Write a Letter to Your Future Self

Imagine that you are 10, 20, or even 30 years older than you are right now – what advice would you give yourself? It’s not easy, not the least of which because you aren’t actually older than what you are. But you can get plenty of inspiration from the Internet, or from speaking with people who are a decade or two (or more) older than you are. Once again, this blends nicely with Tip #24.

35. Spend Time Helping a Neighbor in Need

There’s probably someone in your neighborhood right now who is facing a struggle. It could be due to health issues, financial problems, a career crisis, or family conflicts. If you know who that person (or family) is, reach out to them and see what you can do to help.

Sometimes what people need most is to know that there’s someone who cares about the problems they’re facing. You can be a shoulder to cry on, a source of advice, or even a contact person to extra help.

36. Write Comments on Few Blogs

You probably have strong opinions about several topics, or even practical advice that you can pass on to people. One of the best ways to do this is by making comments on blog articles.

Find blogs that you are interested in, and read some of the blog articles on topics that you like. Then weigh in with your comments; you may be surprised and excited by some of the responses that you get.

People used to do something similar with “letters to the editor” in newspapers, but now that no one reads newspapers, blogs are the place to write in your opinions.

37. Have a Picnic at the Park

In the largely indoor world that we live in today, a picnic is virtually a novelty. But it’s also a lot of fun. Put together a lunch from what you have in your kitchen or pantry, and head to a nearby park, lake, or beach. Bring a football, a Frisbee, or some skates and keep the fun going for hours. Cost: zero.

38. Attend a Public Meeting

Since 2016 is an election year, there are political events going on all over the place. You can attend one of these, or you can attend a presentation at a local school or college, or even at a bookstore.

These events are typically free, and quite educational. It’s also a way of getting involved and letting your voice be heard on important issues.

39. Hike in a Public Park or Reserve

This combines a walk with a natural setting, but also adds a bit more purpose to the activity. On a hike, you might plan to reach a certain destination, or maintain a certain walking speed.

You might also plan to include a trek through a natural area, even over difficult terrain. It’ll be more challenging than a walk around town, but it will also offer better distraction, which increases the entertainment value.

40. Play a Board Game

This is an often overlooked family activity, but it’s one that everyone can participate in. It won’t cost you any money at all, and you won’t even have to leave your home. Pick a game that everyone likes, and have at it. It could go on for hours, making your whole family forget that you’re not spending any money – to say nothing of the family bonding opportunity.

41. Master One Simple Car Repair

Not everyone is into car repairs, but it’s undeniable that most of us feel like we’re taken hostage by a repair shop anytime we need a car repair. But if you can learn even simple repairs, it can be incredibly liberating. For example, you can rotate the tires on your car in your driveway, free of cost, on your money free weekend. And if you don’t know how to do it, there’s always YouTube to show you the way.

42. Work on Your Will

In Tip #8 I recommended that you complete at least one task that you’ve been avoiding. Without even knowing you, I’m venturing a guess that preparing your will is at the very top of that task list. Most of us don’t even want to think about dying, let alone what will be done with our stuff after we’re gone. But it’s a very necessary step that we all need to take, particularly if you have a spouse and/or children.

You won’t be able to find a lawyer to help you prepare your will on the weekend, which flows beautifully with the money free weekend concept. But you can work out the details of what you want your will to include. Use the Internet to help you determine what is usually included in a will for a person in your situation, and go from there.

43. Replace One Bad Habit With a Good Habit

It’s often said that the only way to get rid of a bad habit is to replace it with a good habit. A money free weekend is a perfect time to make it happen. Choose your worst habit, then think long and hard about a good one to replace it. Once you do, implement the change immediately.

Getting rid of the bad takes time and repetition. You can’t make that happen in one weekend, but you can get the ball rolling by deciding to make a change and then initiating tactics to make it a reality.

44. Do One or More Tasks That Will Make the Rest of Your Week Easier

A lack of time is a constant concern during the workweek. You can invest some time on your money free weekend figuring out what tasks you can do that will make your work week easier. This is another way of creating benefits from your money free weekend that will spill over to the rest of your life.

Tasks can include creating daily to-do lists, lining up your daily wardrobe, creating a meal plan for the week, or even preparing weekday lunches from leftovers and other food items that you have in the house.

45. Reconnect With Old Business and Work Acquaintances

Like preparing a resume, this is something most of us do only when threatened by a potential job loss. But it’s best to have business contacts lined up before you need them. That will keep those contacts fresh, and avoid a sense that you are begging for mercy after you’ve been laid off.

Just as important, those contacts could be a major source of new opportunities right now, even though you may not be particularly interested in changing jobs. Opportunity has a way of coming around whether we’re ready for it or not.

46. Prepare to Have a Garage Sale

This is an involved process that will probably take several money free weekends to prepare fully. It also works quite nicely with Tip #5. Cleaning out the storage spaces in the house can produce a wealth of salable items for your garage sale.

But you’ll also need time to clean the items, make any needed repairs, and price them for sale.

The payoff is that the effort made on your money free weekend can enable you to convert your unused stuff to hundreds of dollars in cash.

47. Spend One-on-one Time With Your Kids

When it comes to family, emphasis is often on group activities. That is of course excellent for family bonding. But just as important in building one-on-one relationships within the family.

