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Curating Your Art Collection Without Busting Your Budget

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Decorating on a budget is not easy.  Sure, you might do some great DIY projects, maybe find some decent furniture on Craigslist, but if you really want to make your place look great without spending a whole paycheck (or five), it takes a lot of work.  Fortunately, even if you have to live with a dingy 5-year old sofa that may have at one point belonged to the mother in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (too soon?), here are four simple and affordable ways to invest in your own personal style.

1. Use your own photos.  Why spend money on art when you have plenty of your own photographs just waiting to be framed on your wall?   I remind you that photographs were invented before the Facebook photo album, and a special photo will be a great conversation starter with your guests.  If you worry your pictures aren’t ‘artsy’ enough, get them printed in black and white!  Sugarfish is a great affordable service to get photos printed, and you can even order prints of your Instagram masterpieces on Shutterfly.

2. Maps, postcards, old records, anything flat you can put in a frame.  If you’re like me, you’re always finding a cool postcard you bought on vacation but never sent, or the ticket to that epic Dashboard Confessional show you went to in high school.  Rather than sticking it back in a drawer to be rediscovered in another five years, throw it up on the wall to break up all of your fabulous photographs.  Old maps are a particular favorite—both affordable and pretty!  Never been anywhere?  Fake it with the $3.95 map wrapping paper  from Paper-Source!

3. Affordable art prints and photos are easy to come by if you’re looking in the right places.  I like to shop around, but most of the sites below feature several different mediums (prints, photos, text graphics, even actual paintings) so if you don’t have the time or patience for scrolling through 40 pages of options, you would do well at just one of these.  The more affordable pieces from these sites do in fact still cost some money (many items in the $15-40 range, depending on the size), so I try to only purchase things I really love and would want to look at every day on my wall.  Minimalist and fan-made movie posters are a personal favorite that look nice and reflect my true passions.

  • 20×200 (www.youshouldbuyart.com):  Run by a gallery owner in New York, they have a great stockpile of photos and prints by up-and-coming artists.
  • Society 6:  Not only do they deal in art, but if you find a design you like, you can get it printed on t-shirts, mugs, pillowcases, phone cases, and more.
  • The Working Proof:  Art for a cause—15% of each sale goes to the charity of the artist’s choice.
  • Etsy:  A perennial favorite for all things, art included.  Perhaps pay tribute to the cinematic classic I mentioned earlier with this!

 

4. Don’t be afraid to create an original painting yourself!  I know the canvas–and-paint section at the art store can be intimidating, but delve in, and make your own masterpiece to hang on your wall. It’s easier to splurge on something when it’s half off, so double-check for coupons before you go in to your favorite craft store. Even if you don’t see yourself as “creative,” geometric patterns in a good color scheme look just as nice as a detailed landscape—and you still get kudos for having an actual painting on your wall!  Too shy to go it alone?  Try out Painting with a Twist (or any of the similar BYOB painting classes across the country) with a couple friends and a bottle of wine, and come home with a beautiful painting as well as some new memories (aww).

In all, I think the key to curating an art collection while not over-spending is to make every piece you own individual to you.  Whether it’s meaningful because you made it yourself or just because you love it, I guarantee that a piece of art with personal meaning that also looks great will justify any cost.  Now please, just promise me you won’t hang all of your beautiful acquisitions and discoveries with painter’s tape and thumbtacks. *

*Before you even try, I direct you to Michael’s (they almost always have a coupon for 50% off on their website) or Aaron Brothers (they have a buy one, get the second for 1 cent sale on frames and canvas in January and July every year).

Photo by Michelle White

Photo by Michelle White

Geekery

Let’s Ask: A D&D Dungeon Master

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Two nerds walk into a Starbucks with a couple mutual friends, and soon discovered a mutual interest in D&D. Meggyn, ever-recruiting managing editor of the UNDERenlightened, roped Steve into sitting down with her to share some experiences and answer some questions about organizing and running a D&D game as a Dungeon Master.

Meggyn: How did you get into D&D?

