This is part of our series on Leo Babauta’s The Simple Living Manifesto. We invite you to join us on the journey.

The 20th idea in the manifesto is:

Spend time with people you love. Again, the list of 4-5 important things probably contains some of the people you love (if not, you may want to re-evaluate). Whether those people are a spouse, a partner, children, parents, other family, best friends, or whoever, find time to do things with them, talk to them, be intimate with them (not necessarily in sexual ways).

Ever stop to consider how expensive it can be to spend time with the ones you love?

Think about it.

Dinner $30.

Movie $20.

Coffee & deserts afterwards $15.

That’s $65 for a basic night out. That can quickly double if you try to take in a professional sporting event.

But it’s the cost of spending time with loved ones isn’t it? We show how much we care by how much we spend — right?

Or at least that’s what we’re lead to believe.

However, we all know you don’t have to spend loads of money to spend quality time with those you love — whether it’s your significant other, your kids, your parents or a dear friend.

I’ve discovered along the way that one of the great ways to build community and relationships is joining together against common enemy or working together towards a common goal.

So what if…

…rather than rushing out to spend money on yourselves — we found creative ways to spend time with those we love — while also caring for those in our community (and hopefully making new friends out of strangers).

Work day at Daniel's Den Emergency Shelter | Photo by Jonathan Blundell

30 ways to care for your community

(for less than a night out)

1. Volunteer some time at a local food bank or homeless shelter. Find a local food bank to support.
2. Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. There’s a number of ways to get involved — including Care-A-Vanners — folks who travel in their RV to various job sites to volunteer their time. Find a local group.
3. Volunteer to help with a walk-a-thon/run/bike ride for a local charity or cause.
4. Host a Read-In at a local library, school or community center.
5. Bring an ice cooler full of bottled water to the park on the weekend and hand the water out to runners and bikers.
6. Mow, edge, rake or help clean-up a neighbor’s yard.
7. Gather with others to host a Laundry Love effort. Bring several rolls of quarters to a local laundromat and offer to pay for people’s laundry. (Find out more from JustOne or from my own Laundry Love effort.)
8. Gather clothes from your family, friends and neighbors for a local homeless shelter or for Haiti relief.
9. Organize a garage sale with the proceeds going to someone who’s recently lost their job.
10. Volunteer at a local elementary school event.
11. Bake cookies or cupcakes for your local fire fighters.
12. Spend time cleaning up a local park or cemetery.
13. Offer to watch a neighbor’s kids while they spend some time alone.
14. Ask friends, family and neighbors to donate new pairs of socks and granola bars and then deliver them on bike to the area’s homeless.
15. Start a community garden.
16. Start a guerrilla community garden.
17. Take several rolls of quarters through your local business district and add time to expired or near-expired parking meters.
18. Visit a local retirement community and play cards or board games with the residents.
19. Deliver a bouquet of flowers to a random neighbor.
20. Play ball with the kids in your neighborhood.
21. Invite your neighbors over for a BBQ.
22. Plan and host a block party.
23. Offer to run errands for an elderly neighbor or a single mom.
24. Volunteer with Meals on Wheels. Find a local program.
25. Volunteer to help coach a local youth sports team.
26. Volunteer to tutor at an after school program.
27. Fix a week’s worth of meals for a family in need that can be frozen and then easily thawed and cooked each evening.
28. Spend an afternoon cleaning up graffiti at local businesses (be sure to check with the business first!)
29. Paint a neighbor’s fence (be sure to check with them first as well!)
30. Interview an elderly neighbor or family member and record their story. Once it’s recorded make plenty of copies to share with their loved ones.

Perhaps if we each tackle one of these a week, we’ll encourage others to do the same. And they’ll encourage someone else, and they’ll encourage someone else… and before long… we’ll all get to see a little heaven on earth.

We will live simply by investing in people and reducing my dependence on stuff so that we may truly love all that’s been given to us and create a better world for those around us.

Live simply so others may simply live.

Join us!

Write a blog post about the point above and then share the link in the comments below…

keep reading...

• The Simple Manifesto #24 – Be present
• Get outside and play
• Give clean water – get a free book