What are your favorite low cost/ no cost activities?

[Lorien]

(OK- so there's some we CAN'T list :evilgrin: )

Hiking has always been a favorite of mine, though I prefer places like Vermont to my current home in Florida (where many creatures that can eat you live, plus it's flat and hot).

Getting together with friends for a homemade dinner; it's low cost, not no cost, but it's something that I feel as a society we don't do often enough.

Playing with my pets-they crack me up!

Hanging out at a library or used book store. Sometimes looking is satisfying enough.

Free days at local museums.

Board games /Trivial Pursuit with a group of friends.

Wildlife watching; the raccoons in my backyard are better than TV.

Some friends of mine love fossil hunting, which sounds fairly interesting. Beach combing can be entertaining too.

Some of your favorites?

[NMDemDist2]

1. playing guitar (badly) and singing loudly with hubby n/t

[peabody]

2. I like surfing the web and

hanging out at the bookstore. I only pay 16 dollars a month for
dialup, and even though is slow, I still get a kick out of reading
the news and DU! Also, put me in a bookstore and I can be there
for hours reading and exploring new books and magazines.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Working in my garden.

It's relaxing and a good workout! We finally got our waterfall working, so it's wonderfully peaceful out there. And the trees in our beighborhood are big enough now that we're getting squirrels coming visiting.

Over the winter though, it's harder!
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[Willy Lee]

4. A lot of the same things-

Working in the garden, playing with the animals, hiking, writing letters to old friends, reading (or re-reading) books I love...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Lots

Singing in choir
Watching the bird and squirrel show out of my kitchen window (I live four floors up)
Writing
Buying a cup of coffee and hanging out for hours, working, chatting with neighbors, and reading left behind copies of the local and national newspapers
Walking around the nearby lake
Walking around an unfamiliar neighborhood and taking note of the interesting buildings and people
Napping
Hanging out in the library

[PretzelWarrior]

6. I've watched TV with a purpose. ANALYSIS

what is really interesting and a way to NOT be lured in by advertising is to have a notebook and while doing something else just take the time to write down what types of companies/products are advertising on various channels and around certain shows.

You learn a lot about our advertising and consumer culture by seeing what is advertised during David Letterman vs. ABC world news tonight..and if you're home during the day..what is advertised on a game show vs. soap opera.

Also of interest is to see what is advertised on a CNN show or a low rated cable channel like TLC.

And if you really want to blow your mind...see what is advertised during Sponge Bob or Network Saturday cartoons.

You'll be doing some active thinking and teaching yourself a lot about target audiences, etc.

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. Pretzel--

If you have any good notes of those advertising during hate shows or hate radio, let me know so Sapphie and I can add them to the Progressive Pages as "Don't Buy."

Or we can start a campaign to write letters to them to change their behavior.

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[Sapphocrat]

7. The beach, the beach, and more beach!

...and everything else you mentioned (good list!), as well as:

Reading aloud to my partner in bed. It's a wonderful way to share a book together (and nobody reads over anybody's shoulder).

Library book-sale days. I usually come away with a truckload of books for under ten bucks.

Free lectures -- Kepler's (INDEPENDENT) bookstore in Menlo Park, CA, offers at least one free author talk per month (and you don't have to buy the book to attend) ... Stanford U. sometimes offers free talks by visiting professors ... Perhaps my favorite such freebies are the free cemetery tours/lectures by Prof. Michael Svanevik of the College of San Mateo -- I've learned more about the Hearst family, Spreckels Sugar Co., and Emperor Norton I than I ever have from books.

Town-hall meetings/city council meetings: Sometimes provides great entertainment, but more importantly, what better way is there to stay informed about your local world, and meet your neighbors?

Gardening/yardwork. I feel so much healthier afterward!

Shooting hoops/whacking a handball/racquetball at the local high school.

Birdwatching. No, really! It sounds like such a nerdy, Miss Hathaway thing to do, but there's something so Zen-like about my daily ritual of counting the number of mourning doves in the backyard.

Meditation and chanting, either at home or at the nearest ashram. And the ashram is always free, too. :)

[fudge stripe cookays]

10. Why, Miss Hathaway!

Without those glasses, you're beautiful!

:D
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[InvisibleTouch]

8. The Library

It's always been amazing to me that the library is a nearly unlimited resource of knowledge and information - and it's free! The best things in life....

[Ready4Change]

11. If you have a handheld GPS unit for other reasons...

Geocaching is pretty neat. If you have kids they'll like it too. It's 1/2 hiking, 1/2 orienteering, 1/2 treasure hunt.

Basically, someone hides a waterproof container somewhere, usually on public parkland, etc... Then they post it's longitude and lattitude coordinates on one of several geocaching sites. Then other people go out to try to find it.

When you find it, most caches have a log book to record the date and time of your find, and most also have a bunch of little nick nacks. Bring along a little thing of your own and swap it with one of them. That's what told me kids were into it, as the first few I did were chock full of small kid toys and such.

Here's my favorite geocaching web site: http://www.geocaching.com/

[NJCher]

12. be a volunteer at the pet shelter

Take dogs walking or cuddle kitties.


Cher

[Lorien]

13. Awww...

it must be hard not to take them all home!

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Painting miniatures (for our games, it is relatively low cost)

reading, listening to music, listening to Malloy, walking, mentoring kids, playing with my birds, and of course hanging around my husband