Steve: I’m not really sure what drew my eye to it, but in 6th grade I was in a hobby shop and saw the player’s handbook for version 3.0. I researched some stuff online, and read some stories of fun adventures and became a lot more interested. After that, I talked to a couple of friends about trying the game out, so we went out and bought the stuff we needed to get a start. Because none of us had any clue what we were doing, one of the group members bought a D&D starter kit, which came with a few prefabricated adventures, which were just enough to get a practical handle on the mechanics of the game. From there, we continued to play and create our own adventures.

Meggyn: That’s awesome that you all learned the mechanics of the game together. When I first started, I joined a new campaign with mostly all experienced players; to this day I’m still a total newbie, so I still rely a lot on my friends for advice on leveling my character and how to figure out adventures. Have you always played with friends, or have you ever started a campaign with complete strangers?

Steve: I’ve never played an in-person campaign with complete strangers, but I have joined groups of people online that I didn’t know, as well as online groups of friends I met in an MMO. When I joined the former group, the one full of total strangers, I met them through a “looking for group” forum on the RPTools website. There are a ton of places online to find groups over the internet.

Meggyn: Dungeons & Dragons has been around for decades, so there are a few different versions of the rulebooks.

Steve: Yep. For those who don’t know, each revision is a major overhaul of the rules, where they are essentially rewritten (not dissimilar to new versions of video games, when the entire engine is recreated). From there, minor updates come in the form of supplemental or expansion books, which can include anything from new classes to new game mechanics (kind of like expansion packs).

Meggyn: When I played my first D&D campaign, we used a more recent version that included the well-known table grid, for moving miniatures around.  However, my current campaign has reverted all the way back to the first edition: it works well for us because we can simply play through ongoing storytelling (perfect for a group of mostly English majors), and we rely on our Dungeon Master’s common sense rather than burdening our play with overly technical details, like counting out the exact amount of squares we can move.  What’s your favorite version for organizing as the Dungeon Master?

Steve: There are some cool features to every version that I have played, really. But my favorite version of Dungeons & Dragons is a variant of the version 3.5 rule set called Pathfinder, because the power adjustment of specific classes is better as they level and the mechanics remain almost unaltered. This gives a stronger incentive for players to specialize in just one class and makes it easier as a DM to keep track of the characters abilities, which is very important for planning adventures. This coupled with my familiarity with the version 3.5/Pathfinder mechanics, and the huge number of supplemental materials available to draw upon, allow for much smoother game play and planning.

Meggyn: So it sounds like you started from the very beginning as the Dungeon Master for your in-person games with your friends.  How do you prepare for a session, and what are some pitfalls you consciously avoid?

Steve: Well, back when my first group started, we actually traded off hosting the prefabricated adventures since running prefabricated campaigns takes a lot less preparation. I DMed for the first time without a prefabricated campaign back in high school: I was terrible, and it has been a process of getting better this whole time. A great deal of time spent preparing is time spent trying to avoid some of the mistakes I made on my first pass as the DM. One common thing I avoid is creating an adventure where the players are bound to just one path, but also to where I don’t need to create the limitless possibilities of a completely open world. That is probably the hardest part of being a DM. Another thing is how to ensure the encounters are challenging but possible for the players, which requires a lot of thought into each character’s abilities. The rest of the prep time as a DM is used to draw maps, organize my system of keeping track of turns, and further familiarize myself with what monsters I am presenting in the encounters.

Meggyn: Sometimes the complication of a crazy open world can simply be impossible to avoid, though.  In my current campaign, one of our players decided from the get-go that he wanted to buy a chicken.  Since then, he has goaded our ranger into training it (as much as you can train a chicken), and is constantly coming up with absolutely insane, totally creative, and utterly hilarious ways to harass our long-suffering DM—like his current search for chicken-sized armor.  Any similarly great stories from your past campaigns?

Steve: The problem is that most D&D anecdotes draw on previous stories or adventures, and are most fun from experiencing them, kind of like an inside joke. To me at least, the most fun from the game comes from the people incorporating their own personalities into the events of the game.

Meggyn: It really is an awesome pastime.  So, for the readers whom we’ve inspired, what are some good resources for getting started with D&D?

