Money isn’t the key to a good time. Here are 20 free things to do when you’re bored.

You’ve got the day off, but your spending money is low and there’s only so much time you can spend sitting in front of the television. Well, get up and do something different. There are literally dozens of fun things you can do without spending any money at all. Drink some wine and look at some art. Bake some bread. Invite some friends over to watch a goofy movie. Here are 20 (more) ideas for totally free activities that will expand your mind, make you feel better about yourself and give you a break from stress-inducing responsibilities.

Attend a Gallery Opening

Two words: free wine. Art gallery openings for new exhibits will not only give you a close look at some of your community’s top artistic talents, but also access to free snacks and beverages. Plus, there are bound to be some pretty interesting people milling about, so it’s a great chance to make a few new acquaintances. But if you’re going to show up and drink the wine, be sure to display interest in the work and say a few kind words to the artist. Just saying…

Check Out Your Community Calendar

How many fun, practical and occasionally strange events are you missing because you don’t check your community calendar? Often published in free weeklies or in the local newspaper, these calendars can be a treasure trove of free activities. You could be learning how to assemble bouquets, taking walking tours of local historical sites, attending outdoor festivals or watching beefy young men wrestle in church basements. It’s a source of virtually endless entertainment.

Get Organized

At first, this doesn’t sound like fun. It sounds like cleaning, which is work. But that’s before you get addicted to the post-organization high of “Oh wow, my house looks amazing and I actually know where things are located.” Pinterest is a great source of inspiration and ideas for organization that often use items you already have on hand rather than requiring an expensive trip to the store.

Play a Challenging Word Game

Break out the Scrabble board, some tough crossword puzzles, or even Words with Friends. Games don’t have to be time-wasters; many of them can help you increase your vocabulary so you can sound smarter when you’re angling for a promotion or chatting up that Ph.D. down the hall. Being highly literate is sexy.

Bake a Loaf of Bread

If you’ve got flour and some yeast, you can bake a loaf of bread – even if you’ve never baked anything in your life. It may seem like some kind of magical alchemy to people who aren’t accustomed to baking, and it sort of is. But it’s magic that is totally manageable. Baking a loaf of bread will force you to slow down for an afternoon, giving you opportunities to fit in other activities as the dough rises.

Learn About a New Topic

Maybe you’re interested in the cannibalistic rituals of ancient cultures, or just want to learn how to apply 1960s-style eyeliner. You can find information on just about anything on the internet, so there are no excuses for not learning more about topics that interest you. Read up on something you’ve always wanted to know, or watch a few YouTube videos that will teach you how to do some kind of new hair braid.

Host a Movie Marathon

Ask your friends to bring their favorite movies, or choose a series from your own collection. There’s always the library, too, which usually offers free or very cheap DVD rentals. Whether it’s a guilty pleasure like Twilight or Mystery Science Theater, movie marathons are one of the most fun ways to forget about your worries for a few hours.

Learn a New Skill

Break out that musical instrument that’s been hanging on your wall like an art piece rather than serving its true purpose. Open the Beginner’s Knitting Pack that you got for your birthday that one year and haven’t looked at since. Or just identify something that you’ve always wanted to learn how to do, and commit to giving it at least a few hours of your time. Maybe it’s learning a new language, or maybe it’s just changing the oil in your car. Again, YouTube is full of videos that will guide you through all manner of tasks, making new skills more easily acquired than ever.

Call an Old Friend

We all have friendships that have fallen by the wayside because we just can’t seem to find the time to make a phone call. Now’s the time. You’re bored, you’re low on cash and cell phones have made long distance calls cheaper than ever. Take an hour or two to catch up. If you can’t seem to work out a time when you’re both available, write a letter, record a video greeting or start an email correspondence. If you both live in the same city, take the time to meet up! Friendships make our lives so much richer. They’re worth taking the time out of your schedule, however busy you may be.

Scan Your Old Photos

Most of us have boxes full of old film photos that we haven’t looked at in ages. Scanning them definitely takes a bit of work and a good chunk of time, but it’ll ensure that these memories are preserved in case of fire or flood. Plus, taking the time to organize and digitize them is a fun way to reminisce about the past.

