Let's go out and do something today…

The above isn't an uncommon request. We crave to fill our workless hours doing things that entertain us and allow us to spend time with those special people in our lives. We like to spend our free time actively doing things and getting out of the house so we are not wasting those precious "me moments" that we get away from work. However, I dispute this notion of FREE time, because there is no such thing. No time is free. I have learned in my self supporting years that everything we do costs money.

Is there anything we can do that doesn't cost money? We can barely leave the comforts of our homes without having to incur some sort of cost. We all know this to be the truth. Look at the way we talk? "So how are you going to SPEND your time?" "Let's go PAY them a visit." There is no such thing as free time. The moment we step out our front door the meter is on, just being outside of our house is costing us something. There are very little time passing or social activities that don't require us to spend some money.

Let's meet for coffee? Money
You want to grab some lunch? Money
Want to get together for a drink? Survey says....Money.
How about we go see a movie? The French call it…Argent
Or perhaps rent a movie? Cha Ching!
Want to see a concert? What's that word…oh yeah…MONEY!
We could go golfing? MONeyyyyy….it's a gas
Tennis anyone? I want to say…MONEY!
Hey, do you want to walk around and look at stores. Or as normal people call it go shopping! Dolla Dolla Dolla!

Don't give me this "well, what about window shopping?" nonsense either. No one truly window shops. Unless they are shopping for ummm…windows. But who does that? Really? You know who really window shops? Poor people.

The above list doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the financial drainings of a social life. I haven't even touched on the basics like costs associated with the transportation of getting places to do things. Gas, taxis, parking…parking? Can you believe the prices of parking they…you know what, it's not even worth getting into. Lets just agree that practically every social (or ant- social for that matter) activity costs money. They say money can't buy happiness but it damn sure can buy a hell of a lot else.

The realization that there are very few things that we can do that don't require money is one of the many financial frustrations of life and is something we unfortunately just have to accept. Perhaps this can be an impetus to make us work harder in life so we can better enjoy our personal time. Better yet, coming to understand this, we should learn to appreciate those things and more so those people that we can spend our TRUE free time with. Cherish those people that we can just spend hours talking with, laughing with, going for walks with, and lying around with. That is spending real free time and those moments are invaluable.

…but that's just my opinion.

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