Can You Have Fun Without Spending Money?

Let's face it. Times are tough for some of us. We have learned to cut corners and budget and coupon and barter and... but money is still tight and it's just not much fun.

Here are some ways to cut loose, have a good time and forget about money for awhile.

First, if you have electricity in your home, running water, a TV and a computer connected to the internet, you're in good shape. Don't forget that. There are a lot worse situations.

Now... want to have some fun?

Call up a few friends or family members or text them and ask them to come over for potluck. What are you good at and what can you provide? Can you bake bread? Have fun making a few special kinds and tell them that will be your special contribution. Or if you have a knack for salads, do that. One of my aunts used to make a killer vanilla wafer and pudding dish that everyone loved. Whatever your specialty, do it.

Don't be shy about guiding others in what to bring.

The really fun part is to plan on some games or other entertainment. If someone is a musician, ask them to play for a dance or two or for a singalong. If someone is good at it, have them recite a few favorite poems. The photographer of the family might be interested in doing a slide show or other presentation. Get it?

Before television and movies and a glut of books, people would entertain themselves with proper debates or spelling bees. Why not? It can be a lot of fun. Choose carefully, though, you don't want one or two to make the others feel badly.

Another thing you could do is take the whole kit and caboodle to the park. Don't just eat. Get on the swings, try the tennis court, play ball, play hide and go seek. Even the older folks will enjoy what isn't too strenuous for them.

In the summer time there always seem to be free events of one kind or another. Use the internet to find out what is free to attend or take part in, then do it!

Don't sit out the summer because you don't have a lot of money to spend.You don't need it to have fun.

6 of the Best Free Things You Can Find Online

Some of us get our internet free or at a very reasonable price, while others pay dearly for the service. Either way, an internet connection can be used to save money during the holidays (and every day). Why not use it to save money and make the holidays go easier by using it for free things? Things like:

1. Music. There are many "radio" stations online, with every kind of music you could ever want. Just search for them by genre or search for "Christmas music" or

Uses for 2 Liter Soda Bottles

Even if you don't drink soda from 2 liter bottles, you probably know someone who does. Don't let all those containers go to the landfill! There are so many uses for them that you may never throw one out again.

Food storage. They're food safe, airtight and easily stored. Use them for dry foods like grains (barley, rice, etc.) or for flour and cornmeal. Small pastas or beans and peas store easily in them, too. An oxygen absorber packet will help keep grains fresh for longer term storage. A funnel will help fill them.

Plant waterer. You can buy those spikes to screw on to the top of them, but why not just poke a three or four small holes in the bottom of a bottle, bury it beside your plant and fill it from the top? Leave a couple of inches sticking up and put the lid back on loosely to allow for air to replace the dripped water but keep insects and dirt out of it.

The tops make excellent funnels for shop and garage uses and can be tossed after using, or saved for reuse. They also fit perfectly into the top of gallon milk or water jugs.

Bottoms can be used to grow plants on a windowsill or to start plants for the garden.

Cut the bottom off in the correct shape and use it as a scoop for pet food, outdoor bird seed and so on.

Cut a bottle in two in the center, fill the bottom with soil and add plants. Take the top and make four short cuts at even intervals, then water the soil and place the top on, squeezing gently to get it to fit down into the bottom part. This is a perfect little greenhouse that almost eliminates the need for water. Be careful about putting it in the sun, though, because the temperature will soar.

I even came across an ambitious project involving building a full size greenhouse from plastic soda bottles.

And then there's this bright idea: How to light a home with a plastic soda bottle and bleach

Makes me wish I'd saved more of those from former days!

Free books?

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Reading is one of my passions, but being frugal, I don't like to spend money on books, magazines or even a newspaper. I can catch the news on the computer and read plenty of articles and magazine-like content online, but nothing is quite like stretching out on the couch with a good book, or tucking one in my purse to read while in the doctor's waiting room.

One way I've found to get good, free reading material is to trade with others. All of my kids love to read and two of them are here in town, so we trade books now and then. Although we don't always read the same kind of material, we now and then find one that we all enjoy.

How else to get free reading material? How about checking with a local Freecycle? Another way is to take some of your books to a used book store that will give you credit toward other books.