Clean Up Your Neighborhood

You don’t have to join a local group or organize some kind of official outing. Just go out into your neighborhood with a pair of gloves and a trash bag and start picking up. Even an hour of effort can make a big difference, and it’ll make you feel better about where you live.

Take a Mental Vacation

Download a guided meditation app for your smartphone, or simply head out to a place where you won’t be disturbed and give yourself permission to let go of all your stress and worries. Wish. Imagine. Daydream. Let your mind go wherever it wants to go, as long as it’s not a negative place. Fall into the kind of relaxed mental state that can spark creativity and a sense of peaceful healing. Even if you only have five minutes, it’ll make you feel mentally refreshed so you can get back to your tasks with sharpened acuity.

Tackle a DIY Project

You know all those cutesy DIY projects that you’ve been collecting on Pinterest or bookmarking at Design Sponge, imagining that you’ll get to ‘someday?’ Someday is today. Many such projects make use of what you already have or reclaim free or discarded items, so it doesn’t have to cost any money. Spray paint some old mason jars into pretty vases, turn a men’s button-down shirt into a skirt or make a new coffee table out of wood pallets.

Push Yourself Harder

There’s some task or skill that you’ve taken up, but haven’t quite mastered just yet. Take the time to get that much better at it. Push yourself to the next level, whether it’s eking out an extra 10 sit-ups, playing a more complex song on the piano or trying your hand at some French pastries.

Revisit an Old Favorite

Maybe the movie you were obsessed with when you were a senior in high school, or the album you listened to over and over again to comfort yourself when you moved to a new city isn’t to your taste anymore. But it can be fun to revisit those old favorites, and recall what made us love them so much at the time.

Make a Pinhole Camera

The only special equipment you need to capture ghostly, eerie images is some photo paper. A pinhole camera can be made out of virtually anything – from a cardboard box to an entire room. You’re simply creating a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. When light from a scene passes through the hole, it projects an inverted image onto the opposite side of the box, where photo paper is taped. If you don’t have any photo paper, ask a local photography shop if they have any expired paper that they’re about to throw away; it may not be sensitive enough to capture the sharp images required by professionals, but its imperfections will contribute to the dreamy feel of a pinhole image.

Build a Fort

Who says adults can’t build forts, too? For many of us, building makeshift forts out of blankets is among our favorite childhood memories. There’s something so cozy about curling up with a book in a heap of pillows in what feels like a private little space of your own. It can be as simple as tying a string between a doorknob and a piece of furniture and throwing a sheet over it.

Make a List of Your Goals

It’s easy to get so swept up in the rhythms of daily life that you lose your sense of where you want to go. Maybe you’ve lost sight of what’s truly important in your life, or fallen off track in your business goals. Write out what you want, and steps that you can reasonably take to get there – even if they’re really small steps.

Get Frugal

If you’re looking for free things to do, chances are, you’re trying to cut costs and be careful with your money. Write out a budget if you haven’t already, and identify additional ways to save. There are literally hundreds of money-saving tips available online; start with The Budget Diet’s list of ways to cut up to $400 from your budget every month.

Take a Nap

Perhaps making a pinhole camera, thinking about finances or playing the piano is just way too much for you right now, considering you can barely focus on the computer screen. It’s okay. Don’t feel guilty. Set your alarm, lay your head down and take a nap. You deserve it.

Photos: sleepyjeanie, nayukim, surlygirl, katerha, glitter weddings

The post 20 (More) Fun Things to Do Without Spending a Dime appeared first on EcoSalon.

Oh the things you can do when you’re broke.

You know how everyone keeps saying that there’s an upside to this recession? Well, when you lost your job eight months ago, you also lost your health insurance, in part because of a backdoor federal move to make unemployment punishable by death. It’s also true your parents have been driven into early retirement and foreclosed on their home, forcing you all to simultaneously move into each other’s soon-to-be-repossessed basements. And yes, lately you’ve been spending a lot of time watching the bedraggled remnants of the American middle class trampled to oblivion by an economy now populated exclusively with yacht-focused investment bankers and McDonald’s robots.

