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Here’s a post by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on the topic of business credit. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal e-mail address: heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

Some people think you can’t have fun if you’re trying to budget and save money. I personally feel that couldn’t be further from the truth. While having to save money makes some events more challenging, you can still have plenty of fun doing activities. It all depends on what you’re looking for, but if you make a budget, you can fit many low-priced activities into your weekly schedule.

Go to the Movies. Going to the movie theater occasionally works just fine, even if you’re trying to save some cash. The average trip can cost less then $10 for a matinee, even if you get something to eat. I wouldn’t recommend going every weekend, but the occasional flick can be a good time. If you are still worried about saving money, skip the popcorn and drink or sneak something in from home.

Rent Movies or Watch What You Have. Truth be told, going to the movies can get expensive. Deciding to rent movies or simply watching what you already own can save you big bucks in the long run. For people who are completely addicted to movies, Netflix or a similar rental service might be a great solution. With gas prices the way they are these days, staying home can end up saving you a significant amount of cash.

Decorate Clay Dinnerware, Cups, and Serveware. While some people may feel that they are above decorating clay and going to one of those “artsy” places, I think that it’s a great use of a little money for a fun activity. It depends on what you’re interested in having colored, but usually the cost runs only around $20 or so. If you are low on plates or mugs, you can kill two birds with one stone by having a great activity while making something useful. If budget is still a concern, opt for the smaller clay products to decorate.

Cook Something New. Too many people feel going out to dinner is the only way to truly have a special meal. I personally think that food you’ve prepared yourself tastes much more delicious than many things you order at a restaurant. There’s a satisfaction associated with trying to cook something you’ve never cooked before and succeeding in making a delicious dish. The activity itself can be fun (selecting what to cook, getting the ingredients, etc.), and it also is easy on your bank account. You don’t have to spend a lot of money at a restaurant to have a nice time eating.

Play an MMORPG. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) can be quite fun. The best thing about them is that they aren’t very strenuous on your bank account. World of Warcraft, for example, costs $15 a month. While at first glance this may seem outrageous, if you consider the many hours some people play, it’s actually a bargain. A two-hour movie may be around $10, but if you play an MMORPG, chances are you’ll spend more than two hours on it. Of course, you have to remember that these games have to be played in moderation. However, I know many people (husbands, wives, and children) who enjoy games like WoW as a family. If you’re looking for a fun activity that isn’t terribly expensive, then an MMORPG might be the ticket.

Enjoy Lower-League Sporting Events. Chances are that your city has a major sports team or many major sports teams. Chances also are that tickets to games might make Bill Gates blush. Sporting events can really give your wallet a kick in the stomach, but they don’t have to. I know many people who take their families to minor league games and have just as much fun. College sporting events are also a great option (depending on the school of course). Rather than going to an NBA game, give the college scene a try. Rather than going to your MLB team’s game, see what their minor league affiliate has to offer. You can have a really fantastic time watching the home team without having to go into debt.

Go for Walks. Too few people seem take the time to simply slow things down and go on nice walks. Walks are free, healthy, and can be quite enjoyable. Check out that park down the street you’ve always wondered about, or simply go to a street in your neighborhood that you’ve never explored. When it comes to walking, the opportunities are endless. I know many couples and families who find that walks are some of their most enjoyable activities together.

Play a Board Game. What with all the online games to play, fewer people seem to be playing board games these days. Board games are the perfect activity for someone who’s trying to save cash and interact with real human beings. Watch yard sales and shop thrift shops for gently used games. Even if you do have to a buy a new one, chances are it will be a lot less expensive than the price of a visit to an amusement park or to even a movie theater. Board games are fun, cheap, and a great activity that friends and family can enjoy.

So those are some ideas for the kinds of activities that will certainly be fun and won’t hurt your wallet. If you’re trying to save money, you don’t have to sit at home and stare at the wall all day. With a little creativity, you can have just as much fun as someone who can afford to go on exotic vacations constantly (well, maybe not just as much, but almost as much).

Amazingly, Anna H. Banana survived yesterday’s encounter with a vet who was searching for cancer. If she has cancer, it’s not easily detected. Nor does she have megaesophagus, the condition her previous vet speculated was the cause of the heavy breathing—her esophagus was clearly visible in the X-rays, and clearly quite normal.

What was detected, however, was extensive calcification in her spine. She has such severe arthritis that her spine is barely moveable. (Not news to any observer of her struggles to get down and back up.) The vet thinks the dog is in pain most of the time from that, which explains the pretty much constant huffing, puffing, and hyperventilating.

The plan is to treat her with Tramadol, a particularly effective painkiller that (according to the new vet) has virtually no side-effects in dogs. In humans, it has some wild ones: seizures, dizzy spells intense enough to cause falling, fainting, and uncontrollable shaking of an extremity. That’s why I don’t take it—my doctor prescribed it when I developed a life-threatening allergy to NSAIDs, but after getting a look at what it can do to you, I decided I’d have to be in outrageous pain to let that stuff pass my lips. The vet, though, insists that none of the above applies to canis lupus familiaris.

A hefty dose of this, I’m told, should cause her to snooze through the night. But I’m supposed to give her three hefty doses, one every eight hours. First dose came last night. It seems to have worked to keep her down all night…if not, I didn’t know about it, because at the same time I have her the dog pills, I dosed myself with two of Walgreen’s best knock-off Benadryloids, twice what I’d normally use as a sleeping pill. The burglars could have come in and set up a steel band, and not waked me up. One full night’s sleep—the first in about six weeks—-worked wonders on my own aches and pains: overnight the excruciating neck-ache and back-ache have almost disappeared.

