Your twenties and thirties are supposed to be the best years of your lives. You finally have the freedom to do whatever you want as an adult.

You’ve had time to get that rebellious streak and experimentation out of you during your teenage years and early twenties. While you’ve probably made your share of mistakes, as an adult you are finally getting comfortable being in your own skin.

You are at a place where you can do whatever you want, be whomever you want. Travel the world. Talk to everyone or no one at all.

But here’s the problem. You’re broke. You are arguably at the lowest net worth in your twenties. And let’s just face it. Money may not buy you happiness but it sure can buy you a lot of things that can make you happy.

Do you want that travel experience laying on the beach of an exotic island? Yeah, you have to buy that plane ticket to get there first.

You have all the energy, you have the wide-eyed wonder ready to take on the world but no money to do it. But by the time you are at your highest net worth, you likely won’t have the energy for it anymore.

So what can you do?

Balancing Saving with Living

I’ll be the first to admit that I often have the negative habit of thinking in an all-or-nothing mindset. And I’m sure I’m not the only one.

But that is just a bad habit that you and I both need to stop. Who says you can’t have a social life while being on a budget?

What you really need is a balance. How do you save for the rainy day but still have fun?

How do you enjoy your best years without suffering later on in life?

I grew up in a lower-middle-class family. At one point when my parents separated, I went from being a child of a middle-class, double-income family to relying solely on my mom’s minimum-wage salary.

I didn’t realize my error in thinking until years later, but as a young girl, I had always associated money with happiness.

After all, it was money that allowed my parents to buy me toys that made me happy. It was money that allowed us to travel to nice places for vacation.

But money isn’t everything. My proof? I maintained a pretty good childhood even after that sudden drop in income and lived happily as a family of three on a single parent, minimum-wage income.

Most importantly I learned the value of frugality. My mom is extremely frugal and I credit her frugality with allowing me to get to where I am today.

Tips on Being Frugal While Still Maintaining a Social Life

While I had a pretty awesome childhood despite growing up in a lower-class family, high school and college were when money issues started creeping up. That poor girl mentality often stuck with me.

I made sure to always buy something during mall outings with friends even if I didn’t want anything just because I was scared of being called cheap.

I say your twenties and thirties are the best years of your lives and I really do believe it. Now that I am in my twenties, I have gained an inner-confidence and don’t rely on my purchases or belongings to justify my self-worth as a person.

Years of balancing my mom’s extreme frugality with my desire of enjoying my youth have also led me to these 6 tips on balancing frugality and a social life.

1.  Don’t hesitate to spend on experiences.

Like I said before, experiences cost money! But don’t just say no to every trip suggestions your friends make.

I’ve taken many trips while being a broke graduate student because I know that the money I could save from skipping out on amazing trips with great friends would never be worth the regret of missing these experiences.

Of course, not every experience is worth your money. Like that weekly downtown bar hopping trip that you’ve done so many times already? Skip it. Your wallet and your liver will thank you.

But if it’s a new experience that the only hesitation you have is money concerns, then try to save up instead of missing the experience which brings me to point #2.

2.  Do the math!

Can you work extra shifts or cut down on monthly spending so you can afford whatever it is you want to do?

I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s been guilty of complaining of having no money yet not hustling to make more.

Money doesn’t grow on trees! If you need more money, you need to work for it. Just make sure you don’t overwork yourself. Balance is key.

If you have extra time to pick up shifts, do it, but don’t kill yourself over it.

True story, I had a college friend who was a workaholic. She ended up being hospitalized because she wasn’t taking care of herself enough.

So let that be a warning to not overwork yourself.

3.  Work so you don’t get tempted into spending money.

A favorite weekend day activity for me and my roommates in college was to go shopping at the mall. At first, it was fun, but it soon spiraled out of control.

I realized that as long as I continued going on these mall trips, even with every intention of not buying, I would end up purchasing something at the end of the day. So I knew I had to stop going.

That’s when I decided to pick up weekend shifts at work once in a while just so I wouldn’t be tempted to go shopping with my roommates. The strategy worked perfectly.

Not only was I saving money, I was instead making money.

Related content:

• How to Cut Spending: 3 Questions to Ask Before Every Purchase
• 6 Things I No Longer Buy (and Neither Should You!) to Save Money
• How I Paid Off $50,000 Debt in 7 Months

4.  Say no to things you are not excited about.

Be a little selfish! If a coworker wants to get lunch every day, but you are trying to save money, be ready to say no.

Now, I know just how much social politics play in the work environment. So don’t always say no.

Say yes to a once a week lunch or an occasional happy hour to bond with your coworkers. Don’t be that coworker that no one bothers asking anymore because they always say no. 

5.  Make good excuses for not eating out.

This goes along with tip # 4 because I know just how hard it can be to say no to coworkers.

If you are embarrassed to flat out tell your coworkers that you don’t want to spend money on lunch, tell them you are a slow eater (this is actually true for me!) and you don’t want to waste time in line when you can be eating instead.

Or what always works is to tell them you want to eat healthy so you are focusing on eating your own meals that you know what every ingredient going into it is.

Warning: this tip is only foolproof if you actually bring healthy meals to work!

6.  Get in the mindset that you don’t need to spend money to have fun!

Go on a free hiking trail, enjoy free museums, check out some books at the local library.

There are a lot of fun things to do that doesn’t cost money at all! Sometimes we get caught up with the idea that we only have fun with activities that cost money.

Going out to restaurants or enjoying a concert aren’t the only ways to have a good time with your friends.

I find that if you just type “free things to do in… [insert your city]” to Google, you are bound to find at least a couple of activities you’ll enjoy.

So those are my top 6 tips on how to balance staying frugal while maintaining a social life.

And honestly, if at the end of the day, your friends don’t respect your decision to not spend money, my biggest tip of all is to get some new friends!

Because true friends will like you for who you are, not for what you have.