Way OT: Powerball winner

hmmm.....NAHHHHH!

LOL! Cheri (Bubbee to Emily and Nathan)

LOL How funny

Remember the inexpensive things to do while travelling with a child, from Fathy NV's post? Those make really super things to do for a date, without having to spend $50 on a dinner.

Tina

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 20:47:44 -0500, Christina Peterson wrote (in message ):

Dates are even easier, because you don't have to "entertain" your date so they won't misbehave. (if your date needs that kind of care, I really don't want to know about it)

When we were dating, our biggest expense was gas for the car. We'd go to the beach, go biking, go to antique car shows (I'm a serious motorhead), hang out with friends or play pool in my mom's basement. We love to cook, so we'd often make nice meals for each other and the parents. One year, we went apple picking and then made 15-20 apple pies afterward, then drove around and gave them to nearly everyone we know in town (saving one for ourselves, of course). We both have a lifelong habit of volunteering (family tradition for both of us), so we'd often volunteer at the park or the food bank or with the scouts. Bob has helped make floats for the town's two parades each year since High School, and I used to go along to help build.

Another thing we did was go to Home Depot. Sounds weird, but they offer free home renovation classes every week. We knew that whatever house we eventually got was going to be a fixer-upper, and all those free classes sure saved us a ton of money. BTW, Home Depot also offers similar classes for kids - when DD was small, she built various bird houses, bug traps and treasure boxes, and got little pins to go on her free Home Depot apron.

Being a regular caller at your favorite radio station has lots of benefits, too. We'd go to loads of free concerts and events, just for the price of calling the station and asking when they're holding promotional events. You will end up with more tee shirts than you'll ever know what do with. (If you have kids, check and see if there's a Radio Disney affiliate in the area - they have great promotions all the time)

If you live near a brewery or winery, most of them offer free tours - usually with refreshments at the end. We'd go to the Budweiser plant in New Hampshire once a year (at the same time as a great car show), and bring a picnic. The grounds are gorgeous as well, and make for a nice place to go for long walks. BTW, the brewery people offer lots of non-alcoholic beverages as well, if you don't drink alcohol. (I don't, and have never had to go thirsty at the Bud plant)

If you have friends around who are of a similar bent, you can have a regular card playing night. Bob and I used to play canasta all the time with another couple, and when Bob's mom was alive, we'd all play Scrabble (for blood and bragging rights).

There's a second run movie theatre in town, and sometimes we'd go there and see a movie for a dollar apiece. If we were especially rich that week, we'd get an ice cream cone (to share) afterward. And there's always "watching the submarine races," which is fun and really low cost. (hee, hee)

If you like watching sporting events, and don't want to drop a ton of money seeing the Red Sox or the Celtics, check out farm league games or those at local universities. The games are just as fun, and are often free to attend. Even the snacks at such events are dirt cheap - a buck for a hot dog at the Pawtucket Red Sox instead of $6 or $7 for one at Fenway Park. If you pass a field where there are little kids playing pee-wee soccer or tee ball, stop! You'll never get so much laughter for so little money. It's great fun to see fifty little kids pile on one ball.

In more recent years, we'd to a casino in Connecticut for an evening out. Check your local newspaper for deals: around here, you can get transportation, a free dinner buffet and $20 worth of gambling tokens for $20. You have to be self-disciplined not to spend more than that, but if you're like me, you can leave the money at home and still have a great time. If you lose your tokens in ten minutes, there's always people watching and window shopping in the fancy shops. This is a lot more fun when you go with a group of people - we used to go with the twenty or so people on Bob's bowling league.

Oh yes, because we both love cars, we used to go and test drive all the new models every fall. We'd tell the salespeople straight out that we weren't buying anything, although they never believed us. We drove some amazing cars and had a lot of fun. Car manufacturers often give freebies for test driving their cars, so we'd get those, too.

IIRC, we didn't ever spend $50 on an evening out until long after we were married. Even now, we prefer to do less expensive things and spend a lot of time hanging out. Tonight, we shared a bowl of popcorn and watched a DVD of "The Blues Brothers" for the zillionth time. It was great.

As you can tell, I'm never bored. Even though I'm trapped in the house like a rat these days, I always have tons to do.

Kathy N-V

Kathy, Can I come live with you? That sounds like so much fun. I am keeping and printing out a copy of that post. My husband and I are always looking for something to do and can never think of anything.

I remember doing alot of stuff similiar with my kids. But like you I'm trapped for the most part in the house.