“But at least you’re spending more time with your loved ones,” people are saying.

“Cutting back makes you appreciate the simpler things in life,” the same or profoundly similar people tell us.

“I actually find holding a gallon of milk at a steady simmer for a full hour to be a very soothing process,” says the recession embracing artisan yogurt maker.

Though you’re probably going to be busy with all these family love-ins and culinary meditation opportunities, here are 15 more things to do with all the free time you have now that your chosen occupation no longer exists anywhere on this planet. Enjoy!

15. Some sort of forced outdoorsy group activity through Meetup or Groupon – God, I don’t know, a discounted group date for a skydiving session? No, really, it’ll be fun (it won’t).

14. Go to your local library. Oh, I forgot, it’s closed after 3pm and also on weekends. Try your local bookstore? Do you have any books at your house? I see. What about the Yellow Pages? That still shows up on your doorstep every once in a while, right? There’s got to be something interesting in there, like a piano moving company you can go watch hard at work or a list of churches you’re thinking about joining (now that you need faith).

13. Do you still have a phone? If so, does your plan include unlimited minutes? Pick an ex. Any ex. See how many times you can call them in an hour and really process your feelings with each voicemail. Try using different voices and see if they can still recognize you!

12. Menstruate. That’s at least three days right there. “What are you up to this weekend, Carrie?”

“Oh, I thought I’d just shed my endometrium lining in case I choose to use my body to make life. You?”

11. Too broke for brunch? I have three words for you: farmer’s market samples. Almost every stand has them, and if you work your way down the line slowly enough, they might have forgotten your face by round two. Also, if someone puts down a cup of coffee while bagging their produce, it’s fair game.

10. Put the internet to good use. There are literally thousands of useful YouTube tutorials available for free. Want to look like Audrey Hepburn? Fix your iPhone screen? Mend a shoe? It’s all there for you. You can even learn how to pick a lock, which would be incredibly helpful if you get evicted (because, you know, you’re still broke).

9. You don’t need me to tell you to go outside, right? Go outside! There’s still a few weeks left before blizzard season.

8. If you live in the Bay Area, FunCheapSF aggregates local free and ultra-cheap events on a daily basis. These can be pretty hit-and-miss, but for every municipal Winter Festival Parade, there’s a free astronaut class.

7. Host a swap party with some friends/coworkers/friendly people you met on the bus last week. Swap books! Or, if your friends have terrible taste in books, swap clothes. If your friends have terrible taste in clothes, swap food. Which I guess is technically a potluck, so:

6. Host a potluck! It’s like getting all the credit for throwing a dinner party without having to turn your oven on. Make some cute name tags, pull out some paper lanterns and Christmas lights, and all of a sudden you’re the “Friend Who Has It Together.” See? This isn’t so bad.

5. You might as well try to meditate, because the worst-case scenario means you take a nice long nap on your floor in your yoga pants. Maybe vacuum first, just in case. But still, floor naps are nothing to shake a stick at.

4. Make your own caramelized onions. Make them in the oven, because it’s ridiculous to stand in front of the stove stirring something for hours unless it’s going to turn into a Polyjuice Potion. All you need are onions, butter, oil, and salt. Onions are so cheap! They last forever! Put it on pizza. Put it on sandwiches. Put it on mashed potatoes. Put it on everything. You can’t stop and you don’t even want to.

3. The third Thursday of every November is Beaujolais Nouveau Day. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the yearly release. Remember, it’s not a drinking problem if it’s tradition. It’s cheap! It’s purple! You could drink it forever. Go get some. Now. Drink it with friends. Drink it alone! Say “Beaujolais Nouveau c’est arrive!” over and over again until you can trill the r’s satisfactorily, or you’re too tipsy to care.

2. Do you have rich friends? Maybe they can buy you expensive wine, you know, for comparison to the Beaujolais Nouveau. Maybe you could find rich friends if you snuck into more regattas and galas. Avoid fundraisers, though; they usually charge per plate.

