Living your bucket list dreams has to cost a lot, right? Can only the wealthy afford to check off their goals? Are the rest of us left to fulfill only one or two?
Not really. My family is living out more dreams at a time when it would seem least likely for us to do so.
My oldest child will be a sophomore in high school this fall. Her younger sisters are going in to eighth and fifth grade. College, or to be more specific, paying for college, looms bigger in our minds every year. We’re busy saving up, especially as education costs continue to rise.
Yet we’re also enjoying great experiences living the bucket list life.
Last week my two oldest daughters went to their first major league baseball game at Wrigley Field. They rode on a coach bus to the city, sat under the overhang between first base & right field, and enjoyed hot dogs Chicago style (or rather, my middle girl did – the one I’d least expect to). It was a breezy summer afternoon, with a slight drizzle, and for once the Cubbies won. My girls’ were in bucket list heaven (minus the beer someone dumped on their feet in the first inning – after all, this is real life).
That same evening I took their younger sister out for dinner and then to meet actor and author, Chris Colfer at our city bookstore. And their dad was on his way to Finland, where so far he’s already played three disc golf courses – adding to his own bucket list accomplishments.
The sum total of what it cost our entire family for all of those experiences? $22.50 ($18 for a hardcover book autographed by Colfer, plus $4.50 for a Chicago style hotdog). Definitely not how little I had expected any one of those to total. Yet there it was!
Now, we happen to live in an awesome smaller city that draws people like Chris Colfer. My daughters got their free tickets and transportation to the Chicago Cubs game through an organization we’ve all volunteered for. A work trip took my husband to Finland. All of us had to simply grab the (virtually free) opportunities that presented themselves.
If you don’t believe you should have a bucket list right now because money is tight, or it’s going to be tight, then you are missing out. Over and over again I have seen how the ideas and goals we’ve put on our bucket lists have become possible without breaking our pocketbook. Saving for college and fulfilling bucket list dreams are not mutually exclusive.
It’s impossible to predict when or how you’ll be able to reach a goal, but that’s half the fun of making a bucket list. Stare down the impossible and dare it to happen. [Tweet this]
After all, getting my kids through college without going into debt is on my bucket list!
