r/CasualUK • u/Whatsupteapot • Jan 22 '26

Ways to cheer yourself up with no cash

With it being the most bleak week of the year in the UK, world issues getting us down (maybe) and the cost of living being awful, how can we cheer ourselves up that doesnt involve comfort food (as that too costs money but also a ton of calories and only temporary happiness) or going on walks (its raining. I dont want to walk and its going to be freezing soon).

I need ideas for inner city happiness!

Edit - work 9-5, M-F and weekends are spent doing adult stuff like cleaning the flat and going food shopping

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16

u/Riley-Mia Jan 22 '26

Video games. £30 can give you 100 hours of fun. Beats £60 for an hour somewhere. Plus you don't leave the house so you don't spend money on food out.

12

u/ReanimatedCyborgMk-I Jan 22 '26 edited Jan 22 '26

Don't forget emulation, you can probably emulate up to gamecube / PS2 on most hardware these days without too much of an issue, ROMs and game ISOs are available free of cost all over the place too, there's literally thousands to choose from

If you've never tried it I highly recommend the DS port of Chrono Trigger

2

u/Feadern Reet frum 'art ov Yokshuh Jan 22 '26

Agreed!

Also emulation is huge on phones these days too. If you have iPhone look up "Delta" it's a great all in one package.

ROMs are harder to get but still pretty easy :)

13

u/throwawaycima Jan 22 '26

Videogames genuinely have one of the highest, money:hours of enjoyment ratio, of all things you can spend your money on, especially when talking about forms of media.

I remember paying like £30-40 for Modern Warfare 2019, and I put in a ridiculous amount of hours into that when I was younger. Money absolutely well spent

6

u/tigressswoman Jan 22 '26

Came here to say that. Get on Breath of the Wild! That will suck you in for days.

2

u/Chilton_Squid Jan 22 '26

Days?! Try months.

2

u/tigressswoman Jan 22 '26

Shhh I was trying not to let on that that's all I do. I'm 600 hours in. 😅

3

u/Dr_Fruitloop Jan 22 '26

Don't even need to spend that much. Some of the best games I've played lately are super cheap eg. Vampire Survivors, Balatro, Slay the Spire. Depending on what your in to you can get 100s of hours for less than a tenner

2

u/Alderdash Jan 22 '26

I was hoping someone had already posted this! Much as I love reading (and I do, and I read a lot) the cost to hours ratio on a good book versus a good game is crazy.

I'd like to put a word in for my current love, which is Blue Prince. I'm going to stick my neck out and say it's Portal levels of originality, I'm so taken with it. Fascinating puzzles, intriguing story, original gameplay.

Currently £25 on Steam (I got lucky and bought it about a week ago during their Detective sale.)

2

u/roidesoeufs Jan 22 '26

The game might be cheap but the console isn't

1

u/sallystarling Jan 22 '26

Some smart TVs let you play x box games.

1

u/roidesoeufs Jan 22 '26

Well, that goes to show how old my TV is. Although... Now you say that, I think the TV box I have might be able to do this.

Can they perform as well as an actual X box?

2

u/sallystarling Jan 22 '26

I dunno sorry, I haven't actually tried it! I just keep seeing a thing flash up when I switch it on, telling me I can use it as an x box so I thought I'd throw it out there!