broke Archives — Beating Broke

Creative Dating Tips When Broke

September 27, 2021 By MelissaB 1 Comment

When my now husband and I first started dating, I was a graduate student, and he was an undergraduate. We were both broke, but we didn’t let that stop us. We spent nine months mostly going on free dates before we became engaged. If you’re short on cash, don’t let that interfere with your dating life. Instead, follow these creative dating tips when broke and go out and enjoy life. Who said dating has to be expensive?

Free Date Ideas

You may be under the misconception that dating is expensive, and it can be—if you let it. But there are still fabulous ways to spend time together that are free or cost very little and are fun.

Scenic Drive

Why not take a scenic drive and explore the area around you? We enjoy this most when the leaves are changing in the fall, and the scenery is gorgeous. But a scenic drive can be fun no matter the season.

Free Performances

If you live near a college town, see if they have any free performances. Colleges frequently have free music concerts. Some towns also have free plays in the summer or free movie viewings outdoors in the park.

One of our regular summer dates was a music concert the college held every Wednesday night. We got to spend time together, listen to good music, and, best of all, not spend any money!

Trip to the Beach

You can hit the beach for some daytime relaxation and fun. Or, for a more romantic date, try going to the beach an hour before sunset. There’s nothing better on a summer night than walking the beach, feeling the cool breeze, and watching the sunset.

Hike

Hiking can give you a chance to see how adventurous the other person is and to see how he or she handles difficulty if you take a more challenging trail. Or, you can opt to take an easier trail and have fun seeing the scenery and spending time together in nature.

Geocaching

Take your sweetie on an adventure. Geocaching is a free treasure hunt about which some people are almost cultish. Using GPS, find the nearby coordinates and the treasure that someone else has hidden.

Cook Together

You both have to eat, so why not cook together? This activity gives you a chance to see how you work together as a team and delegate responsibility, plus you get to eat something that’s (hopefully) tasty after all of your hard work.

If you have a bit of money to spend, you can make cooking together more of an adventure by buying a meal kit like HelloFresh. If you can’t afford that, Blue Apron has all of its recipes online for free. Just buy the ingredients you need.

Eat2Explore has boxes that include recipes for three meals from another country. Each box has directions, the sauces and spices you need, and a little bit of information about the country. You supply the ingredient. We’ve used several of these boxes and enjoyed trying foods from other countries.

My husband and I cooked together at least two or three times a week when we were dating. We both still like to cook, but now we take shifts—one cooks, one does the dishes. We figure when the kids are grown, we’ll have more time to cook together like we did when we were dating.

Star Gaze

If you live in the country, there’s something so romantic about putting down a blanket, lying together on your backs, and watching the stars. Of course, it’s fun to find constellations, but many times, if you stay there long enough, you can even see a shooting star or two. Plus, the stillness and the beauty of the night sky make for a very memorable date.

Go to a Museum

Many museums have one or two days a month when admission is free. Just be prepared that if you go during this time, the museum will likely be packed.

Some libraries also offer culture passes. These can be checked out and used for free admission to museums in your area. If you use these, you can go for free without dealing with the overcrowding that the one free day a month usually brings.

Low-Cost Dates

While the free dating tips when broke can supply you with many great dating ideas, there may be times when you want to go out and spend a little money. These fun date ideas don’t cost much money.

Go Out for Dessert

While getting an entire meal together at a restaurant might be a bit pricey if you’re broke, you can share a dessert for a fraction of the cost. For example, a Caramel Apple Blondie from Applebee’s is only $6.99. Or, their Brownie Bite is just $1.99. Plus, many of these desserts are so large, they’re like a meal in themselves.

Coffee Shop

Going to a coffee shop can be the perfect, intimate date. You can chat and focus on one another while sipping a beverage.

If you’re bookworms, you could get your drink at a bookstore coffee shop and spend an hour or two perusing good books and discussing them. My husband and I loved this type of date. We frequently went to coffee shops from the start of our relationship until after our first child was born.

Paint Together

Though you’ll have to pay for the supplies, that will likely be the only expense when painting together. If you’re both artistic, you could try to paint on your own with no direction. However, if one or both of you are artistically challenged, there’s no shortage of YouTube tutorials to watch. For instance, you can now find many of the PBS Bob Ross tutorials on YouTube.

Final Thoughts

Being short on cash doesn’t has to kill your love life. If you use some of these creative dating tips when broke, you can continue to enjoy spending time with your romantic interest in a way that doesn’t leave you with even less money. The most important aspect is being together. Doing that doesn’t have to be expensive or boring.

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Reasons Why You Need a Will Even When You’re Broke

June 7, 2021 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

You may think that only senior citizens need wills, but that’s not true. People need wills as soon as they have assets they’ll leave behind or when they have a spouse or children. Even the broke need a will if they are leaving dependents behind.

When You Don’t Need a Will

There’s one time in life when you don’t need a will—when you’re single, without children, and in debt without assets. Because there are no assets to divide, you don’t need a will. This would be likely if you’re in college or just out of college, living in an apartment, and have student loan or credit card debt.

Why You Need a Will Even When You’re Broke

There are several reasons why the broke need a will.

Designate Who Will Raise Your Children

If you have children, you can dictate through a will who you want to raise your children in the event that you and your spouse die at the same time (or if your spouse is deceased). If you don’t have a will in place, the state will decide who will become your children’s legal guardian. I’m sure you would rather choose than have the state decide.

Why the Broke Need a Will — Photo by Peter Idowu on Unsplash

You May Not Be as Broke as You Think

Another reason why you need a will is that you may think you’re broke, but you’re not. Take the time to consider all of the assets that you do have.

Potential Assets

For instance, do you have a life insurance policy? Even if you haven’t bought one yourself, often your employer supplies you with some life insurance.