1. EcoSalon is free? I’m just saying…

Image: Design Trust for Public Space

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It may have been published a couple of years ago, but Americans are now catching up to the message of Steve and Annette Economides and are eagerly plunking down their pennies for the hot home economics crash course.

The authors of America’s Cheapest Family have done remarkably well feeding their family of seven on just $350 per month, paying off their first house in nine years and purchasing a second, larger home, buying cars with cash, taking nice vacations, and yes, even socking away money in savings.

They’ve done so well, they are hitting the television news circuit including Inside Edition and receiving praised on numerous green websites to teach a fairly clueless nation the ABC’s of creating a comfortable, debt-free life. Forget the Joneses! It’s time to keep up with the Economides.

The couple, who live in Scottsdale, Arizona (a money-driven, rapidly built-up, energy-sucking environ), launched their popular bimonthly newsletter, The Home Economiser, in 2003 and have appeared in Good Housekeeping as well as on National Public Radio and Good Morning America.

Perhaps their message has been somewhat lost until the proverbial s–t hit the fan, sending many of us seeking advice from the successfully frugal among us, the ones who arrogantly yet wisely uttered I told you so as we maxed out our credit cards.

According to publishers marketing this new debtors’ bible:

“You don’t need to be a CPA or a math wizard to learn their revolutionary system, which will teach you:

– hundreds of ways to save money on everyday household expenses, including groceries, clothing, and health care
– how to save in advance for major purchases such as homes, cars, and vacations
– how to stop living paycheck to paycheck
– how to eliminate debt . . . forever!”

Oooh, that sounds good, real good to the masses choosing between lesser evils of selling their homes, getting night jobs that will take them away from their kids, and selling what they can from cars to gold and furniture – anything to stay afloat.

While the Economides’ disciplined road to penny pinching offers a way to avoid those evils, Nature Moms points out some of the methods may not sit well with the green among us, namely buying processed foods in bulk while forgoing more costly fresh fruits and veggies for the last two weeks of the month.

” I think families that eat lots of fresh, raw, whole foods would have a lot of adapting to do but the basic plan is a good one,” says the author of the site. “I would probably feel more comfortable doing bi-monthly shopping expeditions with weekly trips to farmers’ markets for fruits and veggies.”

One of the best chapters deals with clothes shopping and how buying stylish second-hand finds can help you stay within your budget and then some. And in terms of housing costs, they advise paying off your mortgage in less than 10 years.

For some of us the lessons have come a bit late, but not too late to try a new tack.

Images: Pink Sherbet, Amazon, Inside Edition

The post Cash Strapped Readers Spare a Dime for America’s Cheapest Family appeared first on EcoSalon.

My lovely, celebrity-style dressing room is a spare bedroom I stole in the house, a spare that once housed a maple crib, green nursing glider and armoire of precious, spit-up stained Baby Gap dresses on mini-hangers.

Today, it’s my own little retail Mecca (organic, of course). But I do allow my daughters to visit and check out the blouses and shoe rack, and yes, even borrow on occasion. That sort of thing was taboo when I was growing up. Moms were moms.  Friends were the ones loaning stuff.

My own stylish mother (here with me and Grandma Zelda) towered over me at 5-foot-9 (not counting the beehive do) and always wore at least a size 14. She wasn’t a Laker like Julia Child and her sister, Dorothy, but when she got married, she wore flats so not to surpass 6-foot dad.

I hung out in Mom’s cavernous walk-in closet while she was away at luncheons. But no way could I actually borrow one of those gowns since they hung on me like a puddled curtain. I also was drawn to her off-limits, pointy, size-10 pumps, dyed to match her Jacky suits.

I was the fourth child and the runt of the litter – considerably shorter and smaller than the rest. (My theory is mother smoked a few more cigs and sipped a few more martinis when she was preggers with me.) But to be fair, I’m also considering the DNA link to my small, Polish ancestors.

Cut to my gorgeous teenage daughter with a great sense of style, who caught up with me in stature a few years back. I provide her with her own little Nordstrom Rack down the hall. I take full credit for cultivating her sense of entitlement since I have been most gracious about loaning her items, and have only kvetched a few times when they weren’t returned on time. She is very responsible and that counts.

