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.

The $10 challenge

Sometimes then can get pretty tough financially but the blog is about finding that just because you don't have money, doesn't mean you can't have fun. My friend, JV, is going through that right now. So to help her feel better and get my creative juices flowing what I devised it the $10 weekend.
We both put $10 in an envelope and decided that that is all we could spend over the entire weekend. Whatever was left over, we are going to put back in the envelope and add $10 the next weekend.  Then there is a big trip planned on September 28th. The money left is what we use for that trip.
I must admit I was sceptical at first but we had a great first weekend and I even have a little money left over :-)

Here is what our weekend looked like.
After waking up and getting ready we headed to Greeneville for JV to drop off some donations at Goodwill. I was there Friday and didn't notice anything that good. However, today they had a Kindle Fire cover for $9.99 and a SodaStream for $44. Why did this happen on my $10 weekend?(I am checking on Monday to see if they are still there :-))

We both have season passes to Splash Country/Dollywood.  We went there and brought some snacks. I have a Splash Country popcorn tub from last year that I filled and also had a Fill and Chill cup that I used for water. We also brought our Kindles along for when we didn't want to go in the water.  Cost $0.00

However, on the trip down I stopped at a rest area to use the bathroom.  The retired Marines group was giving away free lemonade, coffee and water.  They also had snacks for donations.  Since I always like to support good causes I got a nutty bar and cheetos as well.  Unfortunately I only had my $10 so I asked if they could break it for me. The man reached his hand in the donation jar to take dollar bills out and I felt so bad I donated $5 for the food. Cost $5.00

After a great swimming day, we stopped by Chic-Fil-A and used our calendar cards to get a free Chicken Salad Sandwich and a small coke Cost $1.44

When we went to MagicQuest we used our leftover tickets for minature golf to play a round there. Cost: $0.00

We got home around 9:30 and I was so tired I couldn't do anything else.

On Sunday- I got up and make some maple chicken and ribs for a cookalong. I am hoping to win a cookbook. I also worked in the yard clearing away some branches that had fallen.


Go ahead and TRY to tell me I can't do something



JV and I then got dressed up and went to a new church.  Even though the main reason we went is because they were having a lunch catered by Cranberries I enjoy it alot.  Plus, JV won a $5 gift card to Starbucks. WooHoo!!
Then I came home and started doing laundry and working on school stuff. 
All in all I think it was a great weekend and I still have $3.54 in my envelope. I know that I am using alot of stuff that was prepaid for and those won't last forever.  However, the resourcefullness I am learning will last alot longer. I am also hoping this will help JV out of her " I don't have any money blues."

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.
 

Free Attractions

Wll, as many of you know, yahoo.com has come out with a list of free attractions that you can visit.
Best Free Attractions.  It mentions Great Smoky Mountain Park as #2. WooHoo!!!
Even though it is free, I must admit I haven't taken advantage of it as I should.


One thing I have noticed is that when you slow down and take time, you can find some great places to go that are free.  I was walking from the library to the post office and found the cutest little area near our visitor's center that I had never noticed before.  There was a swing, picnic tables and a little stream running by. Since, you can't see it easily from the road I never would have found it if I hadn't been walking.

Even the the great money pit that can be Gatlinburg, we found a cute little park that you can stop for a little rest and playground.  Of course, Gatlinburg is part of the Great Smoky Mountain park system, but this was behind a shopping area.  We wouldn't have found it, if parking hadn't been so bad.

Organization Help

My computer gets filled with many documents that get started and forgotten.  One such document is one named "Luxury Items for Free".  Yikes! The cool thing is that there are items that I had forgotten about. 
Here is the list:

Luxury Items for free (or almost free)

• Ironed sheets
• Using good china and tableware
• Good glasses
• Reading on the porch
• Candlelight evenings
• No work Sundays
• No electricity day
• Food prepared just the way I like it
• Playing ribbon with my cat
• Snuggling with my cat
• Dining “al fresco”
• Playing solitare
• Walking in the park
• Massages in the chairs @ Kohl’s, Walmart or Bed Bath & Beyond

I love that I found it again but hate that I lost it in the first place. Fortunately, this blog is one way in which I will be able to find them again.

