How many leisurely things can you do without spending money?

As a bored suburban kid, I spent a lot of time at malls (big ones and strip ones), either by myself or with other careless spenders, like friends and family. I’d use money I never earned to spend on crap- stuff like junk food, movies and video games. I’d also spend time outdoors, but it seemed a day at the park or just biking around always had to end with a trip to the ice cream shop or pizza parlor. It’s no wonder I got into money troubles with these early habits. Spending money was automatic.

Sitting on Park BenchI’ve been doing a good job of curbing unnecessary spending, as required by my savings plan. But recently I unexpectedly had a couple of hours of free time between engagements. I wasn’t conveniently near home; I had neither books, nor internet access; and I had no gym clothes on hand. Worse yet, I was in a commercial area with tons of cafes and affordable and chic clothing, music and furniture stores. My impulsive side was screaming, “run and buy something, NOW!”

I wasn’t sure how to unwind without reverting to the bad habit of spending money for the sake of it. A sudden pause in the hectic pace of modern life made me realize I had trouble finding something to do that was relaxing and free. So readers, I present you this challenge: What would you do if you had some leisurely time, but didn’t want to spend money?

I think one should have at least five ideas of what to do without spending money, just in case a number of them can’t be done for whatever reason. In the situation I described above, I high-tailed it walking home just so I could have internet access again and read some trashy gossip sites. The problem with heading home was that it cut down my leisurely time to just 25 minutes before having to head off to my next engagement. It seemed like a waste of time to feed my internet addiction rather than walk in a park and look at birds or something.

Here are five things I think I could have done in retrospect. I can’t wait to hear ideas you have.

1) Maybe browsing would have been okay. I’ve noticed that since I work so much these days, I hardly get to go out and shop. It’s been a long time since I bought new clothes. Since I plan on buying clothes at some point in the future, it wouldn’t have hurt just to try on a few things. If something I tried on was a winner, then I could always go back and buy the item on another day. That certainly would have cut out the impulse buying aspect, but not the consumerist aspect.

2) Bite the bullet and catch up with people. At least I had my cell phone with me. There are a number of friends I need to catch up with, but it’s hard for me to decide whom to call first. Letting contacts pile up can be an overwhelming for me. I email friends a lot, but I usually don’t call friends out of the blue to chat. They have hectic schedules too! I wait for a large chunk of time to roll around, and I use that time to do phone catch-up with as many friends as possible. Maybe just calling around, and leaving voicemails if that were the case, would have been a good use of time. Heck, I could have even called Mom to say hi.

3) Make a stop at the library. It didn’t occur to me until much later that the library was on the way to my next engagement. I could have selected a newspaper or magazine to read for a while, or browsed the new book releases. I could have even used the computers there for internet access too.

4) Keep walking. I know the neighborhoods of San Francisco pretty well, but I’m usually pretty destination-focused. The idea of wandering around aimlessly and taking in the environment while exploring a neighborhood doesn’t come as second nature to me. I like to participate in the environment, such as doing the people watching as I sit in a cafe. I suppose trying to be a distant observer and passerby would have opened my eyes to a few things.

5) At a loss for ideas. Isn’t it strange that it’s hard to think of something free to do if you’re unprepared? I’d like to think that it would have been OK to go sit in a park and enjoy the sunshine, but I was in my business clothes. There’s something about the world today that makes it seem creepy for a man to be at a park by himself on a weekday in the late afternoon. Maybe that’s just the case in San Francisco. The truth is, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable just sitting at a park watching the birds. I would have felt like people are watching me asking, “What’s this guy up to?” because that’s what I’d be asking of a stranger on a park bench too.

Leisure in modern times seems like it’s gotten pretty complicated. It’s good to be prepared.