Yesterday’s adventure set me back another $178, but at least we’re into another AMEX billing cycle. I had $50 left for the week, which ended yesterday. So I’m “only” $128 over budget at the end of this cycle’s first week.

Testing her for cancer and finding her (probably) free of it, however, allows us to test her for thyroid dysfunction (another hundred bucks), which I’m pretty sure she doesn’t have and probably has never had during the entire six years I’ve been dosing this animal with Soloxine and trotting her in twice a year for expensive bloodwork. There was no point in testing for a chronic, treatable illness if she had an untreatable disease that would carry her off.

If our theory is right—that the source of the dog’s pain is arthritis—and the Tramadol works on her, she should be in pretty darned good shape for an ancient dog. I hope so. With any luck at all, maybe Anna and The Beloved Ball will be around for a while longer.

People who live alone have no one to give them a massage when the old back goes out. Argh! What to do?

Well, you could do contortions trying to reach your own back, or you could pony up $50 or $80 for a massage therapist to try to knead out the kinks.

Or you could try this:

Take a tennis ball or a hard rubber ball about the same size. Back up against the wall with the ball placed between your back and the wall, as close to the sore muscle as you can get it. Lean on the ball and move around so as to roll the roll up, down, back, and forth across the affected area.

Gives you a great massage, and after you’re feeling better, you can use the ball to play with the dog.

Mighty glad to welcome those of you who just came here from LifeHacker! To learn more about me and how this blog came into being, please see the links at the top of any page. Click on “categories” for a sort of index that groups posts by various topics.

And don’t forget the RSS feed at the top of the Funny about Money home page! Comments and feedback are encouraged and read with interest.

-vh

1 Comment left on iWeb site

Sridhar J

Hi

I did come from Lifehacker and am mighty glad I did :). I came to the featured page and stayed here for quite sometime. You write from the heart and it shows. All of us have problems ranging from mildly irritating to no-sleep-at-night types. Dealing with them rationally and logically is the only way out. Your Poison Poppy representation was on the mark.

An alternate revenue stream would be for you to monetize your writing, like freelance writing. I am sure you would do well.

All the best in your life.

Regards

Sridhar

Sunday, May 18, 2008 – 09:51 PM

Along about the first of the year, I framed a goal to set aside enough to pay off a small second mortgage I took out to renovate the Investment House. At that time, about $23,500 was owing on the original $25,000 loan, which has an interest rate of 6.5 percent. I would like to have this loan paid off by the time I retire, in three to seven years.

The loan’s monthly payments are small and easily affordable on my current salary. I decided that rather than paying directly toward principal, I would save enough to pay it off in one swell foop when I retire (or have the equivalent amount in savings should I sell the house before paying off the loan). I created a second income stream by taking on a couple of classes at one of my beloved employer’s satellite campuses. Because those courses were double-enrolled and I threatened at the last minute (when I learned about this) not to accept an FTE workload in addition to my real full-time job, the university agreed to pay me for four sections. This serendipitous fiasco added $1,676 to my monthly take-home pay!

Hence, the strategy: deposit $838 per paycheck to Vanguard’s Prime Money Market Fund, plus the $250/month I figured I could spare from my regular income. Add my income tax refund to it. Label this money the Renovation Loan Fund, and set it aside to pay off the loan and to double as an extra emergency fund. Meanwhile, snowflake down the principal with budget underruns and any small windfalls.

With the final $838 of the semester winging its way to Vanguard, we can see that this scheme is working nicely.

The principal itself is now snowflaked down to $$22,583, an $880 improvement.

The Renovation Loan Stash is up to $17,119. So, if I wanted to pay off the second mortgage today, all I’d have to come up with is about $5,465. If pushed, I could do it. If I sold the house today, the entire amount of principal could come out of the sale price, and I’d still have a substantial part of that amount in savings to put help buy another house.

While snowflaking is very nice-the $880 principal reduction is way better than a hit on the head-clearly the key to effective savings on a modest salary is to establish a second income stream!

If you rally need to pay down a loan or put money aside in savings (and who doesn’t?) and your salary is pegged firmly in the middle to low range, the fastest and most efficient solution is to get a second job or start a small enterprise on the side. Then apply all the net income from that second income stream to your goal.

Now that the teaching gig is over, I’ve picked up a little freelance proofreading job. Pay is low, but hey: I’m getting paid to read detective novels! By the end of 2007, that should pay at least $4,000. If I can also spare $250 a month from my paycheck, the resulting $5,500 stash will be enough to pay off the loan.

Cheap Eats is a day late, yesterday having been a bit on the hectic side, but it’s not a dollar short. Here’s a yummy, economical meatless spaghetti meal, cadged from a television program whose name I don’t recall.

You need…

• A handful or two of walnuts (other kinds of nuts will work: almonds, pine nuts, pistachios, cashews)
• A wad of spaghetti
• Olive oil
• Sage leaves
• Water
• Optional: canned pepper such as pimiento or roasted chili pepper, cut into small pieces
• A little chopped Italian parsley, if desired
• Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of water to the boil.

While this is heating, pour enough olive oil into a frying pan to skim the bottom nicely. Heat the olive oil. Take a few sage leaves (about half a dozen) and place them in the oil. Let them crisp up a bit, but don’t scorch. Add a generous couple of handfuls of nuts. Brown the nuts in the olive oil. If you like, after the nuts are nicely browned, add a few pieces of canned pepper.

When the water comes to a boil, cook the spaghetti al dente.

Drain the spaghetti in a colander, then toss with the nuts and olive oil. Serve it up with plenty of Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle on a little chopped parsley at the last minute.

Accompanied with a tossed green salad, this makes a full meal and is truly good to eat.