You can do this by pairing off on your money free weekends. That means that each parent spends some time with each child individually. This builds individual relationships within the family, ultimately making the family unit stronger.

It takes time to do this, which is why money free weekends are a good opportunity.

48. Build a Snow Fort

In the dead of winter, outdoor activities can be limited. But one of the best wintertime activities is building a snow fort. The same snow that makes your morning commute a nightmare, can be used for recreational activities.

One of the great things about a snow fort is that you can build it any way your collective imaginations take you. It can be big or small, square or round, have one room or several, and best of all, everyone in the family can participate.

Build it big enough, and I’m willing to bet that you’ll have a few neighbors joining in.

49. Take a Luxurious Bath – The Kind Rich People do on TV

The weekday morning routine doesn’t offer time for much more than a quick shower. But a money free weekend is the perfect time to take a long, luxurious bath. Fill the tub with hot water and bubble bath, surrounded with candles and burning potpourri, play some quiet music, then relax and enjoy yourself.

50. Spend Extended Time With Your Pet(s)

If you or your family have a particularly busy routine, your pets may get no more than minimal attention in the normal course. On a money free weekend, you can spend some extra time with your pet, even blending it with other activities on this list. For example, a walk around town is a natural activity for a dog. So is a hike in the park.

But you can spend extra time with your pets even if you don’t leave the house. Just spending extended periods of time playing your pet’s favorite games, or even just cuddling, can be a serious bonding experience.

Spending time with pets also has emotional benefits, that come both from bonding and from immersing yourself in your pet’s world. After all, it’s hard to be angry about anything when you’re enjoying the love of your pet.

51. Investigate the History of Your Community at the Library

We usually tend to think of history as something that happened somewhere else. But history has taken place everywhere, including your own community. Local history can also be the most interesting, because it’s directly relevant to your life. For example, it can be exciting to find out who has lived in your home before you did. You may also find buildings in your community that have a long and exciting history.

You can find out a lot just by walking around town. When you find interesting buildings or important previous residents, you can head to the library and do some additional research. You may be surprised to find that some pretty important people and events have passed through your humble little town.

52. Detail Your Car

Sure, you can take your car to a car wash that will do that for anywhere from $20 to $100, but there’s something relaxing about cleaning your own car. You can probably do it using supplies you have around the house, and for a lot less than $100. It can also be a family activity, and since many hands make light work, you’ll get the job done faster.

53. Build a Fire and Just Relax in Front of it

Fire is the most basic and necessary invention of civilization, and it can be downright hypnotic to sit in front of one and watch it burn and dance, while providing you with warmth.

Just as was the case in the olden days, you and your family and friends can sit in front of a fireplace or a backyard fire pit, and chat, sing or simply bond by the fire.

It’s where people ended each day for thousands of years, and it works just as well today.

So there you have 53 ideas to help fill your money free weekends. It should be enough to cover several weekends each year. Just make sure that you don’t spend any money on any of the activities – because that’s the whole point!

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'Orange County Choppers' star opening Stroudsburg shop

Rick Petko is working at home in the Poconos after his long stint at the famous New York motorcycle shop.

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Need Proof the World is Doomed? Kanye’s GoFundMe Page Has Raised $1K

Ladies and gentleman, I’ve just become a little more worried about the future of our world.

Not only did Kanye West, the self-proclaimed “greatest artist of all time,” recently use social media to beg for money to pay off his $53 million debt — a Minnesotan named Jeremy Piatt has created a GoFundMe page to support his quest.

Though I’m guessing Piatt did so as a brilliant publicity stunt to promote his web design company (yeah, I’ll throw him a link for creativity), what’s more disturbing is the fact people are actually donating.

The campaign has raised more than $1,000 from 160+ donors in one day.

What?! Are you kidding me? Yeezus Christ…

Would You Donate to Kanye?

We’ve seen some pretty ridiculous crowdfunding campaigns before, but this one takes the cake.

If you want to back an actual worthwhile cause, here’s how to donate without spending an extra cent and support charity in non-monetary ways.

Whatever you do — please, for the love of T-Swift, don’t donate to Kanye.

But do go and read the comments, because they’re pure gold.

Your Turn: What do you think of Kanye?

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

The post Need Proof the World is Doomed? Kanye’s GoFundMe Page Has Raised $1K appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Are You a Working Mom Struggling to “Do It All”? You Need to Watch This Video

Are you a working mom? Then there’s a good chance you’ve struggled with guilt at one point or another.

I don’t have kids myself, but from what I’ve witnessed — both in my personal and professional life — many mothers don’t feel like they’re doing enough.

They feel torn between the responsibilities of parenting and working, and are constantly worried they’re not excelling at either.

They have this image of the “perfect mother” in their heads, and are afraid they don’t stack up.

If that describes you, or any working mom you know, you NEED to watch this video (hat tip to POPSUGAR).

The Video Every Working Mom Needs to Watch

This is actually an Japanese ad for a hot cocoa company. Although I don’t know if the women featured are real — their emotions are. And they’ve probably been felt by working moms across the globe.

(Warning: Save it for home if you don’t want to cry at your desk like I did.)

