Make your great gay life greater
Living fabulously for gay men means having a great gay social life, but a fabulously gay life can mean a fantastically small bank account!
Get your great gay life on the same page on this Queer Money™:
Have your great gay life on your Fabulous Social Life Planner
1. Fill in birthdays, holidays, anniversaries and other special occasions
Become religious about sending birthday, anniversary and holiday cards. Becoming a card sender doesn’t mean taking a small loan from Hallmark. You can get reasonably priced cards at Target – stay away from the Papyrus aisle – or, if penny-pinching is your current fix, shop a dollar store.
Put important dates on your Fabulous Social Life Planner. Some holidays and special occasions mean more than sending cards, such as gathering with your friends and family for a Thanksgiving feast and Fourth of July BBQ.
2. List future gay social life events
You can’t do everything, and you don’t want everyone to forget about you. Plan by adding your great gay life to-dos that are most important to you. We find that two events a month are just about perfect. Pick events where you’ll get the most bang for your buck, whether that’s the number of friends you’ll see, fun you’ll have or money you’ll save.
3. Add free and cheap things to your gay social life
Add to your Fabulous Social Life Planner the obvious, like watching Netflix. Another example of how we keep a great gay life is playing Rummycube. My family’s addicted to this game! We have friends who nerd out on it, too. A few times year, we gather for a Rummycube tournament complete with snacks, beer or wine, and it’s a cheap, fun night.
There are tons of other game night options; Cards Against Humanity, Heroscape, Carcassone or Clue.
4. Hunt for more free and cheap
Most cities and regions have blogs, city guides or websites that list free and cheap things to do in that area. Denver has free and cheap events and activities listed at Denver.org. We also have MileHighOnTheCheap.com. Philadelphia has free things listed at PhillyFunGuide.com and New York City has TheSkint.com. These are just the places where we go.
Find similar resources for where you live and travel to fill out your printable social planner with seasonal activities and activities you may not otherwise consider.
5. Fill in your great gay life goals for money and life
At a minimum, update your budget once a month. We do this twice a month. Your downloadable Fabulous Social Life Planner will give you space to note significant, high-level information about your budget. These include your:
- Projected Income for the month
- Projected Expenses for the month
- Social Spending for the month
- Assets
- Debt
- Net Worth