Can You be Sociable and Frugal?

I imagine a lot of people must take a look at my blog and wonder how the heck I can call mine a "frugal" lifestyle... I am jetting off to all sorts of places, going to things, doing sport, seeing friends... surely frugality is about paring your lifestyle  down to the basics?

A busy social life in the usual sense can be problematic. The truth is, if you have a financial goal or need to save money for any reason, or if you have no money spare at all, sometimes you really do have to say "no" to things you would rather say "yes" to. You just can't do everything.

A case in point, this weekend, there is something happening that I would love to go to and because I can't afford to get there, I feel like I am letting people down. I know OH feels the same.

 

But we can console ourselves that we have done lots of things lately, been as sociable as we could be, and are saving up for an important event at the end of the month - World Fantasycon - where we shall be very sociable indeed. (Hey, SFT - Joanne Harris is going to be there - squee!)

And of course we can still be a bit sociable before then! I am going volunteering at Parkrun again tomorrow, and will enjoy doing lots of cycling and visiting family over the weekend - and that won't cost anything.

Later in the month, I will be attending a talk about the Facial Reconstruction of King Richard III as well... again, for free! I am absolutely fascinated by 'The Cousins' War' and the story of how his body was found - so that should be very interesting indeed. There will also be an exhibition following that at Northampton Museum.

I will probably also be going to the Shakespeare exhibition at Abington before it finishes, and the Susan Macwilliam installation at NN gallery. If anyone wants to join me, let me know!

I am currently doing the Go Sober campaign, which will make attending the odd birthday celebration very cheap (sponsor me, someone, please!)  - and it's high time I had people round for tea and cake (I'll get baking...).

But whatever we do decide to do with our free time,  all our bills are taken care of for the month already. All our train tickets and hotel rooms are paid for in advance. Birthday gifts are covered... and I'm very into my homemade cards, of course. We've done a 'stockpile' order this month to take advantage of a bumper load of vouchers and free delivery options (and due to an inadvertent error by Sainsbury's, I now have even more money-off vouchers to compensate - yay!), so apart from a few fresh things we should cope pretty well.

What the advance shopping has also bought us plenty of is time... and with my extra time this weekend, I fully intend to do some de-cluttering, handicrafts, and a bit of gardening and getting out in the fresh air! I also have a book report to write, and I have time to do this, too.

So, although I'm sad about not being able to do something that would have been really nice, life is good. It really is.


UPDATE: Most people know this already, but OH completed his first triathlon in a very respectable 1 hour, 13 minutes.

I am immensely proud of him!

He didn't want a load of the many photos I took to be uploaded for the world to see without a thorough vetting, but I don't think he'd mind just this one, which happens to show him overtaking another competitor on the second lap of the cycling stage.