When trying to live on a budget and save money in order to pay down debt, it often becomes necessary to go off in search of good ol’ fashioned FREE FUN. Or at least inexpensive fun….. depending on just how much damage you want to do to the debt-o-meter. Examples of free fun can be going to the dog park (if you have dogs and are into that whole doggy play-date sorta thing) Same goes with the actual park, although generally you must possess kids to go to the actual park , otherwise you run the risk of looking like a creepy pedophile.
When I want some free fun, I like to paint. Painting is not free entirely…. obviously you must first invest in paints and brushes and canvas and what-not. But once you have all that junk, you can tap into your inner Picaso, and bust out some masterworks… free of charge! Okay, so I load up and head to my local craft store, and I’m totally pumped to get my paint on….. The plan is to get a set of Acrylic paints, a handful of brushes, a palate, and canvas boards. Boy was I in for a rude awakening……
Ever hear of the term STARVING ARTISTS? Yeah, they don’t call them that because it sounds cute and trendy….. these people are HUNGRY, living off Ramen Noodles and other equally unappetizing garbage. Well they are OBVIOUSLY starving to death because craft supply stores charge so freaking much money for their art supples! I mean COME ON! 100 Bucks for a set of paints! 30 bucks for a big fat paint brush! It’s highway robbery!
In all fairness, they do offer some budget friendly sets, that cater toward the rookies and the broke-a$$es. But I dare-say that the difference between the 5 dollar paint set and the 80 dollar paint set that I ended up settling for, would be substantial. So I sucked it up, bought the $80 paint set (not the most expensive, but not the cheapest either… compromise is key, people!) a handful of brushes at 3 bones a pop, a palate (99 cents, thank you very much!), and value-canvas boards for about 10 bucks. All in all I spent a little over a Hundred bucks for the whole shebang….. which is wayyyy more than I wanted to spend, but truthfully, it could have been a lot worse if I didn’t practice the tidbit of restraint that I managed to muster.
I am happy to report that I have already put my painting supplies to use quite a few times as of this writing, which makes my $100 seem more like an investment than a loss. Because honestly, I could have just as easily blown that hundred bucks at the movie theatre, or out to dinner. I personally think the zen-like trance painting affords me was worth every penny, although this might not be the case for some. The point is, with little or no investment, there are things we can do to entertain us without having to sell our first born son to do so.
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