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Cheap Ways to Improve Your Day
At Home
- Spend a day in your pyjamas.
- Use something you save for best.
- Pick daisies and buttercups and arrange them in a teeny tiny vase/milk jug/sugar bowl/egg cup.
- Build a blanket fort.
- Plant some seeds.
- Get up early.
- Have an afternoon nap.
- Get eight hours sleep a night every night for a week.
Food and Drink
- Try a strange fruit or vegetable.
- Go to the ice cream shop (the local one, not the super-expensive international chain one) and try a new flavour.
- Have a picnic. Make the sandwiches yourself.
- Make pizzas from scratch.
- Add mini marshmallows to your hot chocolate.
- Have a tea party. You provide the tea; ask your friends to bring snacks.
- Make something outside your cooking comfort zone.
- Drink more water.
- Bake something and share it with friends.
- Eat at a table. With a candle and everything.
- Buy the really good chocolate.
- Try a different brand of a staple food.
- Flip pancakes.
- Bake bread.
- Select your cereal for the free toy.
- Make soup.
- Take your time over breakfast. Eat food which you need to prepare.
- Have a midnight feast.
Go Outdoors
- Play on the swings. And the roundabout.
- Watch a sport.
- Splash in puddles.
- Kick through leaves.
- Hopscotch your way along the pavement. Don't step on any lines.
- Turn a few different corners on a familiar path.
- Go to a local parade or event.
- Sit outside on your own and don't play with your phone.
- Visit a local interest spot.
- Take the long walk home.
- Volunteer at an event.
- Wander aimlessly.
- Go for a midnight stroll.
- Go geocaching.
- Feed the ducks.
- Go to a museum or art gallery. Play at being a tourist in your own town.
- Stargaze during a meteor shower.
- Watch the sun set. And the sun rise.
- Catch a bus or a train to somewhere you've never been.
- Decorate a bus stop (without causing any damage, obviously!).
- Find shapes in the clouds.
- Go foraging for berries.
- Draw pictures in the sand.
- Explore the countryside.
- Climb a tree.
- Make a daisy chain.
- Map out five different routes for a journey you do every day. Try them all this week, both directions.
- Feed the birds.
Other People
- Go through your contacts list and message someone you haven't spoken to in ages.
- Invite someone to meet you for coffee. In your own home, if money is tight.
- Pop your friend's favourite sweet treat through their letterbox. Anonymously.
- Do something nice for somebody you don't know.
- Tell someone you love them.
- Arrange a book swap/used clothes swap/homemade cake swap with your friends.
- Switch your phone off when you're spending time with friends.
- Send a friend something silly to make them smile.
- Pay a stranger a compliment.
- Have a huge game of hide and seek.
- Send a thank you card.
- Find out more about your family. Ask your relatives for stories.
- Meet someone for a quick coffee and cake after work.
- Take a long lunch hour and do something special with it.
Arts, Crafts and Photography
- Photograph a favourite place.
- Change your phone/desktop background to a favourite photograph.
- Make one of those things you've pinned. Something which doesn't require you to go to the craft shop first. Origami. Refashioning a T-shirt. Drawing on crockery.
- Photograph strangers (with their permission).
- Hang something new on the wall. Make it yourself.
- Frame or display something with sentimental value.
- Photograph a rainbow of colours.
- Get some favourite photos printed.
- Make pompoms. Sew them to your hats or string them up like bunting.
- Recreate an old photograph.
- Set your camera to black and white and go for a walk with it.
- Stick googly eyes on everything. Draw faces on your (unpeeled) fruit. Paint a face on a flower pot.
- Fly paper aeroplanes.
- Swap around the different coloured inks in your printer and print out some pictures.
- Take a photo a friend would like, not one you (necessarily) would.
- Do some colouring in.
- Make a bouquet of paper or fabric flowers. Fill a vase.
- Take a photo then turn 180 degrees and photograph what's behind you.
- Take a photo every five minutes for an hour.
- Photograph your parents' (or a significant person from your childhood's) home. Look for design elements you unconsciously repeat in your own home.
Reading and Writing
- Have an early night with a good book.
- Write honestly about how you're feeling these days.
- Send a postcard just because.
- Write your manifesto.
- Pick a book outside your usual genres and read it.
- Read a biography.
- Leave a good book for a stranger to find.
- Write a letter to an old friend.
- Join the library.
- Re-read your favourite book from childhood.
Films, Music and Pop Culture
- Watch a favourite film or TV show from your childhood.
- Make a compilation of all the songs which take you back to specific times and places in your life.
- Put on an old favourite song and dance.
- Ask your friends for music recommendations. Listen to them.
- Have a DVD day.
- Dance like nobody's watching.
- Sing like nobody's listening.
- Play a board game. One you already own or a random one from the charity shop.
- Watch a classic film you've never got around to before.
- Watch a really silly film you're a little embarrassed about. Don't be afraid to laugh.
- Make a mix tape (or, okay, a playlist) of all your favourite bouncy songs. Listen to it all the way through.
- Watch scary films on Friday 13th.
- Watch a film which you wouldn't normally bother with. Give it shot.
- Put on music you think you're too cool for and dance without irony.
Dressing Up
- Wear something you save for best.
- Put on silly clothes and pose for the camera. Involve your friends.
- Wear something you haven't worn for a very long time. Decide if you really want to keep it.
- Overdress.
- Paint your toenails.
- Organise your wardrobe by colour. Or length. Or style.
- Dress up as somebody else. Walk around in clothes which feel weird to you.
- Wear the thing you bought but were too scared to be seen in. Brightly coloured tights. Low neck line. Slogan T-shirt.
- Wrap up warm.
Be Productive
- Score a couple of simple things off your to do list (tighten that screw; replace that battery; dust that light shade). Feel like you've accomplished something.
- Rearrange some furniture.
- Get rid of five things you no longer love.
- Spend a day blitzing your to do list.
- Repair one of the things in your mending pile.
- Make that appointment you've been procrastinating about.
- Clear out your toiletries. If something's been open more than a year, get rid of it.
- Clean something you usually ignore. The inside of the oven. Behind the sofa. The tops of your books.
- Check all the best before dates in your kitchen.
- Look into better bank accounts. If you find one, apply for it.
- Throw out uncomfortable clothes and shoes.
- Cull your contacts list. Get rid of the exes and the electrician who never showed up.
- Set a timer for one hour. Clean and tidy everything you can.
- Clear out your blog reader.
- Donate something. Especially blood.
- Chuck out your tatty underwear.
- Tidy one room. Just one.
- Spend ten minutes unsubscribing from junk emails.
Misc
- Have an techno - (or at least internet) - free weekend.
- Write a big, long list of things that make you happy.
- Give up your biggest vice for a week.
- Get some exercise.
- Do something you loved to do as a kid. Climb trees. Finger paint. Jump in puddles.
- Write down one guilty secret and let it go.
- Make a big fuss of your (or friends') pets.
- Make plans. Happy plans.
- Write down three things which made you happy today. Every day. For at least a week.
- Email your future self.
- Smile at your own reflection.
- Bite back the negativity. Especially about yourself. See if you can manage a week.
- List at least ten things you love about the town/city/village you live in.