Like I said, I’m not a parent. But I know lots of amazing working moms and dads who impress me every day.

I hope this video helps you see:

A) You’re not alone, and B) You are enough.

Your Turn: Are you a working mom? How did this video make you feel?

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

The post Are You a Working Mom Struggling to “Do It All”? You Need to Watch This Video appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Here’s an Easy Way to Brighten Someone’s Day: Free Yogi Tea

Spread the love with this heartwarming offer from Yogi tea!

In keeping with the lifestyle philosophy Yogi fans have come to love, the company is offering more than just a free sample of its latest teas.

It’s offering to help you brighten someone’s day.

Through a “Well-Wish,” you can send a personalized note and two free Yogi tea samples to a friend who needs a pick-me-up.

If you know someone who already loves Yogi tea, they’ll be happy for the free samples to save a little money on the relatively high-priced tea brand.

Or maybe you just know someone would appreciate a sweet surprise? This healthy-living freebie is a simple way to let them know you’re thinking of them.

Got a co-worker complaining of sleepless nights? Send some relaxation in a tea bag.

Is your spouse burning both ends working hard, playing with the kids and being an awesome partner? Share a spark of energy with black tea.

Best friend struggling to keep those health-conscious New Year’s resolutions? Encourage them with some feel-good green tea.

Plus, you don’t have to know your friend’s mailing address, so this gift is really easy to send.

You just need a name and email address.

How to Send a Well-Wish

1. Go to http://ift.tt/1KQM1Sg and enter your and your friend’s name and email.

2. Choose one of five sample pairs, depending on what your friend needs:

• Green Tea (for active lifestyles)

• Energy (for someone who needs a boost)

• Healthy Glow (for smooth skin)

• Relaxation (for the friend who needs to chill out)

• Well-Being (for a cleanse)

3. Select a pre-written “Well-Wish” message or compose your own.

4. Write any additional note you want your friend to receive via email.

5. Soon after, your friend will receive an email to let them know you’ve sent them a Well-Wish. To receive the tea samples, they’ll follow a link to enter their mailing address. Samples should arrive in three to four weeks.

You can send as many Well-Wishes as you want, but space them out. I sent two, and when I tried to submit the third, I was asked to wait 10 minutes.

Of course, you can just enter your own email to send a free sample to yourself, if you want.

But wouldn’t it be a lot more fun to get it from a thoughtful friend?

Your Turn: Are you a Yogi tea drinker? What’s your favorite type?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more.

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Don’t Drive Your Business Into the Ground: 5 Ways Metrics Can Cause Bad Decisions

We’ve all done it before…

At some point in our lives, whether it’s related to marketing or something else, we’ve lied to ourselves.

It’s natural to want to feel good, and the brain can distort truths to make you feel that way.

But lies get in the way of progress.

They can make you feel okay about not putting in the effort required for success.

The scariest part is that sometimes we don’t even know we’re doing it.

The cause of this, when it comes to marketing and business, is using metrics incorrectly.

Metrics are very important because they allow us to quantify our results.

However, not all metrics are useful, and some might be useful but are hard to interpret.

A very realistic and common scenario involves marketers believing that they are doing a great job (based on the metrics they track) when in reality, they aren’t producing much.

Other times, metrics might seem to suggest that you should change your marketing tactics and strategies. However, it might be that you are misinterpreting the meaning of those metrics, and then you make a change that actually makes your work less effective.

Any of these scenarios will diminish your chances of achieving the success you want so much.

And that’s why it’s crucial that you understand the ins and outs of metrics, which is exactly what I’m going to show you here.

After this post, you should know 5 different ways in which metrics can deceive you and how to protect yourself from that in the future. 

1. Page views and emails do not equal sales

This first aspect of metrics is the most important.

Basically, there are two types of metrics:

• vanity metrics
• useful metrics

Care to guess what each means?

Vanity metrics sound nice but don’t mean much.

For example, a search engine could be reporting 1,000,000 searches per month.

But that could mean many things. Most importantly:

• you could have one really enthusiastic searcher
• you could have 1,000,000 single searchers
• you could be getting this many searches because the searcher couldn’t find the right result

It’s not that vanity metrics are necessarily bad; it’s just that they don’t tell you anything clearly or accurately.

Traffic is one of the most commonly used metrics for content marketers, and relying on it is a mistake.

Traffic is a vanity metric.

You could buy a million pageviews tomorrow from some low quality ad network and get absolutely nothing from them.

While quality pageviews would be a decent metric, it’s very tough to measure something like that.

The same goes for the rate of opened emails or the number of email subscribers on your list.

I’ve seen some businesses make nearly zero revenue from a list of thousands of subscribers while others make thousands from a list of only a few hundred.

If you’re measuring email list growth, it doesn’t tell you a damn thing about how your business or marketing is performing.

This goes for all vanity metrics.

You can always find a few metrics in Google Analytics that are increasing every month. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that everything is running perfectly—it might not be.

What makes a metric “useful”? The simplest way to recognize “useful” (sometimes called “smart”) metrics is to look for the 3 “A’s”:

1. Actionable
2. Accessible
3. Auditable

This concept comes from the lean startup but can be easily applied to just about any business.

