Fun & Free

10 GREAT WAYS TO HAVE FUN WITHOUT OPENING YOUR WALLET! Come January 1st, many of us are feeling the pinch – Yikes, I may have spent a little more than I intended over the Holidays! Retail spending was up and many analysts attributed this to the fact that most Americans are just tired of having to pull in the belt. We’ve had a few years of this interminable frugality and if there’s ever a time to treat yourself and your loved ones, it’s at Christmas. A very sweet man at yoga this morning hoped that 2011 would be the best year of my life, and I truly wish you the same – so lets get off to a rollicking start with 10  ways to have bucket loads of fun without it having to  cost a dime.

1. Family Cook-off: You can either do this with your husband, partner, room mate or entire family. It’s a challenge that you set and the idea is that each contestant has to create an amazing meal out of what you already have in the kitchen. Nothing can be purchased for this meal ahead of time. You can obviously cheat and plan ahead of time, getting all the ingredients you need – but it’ much more fun to spring it on yourself or your partner when you kind of least expect it. Dishes have to be rated on score of 1-10. I sometimes go even further and say dishes will be rated on: presentation, taste, and finally ingenuity.

2. Dance Party: This kills two birds with one stone, as you’ll not only have fun, but also get your exercise over with. Invite over 1 or 2 girlfriends and ask them to beg or borrow any great exercise DVD’s, which are centered around dance. My absolute favorite is Zumba because it’s a riotous workout, which is really hard and I always end up looking like a total idiot trying to master most of the steps.

3. Clothes Swap: Oh yesssss – this the perfecto time of year for a clothes swap, as there’s bound to be a few unwanted Holiday gifts flying around. The boots that you grabbed in that Black Friday sale really don’t go with any of your jeans or skirts, but you’ve worn them once so can’t take them back. I betcha a friend of yours will snap them up and you’ll get to go home guilt-free with a few great finds of your own.

4. Recipe Bonanza: Invite a girlfriend who loves cooking over and tell her to bring all her favorite cookbooks (she may have got some for Christmas). Spend a few hours prior going through all of your cookbooks. Have a few Post-it notes at the ready (the recycled paper ones), and start noting down all your favorite tried-&-tested recipes. Get your friend to do the same. When you meet up in the evening, you’ll both have a huge pile of books to exchange with all the best recipes earmarked. If you’re like me, you won’t want to let your books go for long, so set a 14 day challenge and plan that at the end of it, each of you will have tried out at least 8 of the recipes. Any that you didn’t get to,  you can always photocopy.

5. Host A Movie Night: I would imagine that many of your friends are feeling the pinch too, so plan a couple of movie nights ahead of time via email. Invite your friends to bring along 2 0r 3 of their favorite movies (you can always do a theme like: Classics, humor or Foreign), and when everyone gets to your home, you’ll vote on the movie of the night. Pop fresh organic popcorn and tell everyone it’s a pot luck as far as food is concerned.

6. Send a bunch of cards: Put aside an hour or so to send a free World Wildlife Fund e-card to everyone you can think of who might like a little positive New Year’s Message. Think outside the box, sending cards to people who you may have lost touch with. They’re great for kids too.

7. Dream Collage 2011: Sit around with your partner and/or kids and get everyone to write a paragraph or so of what they’d like their life to look like in 2011. Have a stack of old magazines and newspapers, even photographs to hand and find a large piece of old cardboard (an opened-up box will do). Using glue sticks, create a visual collage of some of the things you may have written down. For example, my daughter so wants to go to Paris, so naturally the old Tour Effil is in our collage – quite how we’ll get there this year I don’t know, but at least we’ve put it out there. What you put your attention on, increases!

8. De-Clutter: This may not sound like the most fun thing to do and isn’t always until you get into it. As a family, we always put off doing this, as it requires trips to Goodwill and/or a robust yard sale, but we never cease to have a total laugh once we’re in the thick of it. We’re about to tackle our garage, as much of the baby stuff I’ve been holding on to for years, really needs to make way for boxes that are piling up places they shouldn’t. Kids love to get involved in these de-clutter events, as all those dusty boxes, attics and closets are often stuffed with brilliant memories and/or precious lost items. The feel-good factor afterward is hard to match, and it’s a fantastic was to make way for new energy to pour in in 2011.

9. Freecycle: If you haven’t already, join freecycle. It’s a really fun way to get rid of things that you want to recycle and find items that you may be looking for. I’m about to log to my local group and see what’s going on. My daughter needs a new bicycle, so I’ll see what’s cooking. It’s always great fun to have a browse and see what you can come up with for free.

10. Neighborhood Fruit Frenzy: Okay, I have to admit that I have picked the odd lemon from my neighbor’s tree, which spills over his fence. Yes, I did have to jump to get them, until I thought “wait a minute, I’ll just ask him” – which I did and now I get FREE lemons whenever I want. If you spy fruit trees in and around your neighborhood, don’t be shy – go knock on the door and ask them if they can spare any fruit for you! Many of the fruit goes unused and wasted anyway, so they may be grateful. You can also go to Neighborhood Fruit and find out where all the public fruit trees (yes FREE fruit) are in your area. Depending on your region, you’ll be able to make apple pie or lemonade for free.

Please share any other idea Fun & Free ideas that you may have – all the above activities are greener as for the most part, you’re recycling and just generally leaving a lighter footprint – we like!!!!