The best things in life are free. At least this is what they say. Is it really so?
When you think of friends, family, hugs, kisses and love – it is. When you think of keeping yourself healthy with good food, medicine, travelling to see the rest of world – it is not.
Does everything we need in life require money? Possibly so. But I can tell you there is always an alternative. An alternative to spending is saving instead, an alternative to wasting time – doing something useful, an alternative to getting expensive things is … getting not such expensive things.
Honestly, life is meant to bring us fun. But living in material world has complicated things enough for us already. Think you want to spend less but end up spending more because buying cheap is fatal.
So what do we do? First of all, we make a list of things we can give up on – those we don’t min living without. Secondly, we make a list of things we are not really to give up on but we can try to substitute with something that would cost us less. Thirdly, there comes a list of things we don’t want to and will not give up on even if they cost us a lot.
My favourite is the second, as this is exactly where you can be smarter and more creative.
When I have moved in with my family we lacked money. We have been moving from one side of the city to another searching for more favorable conditions for ourselves. We ended up changing many jobs and as the result it left us in debt.
We have decided to give up on many things. But the hardest part was to do something about our habits. This is what the life is made of. Daily habits. Mom and dad used to drink a bottle of finest champagne with their dinner, I used to smoke a pack of cigarettes daily, my brother used to go out every night.
We didn’t want to make it seem like our life was going down. It wasn’t. But we needed to find a solution so we would still enjoy the life and get what we wanted to spend less.
Then we came to realize that we can still do the same things without the hitting our pocket hard.
Mom and dad have decided to give wine a try instead. It is healthier (if you can say so, at least that’s what doctors say) and it goes great with the food my dad’s cooking.
Then it was me. An experienced smoker with a bad addiction. I didn’t wanna give up, that’s the honest truth. But I started to research. My friends once told me about vaping but I was never sure. Then it hit me, maybe it’s better for me to start vaping. I have bought myself a couple of NZO vape pods and a starter kit, a couple of liquids and believe me it started to save my money. Vaping is a healthier and cheaper alternative to smoking. Plus, if you choose one of the cartridges mentioned by CFAH in this article, vaping can even help with things like anxiety, stress, and even help with pain relief, among other things. I am glad I switched. Tastes heavenly nice. ( I go for the watermelon taste.)
My brother has started to invite the friends over. Yes, they still can have much fun and listen to their favourite music, watching Netflix and series but with their snacks and drinks in the house. It is still the same people, same beverages but only with a world of difference saved in your pocket if you think of it like this.
Looking for alternatives has made us become more practical but also responsible. Try it and see that enjoying life can be less expensive than you think.