Let’s break down the signs of useful metrics one by one, starting with how to determine whether a metric is actionable…

As you might have guessed, actionable metrics allow you to take action based on the information they provide. And I am not talking about just any action, but one that actually improves your work.

The second “A” is for accessible. This matters most if you work in a team.

The idea is that if you decide on a key metric for a business, you want everyone in that business to understand what it is. More than that, they need to know how to find it, understand it, and use it.

Certain metrics can make sense to technical team members, but maybe not marketing or sales. A good metric should be easily understood by all.

The last A stands for auditable.

This relates to the concept of accessible, and it means that any person on your team should be able to access any data in your business (related to the metric) and create a report with it.

If it can be tracked with Google Analytics, your problem is solved since all team members can easily be added to your website’s account. They can look up metrics and export reports as needed.

The goal comes before the metric: It’s important to remember why we need metrics in the first place.

Metrics allow us to measure things.

And useful metrics measure the things that show whether your marketing is producing acceptable growth or not.

To find these metrics, you need to start with your main marketing or business goals.

Here are a few common ones that you might have:

• Make a profit (it may be a certain amount)
• Have a significant positive impact on your customers’ lives
• Do meaningful work

It usually doesn’t get much more complicated than that.

For each goal, you want to try to determine metrics that show whether you’re succeeding or not.

Let’s look at a few example metrics.

Goal: Make a profit

Possible metrics: revenue, profit, costs of goods sold, current members, monthly churn (customers lost), retention rate, new customers, customers lost (if applicable).

Since most businesses want to maximize their profits, or at least revenue, these metrics are usually the most important ones to track.

Usually, you’ll pick 1-4 of them to track regularly.

Every time when you or anyone on your team does something, it should, in some way, improve at least one of your chosen metrics.

Some of these metrics depend on your type of business. Things like retention rate and churn apply only to recurring revenue businesses (e.g., subscription boxes).

You want to keep your choices as simple as possible.

If your main goal is profit, track profit first and foremost.

For some parts of your marketing, you won’t be able to track profits directly.

That’s why you want other, related, metrics that could tell you when something’s not going right in your business.

For example, if you all of a sudden see a spike in the number of customers you lost, you can use that information to take action and figure out which recent change caused the loss.

Let’s look at one more goal…

Goal: Have a positive impact

Possible metrics: average time on page, customer survey satisfaction scores, percent of return visitors.

Many goals are qualitative, which, of course, makes them difficult to measure.

And while you won’t be able to find a perfect “impact” metric, you can find others that can guide you.

In this case, it’s really difficult to find out how much customers are loving your products.

You’ll hear from those who had either a really great or bad experience but not from the “average” customer. Doing surveys is usually the best option you have, but you will always have a bit of a sampling issue.

If your product is an online product, like a course or SAAS, it’s much easier to measure a metric like this. You can usually just look at how often your users return to your site or tool.

Some goals correspond to more metrics than others. As long as a metric gives you unique, actionable information, it’s worth tracking.

Finally, you could come up with a way to regularly evaluate how satisfied you are with the work you’ve been doing, but that’s another tricky one to measure.

Some goals, particularly qualitative ones, don’t need to be tracked through metrics (do reviews on a regular basis). Otherwise, make sure that any metric you focus on fit the “3 A’s”.

2. Metrics alone don’t always tell you the whole picture

You should always have justification for any action you take or conclusion you make.

If you are saying that your marketing is working well, you’d better have the metrics to back it up.

Most marketers understand this, which is a good thing.

However, many don’t back up their conclusions correctly. The most common error I see is that marketers back up their conclusions with metrics that don’t tell the whole picture.

Let me give you an example.

Say we have a marketer named Joe.

He tracks customer satisfaction as a metric. He observes that customer satisfaction went up last month and concludes that the business continues to grow as a result of the content he created.

Do you see the issue with concluding this based on this metric alone?

Joe’s boss, let’s call him Neil, isn’t quite convinced.

Neil digs into the business’s data and finds its customer retention rates. As it turns out, the retention rate went down, meaning that the business lost more customers than usual.

Putting these two metrics together reveals a very different picture:

The average customer satisfaction likely went up because many unsatisfied customers left the business.

That’s a serious problem.

This is why you need to ensure that the metrics you rely on don’t mask potential problems.

Selecting metrics that show you the whole picture: It’s never good to rely on a single metric to make a decision (in most situations) because they rarely give the whole picture on their own.

At the same time, you don’t want to have 15 different metrics—it’ll make it hard to draw a clear conclusion.

Instead, aim to have as few metrics—that give you actionable, accurate information—as possible, and base your decisions on those.

Scenario: You’re trying to assess the effectiveness of your current content marketing strategy.

In order to do that, we’ll need more than a single metric.

For reasons I went over earlier, traffic and email subscribers aren’t the best metrics here (although they may be the only choice for young blogs).

Instead, I’d rather focus on either qualified leads or actual sales if possible.

A qualified lead is different for every business. For example, it might be a webinar participant.

Someone who signs up and attends a webinar is obviously interested in the topics you cover and is likely a potential customer. This is enough to make them “qualified.”

This metric is useful because the more attendees you have, the more sales you should make. Unlike traffic, where more doesn’t always mean better, qualified leads correlate well with sales.