Do you own a home? If so, how much equity do you have in the home?

What about your belongings? Do you own anything of value?

Do you have a retirement account? Again, even if you haven’t set one up independently, do you have one through your employer? If so, how much is the balance?

Most people, when they consider all of these sources, realize that they do indeed have assets. A will helps you designate who will get those assets when you die.

If you have children, you’ll likely want the assets to go to those individuals you’ve asked to raise your children in the event of your death.

How to Create a Will

Now that you’ve decided you likely need a will, you probably think you don’t have enough money to pay for the creation of a will. While hiring a lawyer can be expensive, you can create a will fairly cheaply by using a website service.

My husband and I created our will seven years ago using LegalZoom.com. We answered questions, filled out the form, and then paid $250. When we were done, lawyers looked over the document, and within a week we had our will.

Once you create a will, remember to update it as you have more children or accumulate more debts.

Final Thoughts

If you’re anything but single with no kids, then you need to create a will. No one likes to think about dying, but we’re all going to do so one day. It’s better to take the time now to designate who gets your assets and who will raise your children should you have an untimely death.

Remember, creating a will doesn’t have to be expensive, and your family will be glad you took the time to create one.

Read More:

Guaranteed Ways to Go Broke

February 1, 2021 By MelissaB 1 Comment

If you look, you can find plenty of material about how to create a budget, save for retirement, and live within your means. What you don’t find are many examples of people doing just that and living a financially solvent life. On the other hand, you don’t find much material about guaranteed ways to go broke, but you can likely find people from all walks of life who flaunt the steps to going broke. Ironically, those are often the people of whom we are most envious.

How to Go Broke

There are many, many ways to go broke. To most effectively go broke, utilize as many of these steps as possible.

Buy a House You Can’t Afford

One of the best ways to go broke is to buy a house you can’t afford.

When you qualify for a mortgage, you’re given a price range that you can buy in. If possible, buy a house at the very top of your price range. This will ensure that you will likely struggle with house payments, and that your monthly payment will be more than the recommended 28 to 36% of your take home income. (Remember those percentages include not only the house payment but also taxes, insurance, and HOA fees.)

Also ideal is to pick a home with the highest HOA fees. Then, even after you pay off the house, you’ll be paying hundreds a month in HOA fees.

Buy a New Car and Trade in Frequently

How to Go Broke — Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

After buying a house you can’t afford, the next best way to go broke is to buy new cars frequently.

Buy a brand-new car and only drive it for two to three years. Sure, you save yourself the headache of costly repairs as the car gets older. However, you also ensure that you’re absorbing the depreciation that happens in the first year or two of brand-new car ownership.

Ideally, when you sell your car, try to be upside down on your loan so that you owe more than the vehicle is worth. Go ahead and roll that difference into your next new car loan, and you’re well on your way to going broke.

Give Your Kids Everything They Want

If you have children, make sure to give them everything they want. After all, kids are only kids once.

Make sure to pay for all the lessons that they want. Buy them all the clothes that they want. At Christmas, buy them as many presents as possible. When they come to you for money, give it to them freely without making them work for it.

Stay Active on Social Media

Stay active on social media and follow as many people as possible.

This is the best way to see what the Jones’ are doing. Try to do the things that they’re doing. Book more travel than you can afford. Get your hair and nails done. Go out to eat as much as possible at the trendiest, most expensive restaurants. Buy as much as possible.

After all, the point isn’t a happy, contented life, but one in which you look as impressive as possible. Who cares that you’re actually broke? No one can see that.

Don’t Save for Recurring Expenses

Of course, you have your regular bills that come due every month, which you try to pay regularly. But then you have your irregular expenses like your car insurance and home owner’s insurance, which are due twice a year. Property taxes also fall into those categories. But don’t bother saving a little each month so when the bills come due you have money to pay them. No, that’s no fun.

Instead, pretend like those bills don’t exist, and when they come due, panic. For several weeks, worry how you will pay these large bills. Try to cut your spending for a few weeks so you can gather enough money to pay them. If you can’t manage gathering enough money, ask friends or relatives for a loan. Six months later, when the same bills are due, repeat the process.

Don’t Have an Emergency Fund

Who needs an emergency fund? How could you possibly set aside thousands of dollars for an emergency? That’s too boring for you. You could never stand seeing that money sitting there and not spend it. No, enjoy the money that you have, and when an emergency comes, which hopefully it won’t, you will deal with it.

Have as Many Credit Cards as Possible

Fill your wallet with as many credit cards as possible. After all, how can you finance your lifestyle without credit cards?

Make sure to charge all of your expenses each month. Ideally, only pay the minimum payment due. When one card reaches its credit limit, just move on to spending on the next card.

Don’t worry about the 12 to 20% you’re paying in interest monthly. Don’t worry that by paying the minimum due you,re only putting a few dollars on principal, so you’ll never get out of the financial hole you’re digging yourself.

Remind yourself that all Americans have credit card debt. It’s just the way our economy functions. Plus, you’re actually helping the economy by spending, right?

Don’t Invest

Investing is so boring. Don’t bother saving for retirement. After all, you only live once, and who knows how long you’ll live, anyway? What if you save all that money, and then you don’t even live until retirement? What a waste! Take any money you have and spend it now. Live in the moment!

Final Thoughts

Clearly this is a tongue-in-cheek post about how to go broke. However, many Americans do try to live this way. The path to going broke is clear; we’ve seen many Americans do it—from everyday people to professional athletes, singers, and actors.

What doesn’t get highlighted as much is how to be smart with your money and build a sound future. Don’t worry about what other people are doing; focus on your own life and your own financial future. You’ll be much happier that way.

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