Combined, Syd and I have a substantial inventory. I’m proud to say a chunk of it is the ski apparel we share for our annual Mommy-Sydney ski weekends in Lake Tahoe.

I was glad to squeeze into a pair of my daughter’s skinny jeans for my birthday outing with friends in August, and only felt a pinch after the second drink. You dirty martini, you!

How does the sharing work? Sometimes we fall for the same cardigan and it can make more sense during hard times to buy one to share and take turns – you know, like college co-eds on a strict budget. Call it the The Daughterhood of the Traveling Pants.

I also prefer to loan rather than buy her a dress for the countless B’Nei Mitzvah parties and other events she seems to attend. If she wears something of mine, it feels like new to her, even though I’ve worn it a dozen times.

This whole lending thing is why those smart couture rental shops, like Boutiqueville in Chicago, do so well. Why own something costly when you can rent for the occasion? When the high is over you send it back. Thank you, it was a great date, but onto other matches.

I should point out it isn’t just us girls sharing the wealth. My daughter also gets warm and fuzzy about wearing her dad’s old sweaters. I seriously think it brings her closer to him in a very sweet way.

Guess teens have been burrowing in oversize wool since Ann-Margret sang “How Lovely to be a Woman” in Bye Bye Birdie. He doesn’t mind her using the old sweaters, or at least, has never complained.

I got to wondering if other kids and parents are comfortable with community closeting or if most families are fiercely territorial about their closets. It certainly requires trust and respect, and the right kind of green deodorant.

I did a bit of research online and found little has been written on the subject. Hurray for me!

But I did stumble upon an interesting post on How to Share Clothes with a Cross-Dressing Husband.

Okay, the ground rules killed me: Killed me! They included keeping his paws out of your underwear drawer, making him replace anything stretched, torn or stained, and drawing the line when it comes to your most precious blouses or skirts (i.e. the ones with price tags still attached). The helpful primer also suggested shopping together to make sure you have the same taste. Oy!

None of this would work in my marriage. My husband is a large man who prefers high-wasted, baggy slacks to hip jeans. If he were a cross-dresser, he’d still be swishing around in those Dean Martin pants.

I do like some of his Oxford shirts and could see slipping into one after a post-sex shower and cocktail in bed, but since we don’t schedule those kind of Hollywood encounters (we don’t eat Chinese out of the box either), it’s all just another fantasy, like wearing my mother’s Yves Saint Laurent caftans.

I do have friends who are married to dainty men with little feet and excellent taste, and I could see trading with one of those fellows, swapping Indian tunics and Moroccan slides for a tux and velvet slippers when those Victor-Victoria mood strikes.

Of course, the well-dressed gay husband is top drawer when it comes to swapping, assuming he would cooperate. His rules might be too stringent for even me. I sort my closet by color but not by texture and season and don’t iron a thing. Crisp is not in my vocabulary.

No, I think I’ll stick with sharing with the girls, my wonderful girls, grabbing a wrap for Lauren when leaving for a party, pulling a dress for Sydney for a Bat Mitzvah. Selecting a hand bag that works. Maybe a trinket or earrings to tie it all together.

Does sharing benefit my daughters more than me? Well, naturally. It goes with the territory when you’re a consummate stylist and mother – who still misses dressing her dolls.

This is the sixth installment in Luanne’s column, Life in the Green Lane.

Main Image: In Style

Image One: Luanne Bradley

The post Sharing Family Garb Is Good Savings (if You Can Stand the Loan) appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s hard to ignore those cautionary labels (even the misspelled ones). Do we dare wash a delicate garment at home and risk ruining the texture or shrinking it beyond recognition?

Warnings are warnings, but there are exceptions to every wash ‘n wear rule.

With the help of our blog readers, writers and the experts, we have put together a list of myths we are happy to debunk to save you some precious bucks.