Therefore, our first metric is the “# of webinar attendees.”

But that’s not enough. It doesn’t tell us the whole picture.

The number of webinar attendees could be going up, but that doesn’t mean that the content marketing is succeeding.

Instead, it’s possible that most of those results are from your past work, unrelated to your current content marketing strategy.

Or it’s possible that you’ve learned to promote webinars more effectively through other channels than just content.

So, we need additional metrics.

The first one is to divide your webinar signups by source. You want to see which piece of content each signup initially landed on.

The ones that come from your recent content will tell you whether your current strategy is actually producing results.

Once you have this data over at least a few months, it will be clear which content is driving your visitors through your sales funnel.

What about your promotional tactics?

You need some sort of a metric that standardizes your signups. After all, if you create a new pop-up that is twice as effective as your old opt-in, that doesn’t mean that your new content is twice as effective.

Therefore, your final metric in this set needs to be a scaling metric.

Before you fully implement a new tactic to get more webinar signups, you need to split test it against the old one.

Once you have a sufficient sample size, you’ll have results that’ll look like this:

Based on these results, with almost 100% certainty, we can tell that the new tactic is better.

However, the improvement has a range from 177% to 323%.

Ideally, keep running the test until you have a tighter range, but the average number is usually the best choice.

Overall, you have a few options:

• take the worst case scenario (only improved by 177%)
• take the average (250%)
• take the best case scenario (improved by 323%)

You could also take a combination.

Based on each of these, you get a scaling factor by dividing these numbers by 100 (to convert from percent to decimal):

• 177% becomes 1.7
• 250% becomes 2.5
• 323% becomes 3.23

Then, you need to multiply the number of webinar leads you had in the past by the number you chose.

For example, pretend that these are your original results and that you implemented the new and more effective tactic in April:

	Feb	March	Apr	May
Webinar leads	100	120	325	360
After 2.5x adjustment	250	300	325	360

 

Notice that you adjust the values for the months that used the old, ineffective method by multiplying them by the scaling factor.

Now you can make a fair comparison.

In this case, with a 2.5x adjustment, it shows that there is steady growth in the number of webinar leads.

After considering all possible factors that could skew our original metric, we now have a set of metrics that we can use to determine whether our hypothetical content marketing strategy is effective or not:

• number of webinar leads (original metric)
• webinar leads by source
• scaling factor based on promotional methods (could be more than one)

How to come up with your own sets of metrics: I understand that this isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it will get easier with practice.

To simplify things, let’s break this process down into a procedure.

Take it step by step, and it won’t be very difficult.

1. Clarify what you’re trying to determine (a goal of sorts).
2. Determine your primary metric, the most important one directly related to your goal.
3. Brainstorm possible situations in which your primary metric could be positive but not actually indicative of the results (like content marketing not improving even if webinar leads increased).
4. Come up with at least one metric that will help you determine whether those situations happened (they are essentially safeguards).
5. Write down your final set of metrics, and monitor it on a continuous basis.

Now, when you need to make a decision or draw a conclusion based on your metrics, you can be confident that it’s the right one.

3. You can’t measure everything

Some things are easy to measure…

But others are extremely difficult.

As a general rule, quantitative things, like the number of customers, views, or dollars, are going to be straightforward to measure.

But what about qualitative things like customer satisfaction? Or if you want to measure how much of an impact your content is making?

You can’t just go into Google Analytics and find a metric called “customer satisfaction.”

So, what do you do?

Your only choice is to find the best metrics that represent those things you are trying to quantify somehow. It’s not perfect, but it gives you something concrete to base your decisions on.

Finding the next best thing: We’ve already looked at this to some extent. When you can’t measure something directly, you find other metrics that measure things that correspond with your main concern.

For example, you might not be able to measure sales directly. Or sales may not occur for an extended time, and you want to make sure you’re on track.

So, you measure the next best thing: qualified leads.

These could be webinar attendees like I mentioned earlier, or they could be email subscribers.

You need to be careful with this because they need to be qualified leads. A random email address or one that you get because the user just wants a free bonus is not qualified.

However, if they request a demo or opt in without any bonus, they are likely potential customers.

The reason why this distinction is so important is because qualified leads will correspond to revenue. The more qualified leads you have, the more you will make in a fairly linear fashion.

However, unqualified leads may or may not correspond with revenue. It’s really difficult to determine how much more money, if any, additional leads will make you.

The takeaway here is to find a metric that corresponds closely with your goal.

This applies to both quantitative (like revenue) and qualitative aspects.

Consider customer satisfaction. What metrics are related to it? Here are a few possibilities:

• results from surveys given to customers
• return customer rate
• complaint rate or number of complaints

None of these are perfect solutions, but if you combine them, you’ll get a pretty good idea whether your customers are happy or not.

Beware of sample bias: One of the biggest issues with this type of approach is that you have a sample bias.

For example, customers who’ve had a very negative or very positive experience are the most likely to fill out your surveys.

And while it’s good to hear from them, you also want to hear from the rest of your customers. Your “average” customer is arguably the most important one.

You’ll get a sample bias with many metrics that describe qualitative aspects of your business.

Take your return customer rate.

