Frugal Hobby Highlight: Games

I'm trying to get out of the habit of coming home every night, putting on Netflix, and binge watching Friends until it's time for bed. This isn't really even an issue of spending, but quality of life - I sometimes let myself believe that I "can't afford" to do anything else, so I may as well fuse myself to the couch. The worst part is, sometimes I'm really not even enjoying any part of it!

When I talked with my boyfriend about wanting to change our routine a bit, we thought it would be a fun idea to try playing more games. Board games, word games, dice games, card games. You get the idea.

What a fun change! Because I'm fiercely competitive, I've been petitioning for a new house rule which states that I always win at games, but so far, that hasn't worked out. Even so, we're enjoying literally sitting down to play together every couple of days. We were both off from school/work for a few days in the past couple of weeks due to snow, and playing games was a nice way to change up the pace of a day spent entirely inside our small apartment.

Right now, we're playing a lot of Farkle and Ticket to Ride. I'm also a big fan of Boggle. I recently learned about the best perk of R's weekend job at the toy store - he can borrow certain games and toys in order to learn more and be better able to explain them to customers. Which means we can test out games before we decide if we want to keep them! Like a library of games!

What are some of your favorite games? Would you let me pass a house rule stating that I am always the winner?

Frugal Hobby Highlight

I'm something of a homebody. When people asked me about my weekend, even before I picked up a weekend job, I would struggle to come up with more than one thing I did with other humans. I just like spending time alone, at my home. That said, even I like doing things. And I like it even more when they don't cost money.

One of my favorite hobbies is almost entirely free - running. There are some associated start-up costs (shoes, attire), and it's possible to make it a very expensive sport (watches and heart rate monitors, coaching, races, etc.), but generally speaking it's pretty affordable. This year, I trained for and completed my first half marathon, and the expenses were as follows:

• new shoes: $65
• race entry fee: $100
• travel to race: $100

That's it. This was over the course of four months, and I found room for these expenses in my entertainment budget.

Plus, I got a metal and a shiny cape.

I could have done it cheaper - I could have found a less expensive race, one that didn't require me to travel anywhere. I chose to run the Runners World Half Marathon because it's in my hometown, and because from everything I'd read, it sounded like they put on a great race. And they did! I had the most incredible weekend, and I got to spend it with my family. Absolutely worth the added costs, especially since I didn't travel home for Thanksgiving.