Steve: A great tool to use for running a D&D game, online or otherwise, is Maptool, a completely free product of RPTools that is great for creating encounter maps and running games. Another great resource for version 3.5 is the d20srd, which is a free online searchable rules resource. If you navigate around, you can find some cool tools and setups that other people have used in their gaming, like the group who projected their game mat onto a table using map tools. Of course, you can always search your app store and see if there are some nifty tools there.

Steven Cary is an aspiring IT professional who enjoys backpacking, archery, cars, and science fiction/fantasy.

Meggyn Watkins is the Managing Editor of the UNDERenlightened. Fiction reader, local art prowler, concert-goer, BBC watcher, world traveler, and San Jose Sharks lover! @meggawat

Photo by Meggyn Watkins

Photo by Meggyn Watkins

Travel

Traveling Abroad

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There is no single road map to studying and traveling abroad. It is an experience that you make all your own, that you can shape into anything you want. Some people leave their home with just a backpack and three months to see the world. And some plan everything perfectly, scheduling every minute. No one way is right.

But whether you like to plan everything or you love to just let the wind take you, everything changes once you step off that plane, train, or automobile and you’re in an entirely new place! And to make sure you aren’t stuck spending exorbitant amounts of money to save yourself, here are a few tips from a seasoned frugal traveler.

Cheap Travel

Buy in advance: By planning your country and city hops in advance, you will save money and gain convenience. Tickets for most transportation companies (especially in America and Europe) are much cheaper if you buy them in advance, and can sometimes save you hundreds of dollars. Spontaneity is awesome, if you can afford it, but if you are on a tight money-made leash, a solid travel plan will be your best friend. If you are a student, you qualify for Student Universe, which is a website that helps students find the best plane ticket prices and has some awesome deals for accommodation, too. As for places to sleep, hostels are almost always going to be cheaper than hotels, and you can find some great and safe places to stay on websites like hostelworld.com. A lot of hostels offer deals, such as extra nights for half price, but you have to check with the hostel before you book.

Travel light: If you are traveling by car or bus, this is less relevant, but if you are traveling by train or plane, using just a carry-on bag will save you boat-loads. A lot of cheap airlines like EasyJet or Ryanair (European budget airlines) will charge you an extra 50 to 75 dollars to check a bag. Investing in a small backpack was the best thing I ever did while traveling in Europe, because I could take it on any airline. And if you are worried about your clothes fitting into a small pack, rolling them up makes them infinitely smaller and you can fit a lot more things. But this also gave me a lesson in importance. Did I really need to bring three pairs of shoes for a four-day trip? Do I need six different tank tops? It takes some practice, but eventually you’ll figure out what you can and cannot live without while traveling.

Getting Around

The Benefits of Walking: Public transportation may seem cheap on the surface, but it’s one of those charges that eventually stacks up. Before you know it, you’ve spent 50 bucks on bus tickets that you didn’t need! This is where the benefits of walking come in. Not only do you save money, but you get a great workout too. You also get to see and explore a lot more of the city if you walk, because your legs can take you places that buses or trams cannot fit. Make sure you bring super comfy walking shoes! If you are traveling to a country that doesn’t speak English, you might also want to either invest in a phrase book or learn a few choice phrases. In many major cities, a lot of people speak English, but it’s polite to at least say please and thank you in the native tongue. You could also find yourself in situation where you need to ask for help, so learning how to ask for an English speaker is a good idea, too. The further away from urban cities you go, the harder it will be to find an English speaker, so be prepared!

Maps, Maps, Maps: For those who are directionally challenged like myself, walking seems much more frightening when your smart phone only works in WiFi zones. But you know what never runs out of battery or range? Paper maps! Almost all hostels and hotels carry city maps. Just ask the front desk to circle where your hostel location is on the map so you always remember where to go if you do get lost. The hostel staff knows the city best, so if you want help in finding cool things to do or see that might be off the beaten path, just ask! They’ll know where the cooler parts of the city are and what places to stay away from. Once you’re out and about, find big landmarks and orient yourself from their locations and then just keep track of street signs. It’s easier than you realize and after a couple of cities, you’ll have a great new skill!