1. Washing sweaters will ruin the texture!

“Hogwash,” says EcoSalon’s Caitlin Fitzsimmons, whose mama passed on the tried and true method. “You need to wash in lukewarm water with a gentle detergent,” she explains. “Then lay it flat on a towel with the arms folded in. Fold in the corners of the towel and then roll it up – this lets you squeeze out water, without destroying the shape of the sweater. Repeat with a second towel. Then lay it out flat to dry.”

Image: Moline

2. Dry clean wool because it will always shrink up in the machine.

This one’s for the dogs according to EB, who has been washing his own wool blazers and slacks with a front-loading washer wool cycle for years. “Wool is fairly hard to shrink and doing so requires changes in temperature and agitation  from rubbing, scrubbing and wringing.” No washer for wool? He says use the same temp water for wash and the rinse, a friendly, wool-wash cleaner and minimal agitation. Squeeze dry, roll in a towel and lay out forming the correct shape on a flat surface. I heart this advice!

Image: Romeo’s Mom

3. Cotton really stiffens up when I clean it at home because of the hard water.

We all know hang drying is the most sound energy-saving way to go, but that can produce tough results, as well. Naomi tells us she cheats a bit by tossing her cotton into the dryer with a sheet for a few minutes before hanging dry and it does the trick. And don’t forget, there are some gentle water softeners on the market that won’t give you that Downy chemical rash!

Image: Luigi FDV

9. Dry Cleaning is convenient.

Unless you are as organized as my friend Jodi (keeping schedules is her side career), it could take several months to pick up your stuff at the cleaners. Parking can be hard unless you walk or take public transportation in the city (Carrie Bradshaw did it by cab). And very few cleaners pick up and deliver anymore. It’s just simpler to do most jobs at home.

Image: Flickr

10. Dry cleaning always extends the life of your clothes.

If your clothing can only be sustained by monthly trips to the cleaners, then you are buying the wrong kind of clothing. Our fashion editor, Amy DuFault, is a guru of stylish alternatives and you can follow her resources in the fashion section. Meantime, no one has proven that Perc or other solvents with enzymes are protecting the life of your garment. The truth is, if you are following the guidelines of frugal wash n’ wear experts, your clothes should last as long as they would when doused with toxins and sealed in plastic – perhaps, even longer.

Image: Coolslaw

Main Image : Wm Jas

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They’re already talking about their costumes, those candy-crazy girls of mine. That’s how I know fall is here, just a wink and a nod after packing them up for summer camp.

Design-wise, it’s one of the easiest seasons for stylists since it involves scavenging for leaves and twigs to tweak our vignettes for free. Ah, there’s that “F” word, again, a favorite at EcoSalon.

Want to spruce up your rooms for autumn without much of a budget? Take one of the following paths most traveled by the frugal M. Stewarts among us:

The Centerpiece: Leaf it Alone

The Toast and Tables blog gathers no moss but plenty of leaves for centerpieces (images below). The simplicity is enticing. You can also make your own wreath with bundles, or layer them along the mantle to be set aglow by beeswax candles.

The DIY Twiggy Cabinet Door from Apartment Therapy

Bring the outdoors in by assembling twigs to embellish the typical cupboard cabinet (image below).

Basket Cases for Giving Thanks to the Autumn Bounty

Most of us have a caterer’s supply of baskets stored in the house. Fill a few with aromatic apples, Indian corn, leaves, pumpkins and other colorful objects for a cornucopia of delights. Don’t forget to toast your pumpkin seeds and put them in a bowl on the coffee table for another tasty treat of fall.

Scatter Bowls of Fall Potpourri with Old Fashioned Living’s Blend of Earthy Balsam Scents

Collect dried leaves and flowers from the ground, blend with fragrant oils and make your own yummy potpourri. Follow the DIY recipe and bring the woods and celebration of the equinox into your nest.

Image: J. Charpentier

Felt Leaf Napkin Rings and Placecards for Your Fall Dinner Party

Design Sponge has the skinny on these orange and brown napkin rings and cards (images below), easy to make with felt, scissors, glue, buttons, thread and your imagination. I love the chic, homemade texture of these festive gems.

Main Image: Design Sponge

The post Harvest the Feel of Fall in Your Home for (Practically) Free appeared first on EcoSalon.