because free time is so overrated

I love waking up with a plan! Especially after going to sleep in a conundrum: Why does the monthly bill-pay sit-down cause more and more pain each month?

Woke up not with the answer to the questions but a solution to the problem. Sure, it involves possibly (re)giving up all my nights and weekends but will ease the money crunch - if I can get le game plan off the ground. It doesn't involve the oldest profession in history, just to be clear.

Damned_cat's guide to enjoying life while spending less money:

1. Give up an expensive vice and cultivate a liking for something that's not only free but that will put some change back in your pocket. [Stop drinking soda and get another job.]

2. Take the leftovers people offer you. Eat them. [This is especially hard for me. I don't like leftovers.]

3. Waste nothing.

4. Eat at Mom's.

5. Do things in the dark.

Well, reading is free (except for the part where you have to turn on a light), and that's nice. I am (re)approaching A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail the way some people approach the AT itself: as a section-hiker, not a thru-hiker. Section hikers do it piece by piece and some have been known to take 40 years to complete it, Georgia to Maine. Thru-hikers hit it once and hard (or not so hard, actually) and can take anywhere from 48 days to a year ... Let's hope I don't take a(nother) year to finish A Walk in the Woods ... it is so entertaining, I can't figure out why I haven't finished it yet. Short attention span ...