If a customer buys something else from you, they’re probably pretty happy. Then again, just because someone doesn’t buy from you doesn’t mean that they are not happy.

Additionally, someone might not be very satisfied but still buy again from you because of some other reason like price or lack of other options.

What does this mean for you?

It means that none of these metrics are perfect. Taking multiple factors into account will help give you a more accurate picture, but even that’s not enough.

The only effective way of dealing with this is to understand the sampling biases you have.

For example, when it comes to survey results, put the most weight on the ones that aren’t especially negative or positive. Each of these likely represents several other customers that didn’t fill out a survey.

Likewise, put less weight on the extremely positive or negative surveys because you hear from a much larger proportion of these types of customers.

Think about the potential issues you might have with your samples, and put more emphasis on those areas that don’t provide you with much information.

4. Metrics can be manipulated, so make sure you know how you track them

Judging work performance using metrics can be a very dangerous thing to do.

The clearest example of this can be found in fast food restaurants and retail stores.

Managers and employees are told to meet certain quotas, e.g., food delivery times or number of sales, or else they risk being penalized or even fired.

When you take that approach, you shouldn’t be shocked to find out that employees are willing to manipulate metrics however they can.

They will start timers late or create fake accounts (to be cancelled later) to meet those quotas (yes, those kinds of things happen).

And while you may not take that approach with your team, maybe you give out raises, promotions, or something else to those who meet a certain performance metric.

Metrics are thought to be a way to track employee performance.

But they are often easily manipulated.

The good news is that if you chose “useful” metrics (from part 1), you are tracking metrics that are harder to manipulate.

But consider vanity metrics such as social shares or traffic.

If you told a writer or social media manager to get a certain number of social shares on each post, many would simply create fake Twitter accounts and schedule them to share each post 10+ times each.

Of course, this wouldn’t lead to real traffic for you, but it looks good on their metrics.

Same goes for traffic. It’s easy to buy hundreds of junk views for pennies even though they’re completely useless. You’ll see plenty of these gigs on Fiverr:

The best solution is to pick difficult to manipulate metrics, like profit, and to not judge your team members solely on metrics. Metrics should primarily be used as feedback that guides how you spend your effort.

However, if you do decide to incorporate metrics into performance evaluations, you need to know how to track them accurately.

For example, if you’re looking at social shares, you need to specify a certain expectation. You could say that only one social share per social account counts towards the metric and that the account needs to have at least 50 followers.

To track something like this, you will have to create your own simple tracking system.

For views, you might only count the ones that don’t bounce or are from certain countries. If you suspect fake views might be a problem, you probably wouldn’t want to count traffic from countries like India, which is often used for view bot IP addresses.

5. Metrics don’t always lie, but they can easily be misinterpreted

Metrics are important, but they have to be recorded and interpreted correctly, or you’re at risk of making big mistakes.

All marketers and business owners should have at least a basic understanding of statistics.

If you don’t have any background in statistics, sign up for this free “Introduction to statistics” course online. There are many other similar courses offered by top universities, so take advantage of them.

Most importantly, you need to understand concepts such as variance.

Variance measures how far results can deviate from the average expected result.

For example, you might use a specific email outreach template and track the number of backlinks it generates for your content.

Let’s say you get five links from the first 100 emails you send.

Does that mean that you’ll get five for every 100 emails you send from now on?

Not at all.

Depending on how big the variance is, sometimes you might only get one link, and other times you might get 10 links.

Imagine that the first time you sent 100 emails, knowing that you’d judge the results based on your links metric, you only got one link. If you judged your results right away, you’d say that this email template sucks.

But as you send more and more emails, your link percentage would rise to the average expected value.

In other words, you need to have a valid sample size before you interpret results; otherwise, they mean nothing.

When you go through an introductory stats course, you’ll learn about variance along with sample size and other related concepts.

The main takeaway here is to first learn about basic statistics and then to ensure that your metrics are accurate before you take them into account.

Conclusion

You should rarely make decisions concerning your business or marketing based on gut feeling alone.

Metrics give you confidence to make decisions because you know that you have numbers to back you up.

However, it’s crucial that you choose the right metrics and know how to track and understand them correctly. If you don’t, you’ll end up drawing incorrect conclusions, which are bad for your marketing and business as a whole.

I’ve shown you the 5 main ways that metrics can play tricks on you as well as ways to avoid making the wrong decisions based on them.

If you have any questions about using metrics in your work, I’d like to help out. Leave me a comment below with as many details about your business and the metrics you use as possible, and I’ll try to provide some insight.

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How to Get 50% (or More) Off Any Item at Jo-Ann’s — Today Only!

Have your eye on something new for your crafting, knitting or sewing collection?

Today might be the day to make a move.

Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft is offering a 50% off coupon for one regular-priced item — valid in-store or online through the end of the day.

Exclusions include sewing and papercrafting machines, photo printers and cameras.

To sweeten the offer, keep reading for some deal-stacking secrets that could save you even more.  

How to Get 50% Off (and More) at Jo-Ann’s Today

If you want to stop in your local Jo-Ann’s, you can print the coupon here.

But we’d recommend using the coupon online, so you can stack the deals and make your purchase even cheaper.

