Finding ways to have fun in a frugal way is enjoyable.

Some pleasures are simply not for sale, which is a fact about them rather than a consolation.

Cold water is one. Nobody has ever improved on getting into a river in June and coming out swearing and delighted. A long walk that ends somewhere you had not planned is another, as is a kitchen at one in the morning with three people still in it and nobody making a move to go home. None of that scales with spending. Some of it gets slightly worse when money is applied to it.