Living poor in this country doesn’t have to be miserable provided you have shelter – either an apartment you rent that you can afford or share a room in an apartment or house, or are living with a relative or a grown child and paying a low rent. So rent taken care of what can make your life more contented? Let’s take food next. If you have some money coming in you can shop at Aldi or another discount supermarket and also shop at a dollar shop for food, or have a meal while visiting family or friends, or get free meals at soup kitchens, churches, and free food at food pantries. Browsing a farmer’s market is fun and you may find some bargains. Cooking is fun and can be creative; you can learn to make low cost and healthy meals. Save money by cutting meat out or just buying a chicken and ground turkey once a month and by buying a little fish, eggs, peanut and other nut butters, and planning more vegetarian meals or big pots of chicken soup, lentil soup or stew with vegetables, or a pot of chili that last for at least a few days. Okay, meals taken care of, what next? Find some great thrift shops that sell all kinds of items at very low prices as well as new, never worn clothing donated by people and stores or buy lightly used clothes all at great prices. Garage sales are fun and often items are not expensive. Transportation in NYC gives half-fare metro cards to seniors that cover both trains and buses and in some suburbs it only costs seventy five cents to get from one town to another. Taking a bus ride and just relaxing and looking out the window is a relaxing way to spend some time. Or some towns have free town buses that take you to malls and various places in the town. So what do you do with your time if you have no money for entertainment? Many cities and suburbs offer free concerts and other free events throughout the year. Can’t beat that. In many areas there are free local papers where you can learn of free local events. Then there are many free events and activities at parks, senior centers and libraries and free days at museums and botanical gardens, zoos. You can find a community garden with benches and just enjoy sitting there for awhile or you can volunteer to help with the garden. If you have a laptop that has access to Wi-Fi you can learn about so many things on YouTube for free or watch free videos of every description or free films from every era. No laptop, then go to a library and make use of their computers to email, to learn, or just enjoy whatever. What other free pleasures are there? Sit outside in a park or sit at the library and read a good book, write a journal, a memoir, a review, or a blog. All free! If you have a cell phone, take a walk and take pictures of interesting things you see on your walk and share with a few people. Listen to music on YouTube for free, from classical to rock. Or take out free music CDs at the library or free DVDs. Dance by yourself in your abode, or go to a senior center and dance! Make designs and color them or color in a coloring book for adults. Some senior centers have a group that meets to enjoy coloring. Being in nature, walking (or sitting) barefoot on the grass is peaceful, free, and healing. Visiting friends and family is always pleasurable. As long as you have the necessities of shelter, food, water, heat or a cooling device, you are very blessed and have more than so many in our world! And in this country, there is help in getting these necessities; so get help if you need it until you do have the necessities. After that avail yourself of all the wonderful resources that can bring contentment and joy into our lives, like libraries, senior centers, parks, free days at museums and botanical gardens, farmer’s markets, used book shops, thrift shops, free films and videos on YouTube and elsewhere, free local events like concerts and dances. With the right mindset and your basic needs met, one can have/create a very good life!