Not exactly $10 but better.

Last weekend was amazing!! I should have played the lottery :-)
This is how everything played out.

Saturday morning, I got up and got some last minute things done. I made some muffins and got some things prepared for Sunday. When I met up with JV, she wanted to get some breakfast.  We stopped by Chick-fil-a  and ordered some food.  When checking the bag, JV noticed that there was 2 chicken biscuits. We even checked our receipt.  We scored an extra biscuit. Woohoo!!

We arrived in Pigeon Forge and went to the Wonderworks free teacher day.  We received a goody bag with some free stuff as well. One of the fun things, beside pens and brochures, was a passport to the Rainforest Zoo for 4 people. We did just about all the activities. My favorite was the flight simulator. JV's was the ropes course. While we were there they took the requiste photo in front of a green screen. We were looking at the pictures at the end of the day. The sweet girl let us have them for free!!  I think she took pity on us. \
After that, as part of the trip, we got a free ride in the hot air balloon. We arrived at dusk which was perfect. There was the setting sun and the clouds with the ferris wheel on one side and then farmland on the other.
We went to the hotel and JV needed some water.  I wanted some chips so I went out to go to Kroger's to get some.  While out there, I decided to get her some gluten-free cupcakes. I went to GiGi's cupcakes.  They have amazing strawberry gluten-free cupcakes.  When I got there, they didn't have any though. I thought about leaving but decided to ask anyway. She said "I don't have any today to sell to you, but I have some from yesterday that I can give to you for free" Whaaaaaaaa? Heck yeah!!

The next day, we went to Ripley's Aquarium. When we arrived we got another free goody bag. This one had a plastic water bottle. Some "dinosaur claws" and magnets and other accessories. We also got to see my favorite turtle. Sue the green sea turtle.

We then went to the Davey Crockett Mini-Golf. Jill won, of course. We then left for back to the big Johnson City, TN.  I spent more than $10 on the hotel room and dinners and gas but it was well worth it.
 

$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.

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."

This Moment

A Friday ritual from Amanda Soule's blog www.soulemama.com

 

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

 

 

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.