Food, Souvenirs, and General Merriment

Champagne on a Beer Budget: For me, one of the most important factors of a new city or country is the food. Every country is famous for a national dish or cuisine, so do some research and take advantage of it! But food can also be one of the more expensive parts of the trip, especially if all you can find are tourist traps. To get the best experience, try to get away from the center of the city. Some of the best (and cheapest) restaurants are going to be away from the crowded touristy areas. If you are not sure what these tourist traps are, you can follow this golden rule: any place that has pictures of food outside their establishment is not going to be that great and is usually overpriced. If you are traveling on the cheap, consider using your hostel kitchen to cook at least one meal a day, such as pasta or salad (almost all hostels have a kitchen, but not many hotels so choose according to your needs). That way you can try some of the pricier eateries without emptying your wallet.

Keepsakes and Memories: I am not a particularly sentimental person, but I know a lot of people who are, and buying keepsakes or knickknacks from a new city can help to preserve the memories of a truly excellent trip. If you want something that reflects the city or country you are in, try to find a flea market or a town shop that sells items that have historical or cultural value. These things will usually be more expensive, but will have much more sentimental value. If knickknacks aren’t really your thing, just bring a camera or buy a bunch of postcards. They are easy to travel with and can make for some excellent scrapbooking materials (along with those beat up city maps you’ve been using!).

General Merriment: Walking around and seeing a city is great, but there are also a lot of historical or cultural places to see as well! However, these can sometimes cost quite a bit of money to enter. Some of the most magnificent things to see are old churches or government buildings or museums. To get the best deals, do some research and see when places open and their prices. A lot of churches and museums, in Europe especially, are free on Sundays at certain times. If you have a student card, use it to get great discounts. If there is a church you would really like to see but it’s super expensive, try to go to an Evensong, which is a short evening worship service with no Eucharist. This way you get in for free! Your hostel might also offer some great options for tours, such as free walking tours or bike tours, which will help you get used to the city before venturing out on your own.

Studying and traveling abroad was a much harder and much more rewarding experience than I ever thought it would be. You keep expecting everything to settle down and to be normal, but it never does. You are always moving and you are always on your toes, which can get exhausting fast. So if you can, create rituals for yourself. Find a coffee shop to sit in everyday to create a routine. Bring a book with you wherever you go, or people watch while you sit on the side of the street. Traveling and being abroad is an experience that happens to you, and you can make it whatever you want it to be. So read as much as you can and prepare as much as you can, but don’t be afraid to change your mind and to try something completely different—sometimes those can be the greatest experiences of them all!

Photo by Michelle White

Photo by Michelle White

Travel

Camping Across the U.S.

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For those of us in the United States, it’s often easy to forget that we live in a gigantic country. One pretty spectacular way to remind yourself of the vastness and diversity of our nation (cue the anthem and waving flag) is to camp across the States. When my husband and I moved from California to Maryland for grad school and then, two years later, moved back to California once we’d finished, we opted to camp our way across. Both times, it was beyond spectacular.

Here are some tips to help you both avoid our mistakes and see some amazing things:

1) Choose how you want to get where you’re going.

Highways in the United States are numbered in a super convenient way. There are two-digit interstates (major routes) and there are three-digit interstates (that spur off the two-digit routes). In general, two-digit interstates that run north-south are given odd numbers, and east-west interstates are given even numbers. The numbers get higher as you move west to east, and south to north.

With those major routes at your disposal, see if they run near where you want to go. I like to sit down with a paper map and a protractor, but you could just Google Map it. Google Maps has a ton of great features. You can build a map and keep working on it over time. You can avoid highways or tolls, or measure each leg of your journey individually. Use the Radius Around a Point map to see how far you can go outside of your route in a certain amount of time.

2) Figure out how long you want to spend on the road each day.

If you drive cross-country in four days, you’ll spend 10–12 hours behind the wheel each day. This is brutal. Consider how many hours you can tolerate in your car. A good rule of thumb is to aim to get to the campsite before 5 pm so you can check in and, depending on the season, set up your tent or sleeping area in the daylight.

This will make your life a lot better because you won’t wake up those camping around you (making for awkward greetings and no chance at free coffee from strangers in the morning), and it’s much harder to accidentally hit your travel buddy in the head with tent poles when the sun is still up. If you get up at 7am (which you probably will because you’re sleeping outside and hello, dawn) and get on the road by 8am, you can still get eight hours of good driving with a lunch break and a little sightseeing in each day.

