Joy is Cheap
• Get a free book from the library and read it on the beach. Or in a hammock. Then take a nap right there in the sun.
• Go stay at someone else's house for a weekend. "It gets us out of our rut and kind of feels like a vacation," swears one gal.
• Socialize over exercise. "I get a group together for a bike ride or a run, so I still get time with friends without the expense of cocktails or a meal," a resourceful friend tells me. "Besides, we might as well enjoy the lovely weather. God knows we pay for it in property taxes."
• Re-create the distinct, and often forgotten, joys of writing an ink-and-paper letter to a friend, volunteering somewhere that desperately needs help, and spinning in circles on the lawn until you get dizzy and fall down.
Sometimes happiness is as simple as finding ways to make do.
"I turn in my bottles and cans for CRV value, and use the money I get back to buy a bottle of wine," says a pal who drives a Mercedes. "I feel like a drunk hobo doing it, but hell, it was my money to begin with."
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