Yes, you can print books from online sources, but ink and paper are not free. There are a few places where you can trade books online, but postage is not free, either. I'm open to any ideas that anyone has on how to get more free reading material.

Stock up on free food

Emergencies like hurricanes and other natural disasters, and more unnatural disasters, like food and money shortages, should be enough to encourage us all to keep food safely stored for the possibilities.

It's expensive to go to the grocery store and stock up on food, though! And it may be too late to start a big stock up, if you're worried about a hurricane or you've lost your job.

Don't worry; there are still things you can do. We live in a wonderful world, where nature is generous. This time of year there is often produce that gets wasted because there is such a glut of it. It's not unusual to find food for free just for the asking.

Is there an apple tree overhanging the alley? A grape vine gracing a parking lot? Do you know someone who has been feeding squash to the chickens? Walnuts falling from a tree in the park? Go ahead... ask first, and then help yourself. Most of the time people are more than willing to give excess produce if they know who might want it.

Don't expect them to pick it for you and bring it to you, but use some initiative and go get it after you've asked. (If you go into a private garden, ask the owner to come with you or show you what you can pick.)

Wild plums grow around here just for the picking. Perhaps there are wild fruits and nuts where you are. Strawberries, blackberries, apples, plums, peaches and many more fruits grow wild across the nation. Walnuts, pecans, hickory nuts and many others grow wild. Know what they are and take advantage of them.

Go to a small grocery store and watch to see what day or days they pick through the produce. Ask if you can have the box of discarded vegetables "for your chickens" or whatever. You will be surprised at how much and what kind of produce gets thrown out, still useable.

America is still a nation rich in natural resources. Farms harvest tons and tons of food each year with large machinery which leaves a good portion in the fields. Ask a farmer if you can glean the field of onions or potatoes or carrots. You won't have any trouble picking up enough to do you for a year.

You can put this free food away to build your pantry. Learn to can if you don't know how. Learn to dehydrate and freeze whatever you can get your hands on. There could very well come a time when you'll be very glad that you did!

More about saving on food

I just published an article titled "Beat the High Cost of Food: Get it Free" on Associated Content.

There are some things I didn't mention there, though... one is that it takes planning and work to get free food, so that it isn't really free. We have to work at anything, whether we work for money and turn that money into goods, or work directly for goods (or food).

It's often more fun or more satisfying to work directly for goods or food, especially if the method is a little out of the ordinary for you. For instance, it might not seem to be much fun for a farmer to glean a field by hand, but for those who sit at a desk all week, an hour or so in the sun and dirt can be might satisfying.

That's just one way of getting "free" food. Pick and choose yours, or use all methods possible.

Just another way to beat the ever increasing cost of food.

Is it Really Free?

The internet offers a lot of legitimate free offers. Software developers give away first and beta versions as they continue to work on applications. Consumer products are given away to entice you to buy more once you taste, feel, see or otherwise try the product. Other goods are promotions, like Tshirts with a company logo.

It's frugally smart to take advanatage of those offers that you qualify for and that will benefit you. You might even find a few products that you really like.

BUT... there are other "free" offers you shouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, as the saying goes. These offers promise you $250 gift certificates or something similar, to well known stores, both online and off. You have to jump through many hoops, sign up for newsletters or other "free" (not) services or products or give your email address in many places.

Free, they are not. Besides doing all the work and clicking, you'll find the offer is entangled with so many strings attached that confusion either makes you quit altogether, or you begin clicking wildly just to get to the end of it all. Beware most of all, anything that requires a credit card number, bank account number or any other personal numbers or information.

Remember that anything that seems to be so easy to come by, usually isn't.

My Frugal Fun: Free Celery

Ok, this is fun. Growing vegetables on the windowsill is fun, but it's more fun when they don't even cost you the price of a seed. (How's that for frugal?)

This celery plant is growing from the bottom I cut from a celery bunch sometime in January. You can see how happy it looks. All I've done so far is put it in water and allowed it take root. The next step is to add dirt, a little at a time until the roots take hold. Then, I'll cut the bottom out of the plastic container and set the plant in a dirt filled pot, or in the garden, if the weather is warm enough, and I'll have free celery.

Celery isn't the only thing that grows like this and half the fun is experimenting to see just what will grow.