Another valuable resource I have found is called: The Happiness Project Toolbox

This site is a companion to the book The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

The site allows you to make Resolutions, Lists, One Sentence Journals, Group Resolutions, and save Inspiration pictures and quotes, all for free!! I have really enjoyed using it.  In fact it has helped me keep up with maintaining blog entries, flossing and when I last clipped my cats nails. 

Of course I recommend reading the books, which is great!  Don't forget that your library probably has a copy for free!!! :-)

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.

Happy Easter

The best freebie of all...
At our church we have a cross that is draped in black and plain.  However, on Easter Sunday, people bring in flowers which we use to decorate it to show Christ's resurrection.  I was thinking about buying some flowers to put on this year but it just felt "wrong" somehow.
I decided that since our salvation was given freely I would pick some flowers from my yard.  Unfortunately, not alot is blooming today, but I do think it is quite lovely in its "naturalness"

Free basket, free flowers, and free cat. 3 of my favorites

Time and money

I realized one of the best freebies is...free money.  What? You don't believe there is free money?  

Well, here is the simple truth.  If you just leave money in the bank for a while, you get free money. If I leave $100 in the bank for a year, they will give me $2 at 2% interest. Ok, I know that is an over simplification but that is how you can get the free money.

 I have tried searching online for some rates.  I couldn't find any saving rates but there were some sites for CD- rates

Bloomberg Market Rates
Bank Rates
Interest rates

One of the best suggestions that I received was to take a "Financial Day" from work.  I took a personal day and just reassessed my money situation.  I was able to visit the other banks in town and discuss their offers. I even got a notice that if I deposited $100 in their bank and kept it there for 6 months I would receive $50.

Volunteering

One of the best way that I have found to help yourself, is by helping others.  Maybe it is because I live in the volunteer state, but giving time to organizations that you like it a great way to better your life.  I can not list all of the great things that I have received by volunteering.  Some of the simple things are: free meals, clothing, contests to win prizes, and even a trip to another country.

I never would have visited the Czech Republic without volunteering

Of course, the most important and valuable things that I got were intangibles. Volunteering at the animal shelter gave me lots of puppy and kitty love.  I have made many, many friends. I have also gotten to experience things that I wouldn't have otherwise.

Good Times, Good Friends

The important thing is to volunteer for things that are meaningful to you.  “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
― Mother Teresa

University Freebies

When I came back to get my degree, I loved going to all the events on campus and learning about new ideas and skills. However, once I graduated, I got caught up in the work world and left all of the events behind.

Fortunately, one of my good friends, took me to see a piano concert at the local university for my birthday.  I had forgotten what a great resource this was.  I picked up an upcoming schedule of events on my way out. WoW! I was amazed at all the happenings- lectures, recitals, concerts, movies...

It was wonderful.  I have already put several on my calendar.

ETSU

• Daily Events

Milligan

• News and Events 

Tusculum

• Calendar
• Museums

Don't put your head in the sand. Get out and try something new!!

A Clean Sweep

I have been volunteering at the local animal shelter and it turns out that they are having a yard sale this weekend. I couldn't sleep tonight (last night?) and so I have packed up a bunch of stuff to take to their sale. I hope it brings them some money.
They say that to really make a change you need to throw out 50 things. I'm not sure if I made that number. I did if you count individual CDs in my audio books. I am a little sad that the house doesn't really even look like I got rid of a bunch of stuff. At least it is a start. Plus I found a few new things that i can use now that I am not buying anything new.
Tomorrow I am "cheating" a little. My friend and I are going out to lunch at a Chinese place so I will need to pay for my lunch that way.