3) Make a budget.

Even though it feels like this would be less expensive than flying, the costs can add up fast. Use your budget to determine how many days you can really afford to stay on the road. Your gas and toll costs will stay constant, but the longer you are out and about, the more you will spend on lodging, food, and campsites. Here are some things to take into account:

  • Gas Money. This is easy to calculate: (number of miles ÷ your car’s MPG) × average price of a gallon of gas. Going straight across from California to Maryland was about 3,000 miles, the average price of gas today is about $3.75, and my car gets about 28 MPG. Here’s how that calculated to get us straight there:
    Gas Money equation

And I bet you told your math teacher you would never use anything you learned in the real world.

  • Tolls. These can add up super quickly and vary by state. If you are on a tight budget, it’s definitely worth figuring this out. Crossing a state on the same highway will likely cause the maximum toll. Here is a link to all toll roads in the U.S., with most of the prices.
  • Cost of Campsites. These can range from $10–80 per night. You can always look this up ahead of time.
  • Cost of Food. Resist the urge to hop between Wendy’s and Mickey D’s the entire way. Why risk missing a pretty unique opportunity to sample regional cuisine? Don’t discount grocery stores as a good place to grab basic meal makings. With this in mind, you can easily get by for $10–20 per day per person.
  • Miscellaneous Costs. Cool pit stops, unforgettable meals, souvenirs, maintenance—you never know. It’s always good to have a nice bit of flex cash to cover what you can’t predict.

4) Think about what to bring.

Buying camping gear can be overwhelming, so unless you want to end up with astronaut ice cream and four different types of headlamps, start by thinking about what you’ll be dealing with, then build your kit from there.

  • Weather. You don’t need intense sleeping bags if you’re camping in D.C. in August, but you will want a tent because of bugs. And if it’s super rainy, a car-camping setup is sometimes best.
  • Food. If you do not need to worry about bears, then consider whether you need a cooler. Will you be making a grocery stop every day? Will you be going through a particularly hot part of the country? Planning ahead and grocery shopping can go a long ways toward reducing your food budget.
  • Light. Flashlights and lanterns are beyond useful. Headlamps are also excellent because if you do arrive past sunset, you’ll have both hands to set up your tent.
  • Bathing. Will your campsites have showers? Do you need to bathe in a natural water source? Consider what your toiletries are made of, and whether they are safe to go into rivers and lakes.
  • Navigation. Smartphones and the Internet mean you could reasonably leave on your trip without planning anything, but don’t forget a paper map. I use this huge book map of the U.S. because sometimes it’s nice to get the bigger picture, and you never know when your battery will die or you won’t have service.
  • Space. If you are in a small car, don’t get even more cramped with unnecessary gear. If you can’t extend your legs fully when you set out, you’ll be throwing things out the window onto the highway by day two, and I’m pretty sure you can get a ticket for that.

Bottom line: You need a place to sleep and mechanics to make food. This could be as simple as a tarp and a cooler, or as complex as this.

5) Make reservations ahead of time for popular campsites.

Places like Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, or Yellowstone tend to fill up right at the beginning of the season. Check out the state parks’ websites, KOA Campgrounds, or a campsite aggregate website, like this one, where you can search by map and reserve online.

6) Do something to make sure you don’t go stir crazy.

Make a really long playlist. Only listen to local radio stations. Make a photography challenge: I took pictures of all the state signs every time we crossed a border. Are you driving through a friend’s hometown? Ask what their favorite places are, and stop there. We stopped at a great bar in Iowa City, Iowa, because a good friend went to college there.

7) Know when you need a break.

Maybe it’s a torrential downpour. Maybe it got dark more quickly than you expected. Maybe you are exhausted or sick or need a hot shower. Maybe you got lost four times that day and do not, under any circumstances, want to share a tent with your travel buddy. This happens. If you can afford it, taking a night in a hotel is not the end of the world and won’t make the experience any less authentic.

I think more than anything, be relaxed! Enjoy sleeping outside and seeing some places off the beaten path. There are few opportunities to take this kind of trip, so take the time to make it fun.

CampingHero

Photo by Anastasia Heuer