Much media attention lately has been focused on budget ways to have fun and get by. Take at look at this LA Times series of well-known designers, such as Philippe Starck, shopping at Big Lots and coming up with great looks: 
Starck and the other designers emphasize finding simple and basic items and steering clear of the tacky. I’m impressed by Starck’s place setting for $5.50 each. He also walked away with underwear, towels, and children’s art supplies.
If you’re jonesing to dine out, I Google-stumbled upon this site, Entertainment.com, which offers a free 14-day membership that contains coupons galore for restaurants, stores, movies, and more. In particular, I enjoyed their long list of Indian restaurants; Mezbaan, a new favorite Indian restaurant of mine in Old Pasadena, offers a buy one, get one free entree coupon. Also, there are movie tickets for $6 (plus handling)! The catch? As soon as you sign up (with only your email address), the coupons are only good for 14 days, and you’ll most likely get spammed with advertisements. So be sure to check off the box saying you don’t want ads and/or use an email account that you don’t care about. Entertainment.com publishes those big coupon books that students sell as fundraisers and are in bookstores. I have one and have been getting pretty good mileage out of it. This is how I discovered Mezbaan, their delicious food, and $8 lunch buffet.
So if you’re budget entertaining or dining out, you still have options!
I just hope things don’t get so bad for you that you’re eating on $1 a day.