Here’s what to do…

1. Look for a discounted gift card on a site like Raise; right now, Jo-Ann’s gift cards are available at 16% off.

2. Purchase your discounted gift card with a cash-back credit card, earning an additional 1%-2% cash back.

3. Check Cashback Monitor to find a rewards-earning shopping portal. Upromise currently offers 5% cash back at Jo-Ann’s, so sign up and click through its link to earn those rewards.

4. Make your purchase at Joann.com, using coupon code FIFTY48 to get 50% off your chosen item.

How’s that for a deal? Time to get crafty!  

Your Turn: Is there anything you’d like to buy at Jo-Ann’s?

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

The post How to Get 50% (or More) Off Any Item at Jo-Ann’s — Today Only! appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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A third of over-55s targeted by scammers

Rachel Lacey

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One-in-three over-55s has been targeted by pension scammers in the last three months, according to the latest research from Retirement Advantage. This is up from one-in-five just over six months ago.

One-in-three over-55s has been targeted by pension scammers in the last three months, according to the latest research from Retirement Advantage. This is up from one-in-five just over six months ago.

The retirement specialist says savers are most likely to be targeted with offers of free pensions advice or investment opportunities either by phone, text or email.

Back to the register

read more

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Want to Make $4,000 More per Year? Marry Someone With This Personality Trait

True or false?

• Your level of success in the workplace is entirely in your own hands.

• When you walk into your workplace, you leave your personal life at the door.

• You’re in control of how hard you work, and hard work leads to success in the majority of cases.

As it turns out, these issues are a little grayer than you might expect.

Your Partner’s Personality Affects Your Performance

In fact, the personality of one person in particular — someone who doesn’t even share your workspace — might affect your success and earning potential: your spouse.

In the psychological study “The Long Reach of One’s Spouse,” Brittany Solomon and Joshua Jackson demonstrate that one spousal characteristic has a measurable correlation with achievement and compensation in the workplace: conscientiousness.

In English: If you’re married to a nice guy (or girl), you’re more likely to do well at work. It’s science!

What is Conscientiousness and How Much Does it Matter?

While the abstract of the article doesn’t define conscientiousness and the full text is behind a paywall, the available text does mention the functional definition of the trait.

A conscientious partner, according to Solomon and Jackson, will “perform more household tasks, exhibit more pragmatic behaviors that their spouses are likely to emulate, and promote a more satisfying home life, enabling their spouses to focus more on work.”

In short, a conscientious partner… is probably the kind of partner you want to have.

They’re responsible and reliable, and having that kind of presence in your life allows you to be a better version of yourself.

“When you can depend on someone, it takes pressure off you,” Solomon told Harvard Business Review’s Andrew O’Connell.

And depending on someone apparently makes you a better — and significantly more valuable — worker. The study found that “with every 1-standard deviation increase in a spouse’s conscientiousness, an individual is likely to earn approximately $4,000 more per year.”

That’s a pretty hefty sum!

So whether you’re in a relationship or playing the dating field, make sure you’re pursuing a nice person. Not only will it make your relationship better… it might increase your paycheck, too!

Your Turn: Is your partner conscientious?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems.

The post Want to Make $4,000 More per Year? Marry Someone With This Personality Trait appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Using Memories of the Past to Build a Memorable and Frugal Future

Step back for a second and make a brief mental list of some of the best moments of your life. Let’s say… ten of them or so. Think of moments where you felt the happiest and proudest that you ever felt. Perhaps you were surrounded by people you cared about. Maybe you had just achieved something momentous. Perhaps you had just come to the completion of a long project. Maybe it was just a common moment when you came to realize all of the good things you have in your life.

When I think of a lot of the “big moments” in my life – my wedding day, the birth of my children – I remember a lot of joy, but I also remember a lot of stress.

When I think of some of the most truly joyful moments in my life, though, I remember a few of my biggest personal accomplishments, where lots of work paid off for me.

I remember, with extreme vividness, the first time I received an email from a reader that I didn’t know. That reader told me that my story and the material I had shared on The Simple Dollar had helped them make some changes in their life over the past few months and they had managed to pay off two credit cards already and didn’t feel like they were strangling in debt any more. I read that email and got that “tingly” feeling all over that one gets when they’re just paid a spectacular compliment, so I went outside. It was this crisp late fall day where the leaves were falling off the trees and swirling about, but the sun was shining and it wasn’t overly cold yet, and for the first time I really believed that I could make this whole writing thing work.

I also remember a lot of simple moments, ordinary moments where lots of positive things in my life just clicked together all at once.

For instance, I remember one particular warm and sunny day when my oldest child was about five or so. We were at the park practicing soccer together. The sun was warm on my skin, but the wind was blowing just enough to keep it from being hot. My son was running around and laughing. My daughter was rolling on the ground, as she loved to do at that age. My wife is sitting there in a sun hat watching us play, with this huge smile on her face. It’s just a very joyful memory.

Memories like that are stuck in my head. They represent some of the most wonderful, most joyous moments in my life.

They also have a few very key traits in common.

Common Trait #1 – I’m Not Sedentary

I don’t have a great memory of my life in which I’m not either mentally or physically active. I’m either doing something physical – playing with my children or getting some exercise – or something that’s strongly mentally challenging, or else directly celebrating the culmination of something that was physically, mentally, or emotionally challenging.

