Free or Nearly Free Activities - Part 4

Activities to do with your kids.

Here are a few fun frugal things you can do with your kids.

Buy some sidewalk chalk and get your children to make up and tell a story by just drawing pictures.

Make some homemade Play-Doh. Making it is half the fun.

In the summer make a slip-and-slide out of a tarp and hose.

Go on a meandering walk with your children letting them pick the directions.

Get out some tools and wood or some craft items and make some toys with your kids. It's free if you have the materials already and fosters skills in your child.

In the summer time find out if there are any nearby berry farms that let you pick your own. Cycle there as a family and pick berries.

Blow bubbles. Mix a cup of dish washing detergent into a gallon of water slowly, slow enough not to make suds. Bend an old coat hanger into loops, dip it into the mixture, and blow through the loops.

Free or Nearly Free Activities - Part 3

Constructive activities

Start a flower or veggie garden. Get advice from where you buy your seeds on what grows best for your area and climate. If you live in a apartment, you can start a potted garden of herbs etc that you can put on the balcony or by a window.

Look online or dig amongst your cooking books to make something new. Look at the ingredients as a guide to whether you might like it or not.

Get a book on drawing from the library and sketch items in your house or neighborhood.

Download a free music-making program for your computer and experiment with it. Some good ones are here.

Start up your own website. Learn HTML here or if you don't want to learn code and just want to design use this graphical web editor NUV. And here, here and here (note for this one you'll have to create a yahoo account) are a few of the many free web hosts.

Start your own blog with wordpress or blogger.

Educate yourself with a free online course - here's a good place to start.

Practice origami. Go to the library and get out a book on it. You can make the objects from any paper like old magazine pages or junk mail.

My Plans

I am currently reassessing my situation and am now looking for a full time job. I'm thinking about going back to relief milking. I was doing this part time while I worked full time on my fathers farm. I'm looking for a job fairly close to where I live to cut down on travel costs.

On a simplifying front have set myself the goal to reduce my possessions by -1 net per week. This means I've got to get rid of at least one durable object I own. Be it a book, CD, DVD or something bigger, more than any durable items I might buy, every week.

Last week I sold 3 Playstation one games for $2 each at the local Cash Plus. Okay so it's not a lot but I got rid of three items I most certainly won't use again (I don't even have a Playstation console any more - the secondhand one I had stopped reading discs.)

Free or Nearly Free Activities - Part 2

With friends or family

You can have a lot of free fun with friends and family - Here's just a few ideas:

* Cycle to a friend's house then go with them to a park for a picnic, take the food in backpacks and walk there. Or when the weathers rough dig out some old board or card games to play with or even learn a new card game to teach them - maybe a casino game played with candy.

* Dig up some sports gear and play soccer, or throw around a baseball or Frisbee.

* Call a family member or a friend that you haven’t spoken to in a while. If they have an internet connection, mic and Skype (or another voip program) you can have a free conversation.

* Have a home film festival by inviting some friends over and have each person bring their favorite movie. Pop some pop corn and buy some soda and settle in. Alternatively if someone has a TV series on DVD or video you can have a series marathon and go all night on a weekend.

Free or Nearly Free Activities

Feeling bored or fed up? Want to go out and do something? Instead of going to the mall and buying something to entertain yourself and temporarily feel better, there are plenty of free or nearly free activities you can do.

This is the start of a ongoing series.

Activities by yourself

Get out in the fresh air and explore. Walk or bike in a new direction and see where you end up. You can combine this with collecting rocks, flowers or other natural objects or perhaps take a digital camera and photograph them. You could share them on Flickr or another image-sharing site.

Find a local web site or bulletin board that lists events in the community, like parades, or a dress rehearsal of a show at a local theater. Make a list of free events in the community and write the ones your interested in in google calendar.

Read a book outside on a sunny day in the park or on your porch or garden and soak up nature along with the book.

Go to the library and browse a topic you're interested in but don't know much about.

Get a pen and paper and brainstorm all the low cost activities you like to do, then this list whenever you feel the urge to get out and do something.

My Situation

Though I intended to make mostly issue based posts because this is a personal finance blog, I think I should write more about my own finances. Currently I'm making a small part time income. In fact I've never made a high income in my life, however for the last ten years or so I've been saving a good percentage of what I make and have substantial cash savings, a half share in a house and another fully owned house.

I've taken advantage of my circumstances and lived and on the family farm and worked and was able to save hard by having low costs. Also the housing market has been vibrant here in Invercargill for many years, though I wished I has invested earlier when it was still possible to have a cash flow postive house.

I sold a house earlier this year and am waiting for the dust to settle on the current economic situation to see how best to invest the money I made on it.

Quality clothing on a budget - Part 3

Tips:

* Go to thrift shops in upmarket areas to get upmarket, less worn, quality clothing. Here is a guide on shopping for clothes in a thrift shop.

* Make sure you can machine wash all the clothes you buy to save the expense of dry cleaning. This is especially needed if you just have a basic wardrobe of good clothes you use a lot.

* Look for stretch fabrics. They accommodates your body whether you gain or lose weight. So you don't have to buy black pants in three sizes. In the past stretch clothes got a bad rap but now the stretch is so subtle and comfy that you're the only one you knows you're wearing it.

* Invest in Classics. Fashion items will always be enticing when they are on sale, but remember that even the cutest trends have a short life cycle. If you want to get more than a few months' wear out of your purchase, stick with the classics. End-of-season sales yield great buys on pieces you'll wear for years, from cashmere sweaters to wool blazers to leather pumps.

* When buying an item look at the big picture, remember you won't be wearing it on it's own. If you don't have something in your closet to go with the item or if you really don't need it (or if are just buying the brand) it's a waste of money.

* You'll save big and get to buy choice pieces if you shop immediately after the season. The day after Christmas is not just good for decorations, but for big discounts on clothing too.

* Stores like Target and Old Navy are constantly getting in new merchandise, they need to clear out their older styles on a regular basis. You’ll almost always find a great selection of markdowns on their clearance racks.

* Avoid trendy clothing if you can. Go with styles that can be worn year in and out.