$10 Weekend Again

Well, last weekend was a washout. JV used the money she had saved to buy some dinner for herself on Thursday (which I don't blame her for) and I used the money for a baby shower gift on Saturday. Then we both ate lunch out that afternoon at a very nice restaurant. So I have decided to "start over" again.
Of course the problem is when I do things with other people. I don't want their fun to be diminished because of my "philosophy" but then again when I do things against it (i.e. lunch at a restaurant) life just doesn't seem to go well.

Anyway, this weekend I haven't bought anything but I did go to lunch with my friend Angela and that was $20. Technically since it involved someone else it doesn't count but I still feel kinda disappointed.

However, on the good side, I have gotten to do somethings that were free that I normally wouldn't have.  On Saturdays @ 10:30 Evergreen of Johnson City has wonderful seminars.  The one this weekend was on Fall Perrenials. The person was extremely knowledgeable and I learned so much.  Plus they also had giveways and refreshments. :-)  Next weekend is there Fall Festival which I can't go to because next weekend is Free Teacher Weekend at WonderWorks in Pidgeon Forge.

I tried to go to the ETSU observatory Open House but got lost and it was dark so I wound up coming back home. I will try again next month.

At the library I got my free DVDs for the weekend and a couple of cookbooks. I also found a book called Zero Waste Home which I am really enjoying.  It is about a family that is trying to cut out on waste and they are doing a great job.  She even has a blog (surprise, surpise) that can be found here.

I think I am going to adopt some of her ideas and incorporate them into my $10 weekend.

Week 2 of the $10 Challenge

This weekend proved to be a little more "interesting" than the one before. Since the challenge was no longer new, it was harder to be as excited as before.  However, we made it through with change in our pocket going jing-a-ling-a-ling (my apologies to the Georgia Satellites)

This weekend had a bit of a theme without knowing it.  Friday night I went to our local high school's football game. Since I am a county employee it was FREE!! WooHoo. Unfortunately, they lost 53-10 but many of my friends were there and it was nice to see the kiddos in a relaxed enviroment.

Saturday, JV and I got up and didn't meet up until lunchtime. We went to Chick-fil-A where we had a card for a free sandwich and cookie.  I got a small drink again (1.44) and then headed off to McKay in Knoxville. While there, JV got some DVDs and I used my credit for some books that were from some of my favorite authors. JV's sister Donna and I like the same type of books so I texted her about the new series I am enjoying.

Afterwards, we went to Dollywood. It was pretty late and we were pretty tires, so we just went into the museum. I must admit it was alot nicer than I had anticipated.  It had many of Dolly's old costumes and letters and you could even listen to some of her older song.  They also had her "Coat of Many Colors" on display.

Dinner at Hardee's was a chicken sandwich with fries and a coke. The total was only $3.23 because I had a coupon. We had a great talk while there because it was completely empty. The talk helped to refocus what these weekends are about. They are to be fun and creatively inspiring. When they stop being that, they should stop.

Sunday was relaxing. I got up and did some laundry, cooking, the usual. However, the Greeneville Astros were having a Teacher Appreciation Night so by showing my pass, I got in there free as well.

Free Fitness Help

There are a couple of free fitness websites that I know of to help assist you in any fitness or weight loss goals you may have.

The first of these is Active Trainer.  Many people know this site through the Couch to 5K website. This site is a community of people but you can track you own individual progress.  Once you join you sign up for goals or just login your workouts.  Everytime you make some progress toward your goal, you receive points and badges.

The goals available are: lose weight, run 100 miles, drink 8 glasses of water per day, exercise weekly, exercise monthly, take your vitamins everyday, lax power wall ball challange. You may choose as many, or as few goals, as you like.  The more goals you have, the more points you get. So, it benefits you the most to login and update your status daily.

The points are can be used individually or as a team. You can see how many points you have and your rank among all those participating.  Each week you start over with zero points as far as ranking goes. When you login to your account you can see how many you have overall.

The other website is My Fitness Pal.  This site is similar to the other in that you can track your exercise. However, this website focuses alot more on food. 

Once you sign up, it asks you questions like: What is your goal weight? How tall are you? What is your age? What kind of lifestyle do you lead? etc.  Then it will come up with what it determines your caloric intake per day should be for you to lose the weight you want to. You then login what you ate into their database. It returns with the nutritional data and tells you what amounts you have available for the rest of the day. When you finish adding your food, it then tell you that "If you continue to eat like this everyday, you will weigh_____ in 5 weeks"

This database of foods you can login is vast.  It isn't just foods like apples, pears, ground beef. This database has resteraunt items and packaged food as well.

You do receive credit when you exercise. It will add the calories you burned off to the caloric total you can have for the day.

 

Free Friday Downloads

If you have a Kroger in your town, you can sign up to have coupons downloaded to your card.
http://kroger.softcoin.com/programs/kroger/freefri/?ytp=001034001077000000000000&banner=Kroger&origin=freefri

Every Friday, they have a coupon for a free product.  Last week it was Orville Redenbacher Pop Snacks.  This week it is Clean and Clear Shampoo.

* Here is the scoop. The download is only available on Fridays.  However, the coupon is good for several weeks.  Kroger usually "sells" out of the product on Friday but if you return several days later, they have often restocked the item.  That way you can still get it for free, but you don't have to knock people down to get it.
 

Survey says...

One of the ways that I am learning to be resourceful is to use surveys.

 

Physical surveys:

The receipts that i get when shopping usually has some type of survey that you can take if you go online and five them your feedback.
I love this idea for serveral reasons:

1) You get something. Occasionally is it money off your next order, a free cookie, etc.  Oftentimes it is an entry into a sweepstakes.  While that is not an immediate payback, you can't win if you don't enter:-)

2) Another reason that I like this, is that you get to give the  company YOUR OPINION. I enjoy buying items made in USA.  When I fill out surveys, and they often ask what they can do better, i always point out that I try to buy American made products and wish they would display it more prominently.  I don't know if it helps, but at least I could tell them my thoughts.

3) This allows me to remember to save my receipts. I then have the receipts to put into Quicken. Also, I have the receipt if I need to return something.  That is a great help in putting money back in my bank account.

Online surveys:

One of the places that I go is e-rewards.com.  When there, you take surveys and get "money" in your account. You can then turn in the money for rewards.  I most often use my money to get free miles on my Delta Skymiles account.  I was able to help a friend get to college by transferring it into her account. 

Garden freebie

While I was at school cleaning the teachers' lounge because no one else did, I had to empty the coffee pots.  In the back of my mind, I remember that coffee grounds are good for the garden.  I decided to take the grounds home.

While looking up how to use them in the garden, I found out that Starbucks gives away their grounds for free. 

It looks bigger than it is. About the size of a 10 lb bag of sugar

They are first come, first serve. Fortunately, when I went on a Sunday night at 8ish, they were just finished putting them in the basket.  So I got a large bag, maybe 5 lbs, for free. I think that will work for a while ;-) Plus on the label is says how to add them to your garden.

Car care

At the car wash....shoop shoop... working at the car wash.
One of the things that I have realized is how you look at things.  Millions of people pay lots of money to have their cars hand washed. Me? I get to have it hand washed for free. 

I take my car to my friends house and hook up her hose. I bought some soap and a sponge a long time ago and finally put it to use.

I love that I can go over the areas that get missed otherwise. On my Prius, the little area that is the bottom of the windshield doesn't get washed with the automatic washes.

While getting my gas this morning, I also checked my airpressure.  I cleaned my windshields and emptied all the trash into the can available.