Nothing great in my life has happened in front of the television or while surfing the web. I’ve never felt connected to the world around me. I’ve never felt loved. I’ve never felt a big idea clicking into place in my head. Every great moment in my life has involved me being physically engaged or deeply mentally engaged or deeply emotionally engaged in something.

Common Trait #2 – I’m Not Spending Money

None of the best memories of my life involve much financial cost beyond my day-to-day life. Even the best memories of traveling don’t involve expensive hotels or exotic destinations – they usually involve just a moment in an unusual place.

Instead, many of my memories involve experiences. They often involve some feeling of being outdoors, of breeze on my skin or warmth on my face. They often involve other people.

Interestingly, they often involve a personal challenge of some kind. I’m either relishing the act of taking on that challenge or enjoying my success over that challenge.

Common Trait #3 – I Don’t Need or Use Much Stuff

Again, most of my memories don’t involve the acquisition or the use of many physical objects. I don’t have much need of “stuff” in my fondest memories.

When I consider all of the best memories in my life, the only physical items in use are pretty everyday items. A cheap computer. A soccer ball. A book. A decent pair of running shoes.

In fact, all of the physical stuff I’d need to recreate all of the best moments of my life would fit inside a storage tub. It’s really not that much at all.

From Memories to Values

Obviously, my life is not about recreating memories. I don’t really have much interest in walking back over the same area my life path has already crossed. I want to move forward and onward to new things.

Still, it’s instructive to think about what those memories tell me about what I value as a person.

I value personal challenge. I want something I can wrap my hands around and take on. I enjoy being able to build things on my own and to succeed, whether through skill or through stubbornness.

I value personal relationships. I like to feel connected to others. I like to know that I’ve had a positive impact on their life and that they care for me as well.

I value simple pleasures. Warmth on my skin. A breeze in my hair. A nice flavor on my tongue. The sound of a running stream or of my child laughing or of my wife’s whisper. Getting lost in the pages of a great book. They’re simple, but they run through all of the great moments of my life.

What do your memories tell you about the things you value the most?

From Values to the Future

Those values give me some great guidance as to the choices I make every day and how those build into a future with a lot of great experiences ahead of me, experiences on par with the great ones I’ve had already.

I don’t need to spend money to have those things I value most. The great moments in my life had nothing to do with spending a lot of money. I wasn’t anywhere special or expensive in those moments. I wasn’t consuming anything expensive. I wasn’t spending money on anything. Mostly, I was enjoying things that are essentially free in life – the sensations of a nice day, the feeling of being mentally or emotionally or physically engaged, and so on. Why do I need to spend money to have some kind of “special” experience when the great moments of my life haven’t required that at all?

I don’t need to have lots of stuff to have the experiences I value most. Almost every peak experience I’ve had didn’t involve many possessions, either. Do I really need to be collecting so much “stuff”? Do I really need to buy anything more? I already have what seems like far more than enough stuff in my life. Why shouldn’t I “do” something rather than “buy” something?

I need strong personal relationships. Almost every great moment in my life involved being with someone I cared about or making a deep connection with someone. Connecting with people, forging relationships, and having a positive impact on others is something that’s front and center in the great moments of my life. What am I doing to build those types of relationships, both old and new?

I need personal challenges. Many of my greatest moments in life have come in the midst of or at the conclusion of great personal challenges. The success I’ve felt in building various projects in my life, The Simple Dollar being one of them, has brought incalculable pleasure and joy into my life. I need challenges. What big challenges does the future hold for me? What can I take on?

I need ample time to experience simple pleasures. A lot of my great moments involve simple things. I’m reading a book that’s really engaging my mind. I’m learning something new. I’m playing soccer on a warm day. I’m exploring a park somewhere. I’m having a great conversation with someone. I’m tasting a meal my wife and I made together. Simple things.

I Don’t Need Money for My Memorable Life – I Need Time

The real message from all of this is that the most valuable resource in my life is time, not money. Those great memories outline what I truly want most from my life, and those desires don’t involve having a huge house or a shiny car or a ton of money to spend on elaborate getaways. None of that really interests me.

What interests me is having the time to really enjoy simple things, while also having the time to take on personal challenges of all kinds.

How can I achieve that? For me, the recipe for making that happen is to spend as little money as possible so that, as soon as possible, I’m able to live on the money I’ve saved. I no longer have to devote my time and mental energy to the stresses of a workday, though I can certainly take on big challenges on my own terms if I choose to do so (and I most certainly will). It gives me more than enough space to fill my life with the simple pleasures that I so desire.

For now, though, it means trying to spend as much time with my children as I can while they’re growing up. It means not buying them everything under the sun, and certainly not buying everything I might desire, either, because those desires are really fleeting.

What matters most becomes clear when I look back at the great moments in my life, and I don’t need to buy stuff or spend money to have those things. Instead, money becomes merely a way to open the door to a much richer life.

Where do your memories lead you? What values do they spell out? Where do you want to go from here? Chances are, you can’t buy what made your life great, but you can certainly build a life that involves more of it if you’re wise with your money.

The post Using Memories of the Past to Build a Memorable and Frugal Future appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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