Easy on The Budget Ideas Your Family Can Do at Home
Perhaps you want to watch your budget yet still entertain your family or just yourself. Maybe sequestration from COVID-19 has you ready to scream. You just need something to do. Something interesting. Something exciting. Something satisfying.
Make the Best Out Of Your Time At Home - It Doesn’t Have To Cost Much
Whether you live alone or you have kids, you need something to do to occupy your time and it would be so awesome if it were a productive thing. Something you could get something out of at the end. It needs to have a point. Let’s explore your options. You obviously want to watch your budget. You can. You do not need a bunch of disposable income. Most of my suggestions will cost zero dollars to $10.
You think I am kidding, don’t you?
Nope.
I happily stay busy. I’m happy as a clam.
I spend very little on entertainment, but I am never bored. Never.
Here is how.
Easy On the Budget: The Voracious Reader
First off, I love to read. I have a card at three libraries. I have only purchased two books in the past three years – “No Excuses” by Bob Stoops and “The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha.” I read a ton though. None of it costs me a thing.
Most libraries now have websites that host their collections virtually. That means I type my library card in as a sign in and I can check out any e-book there on my mobile phone or my laptop.
Also, I long ago joined a couple of fiction writing workshops online. The one I mainly use now is Zoetrope, founded by the esteemed filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. All those short stories most folks read once they see publication, I read right after the author finished them. That goes for some film scripts, too, but I admit, I read less of those due to time constraints.
Both of those options cost nothing. Totally free.
Literacy: Reading Really Is Fundamental
What if you do not like to read? Okay. Let’s tackle a tougher subject. What if you do not know how to read?
Obviously, you are not the one reading this, but if you know someone in that situation, they can learn how to read at home in their own privacy without any embarrassment. There are many websites that teach reading phonetically. They also cost nothing. And, the old saying is true. Reading IS fundamental.
Reading and Learning Are Fun
Here are two websites that provide free lessons in reading to anyone who wants to learn. You can use them from any computer or mobile device using any operating system.
GCF Global offers completely free lessons and practice exercises.
We All Can Read offers its first ten lessons for free. That gets you started and if you want to continue using the site’s teaching method, you can purchase the future lessons. It uses a monthly subscription after that of $54. Those advanced lessons and one test I will talk about in a bit are the only things that cost more than $10 discussed herein.
Now, you might think that the school does not sound fun. Imagine for a moment though everything you get out of it. Think about never having to ask someone to read something because you say you forgot your glasses or you have a headache or some other excuse. Picture an entire world of entertainment opened to you. Imagine being able to learn any topic you wanted. That is what reading does. You will earn more money after learning to read or to improve existing reading skills. (I expect you all who can read to deliver this pithy argument to any of your friends who do not read.)
Easy On The Budget: Free College And Continuing Education Classes
Want to learn something cool and you already read well? That does not cost a thing either.
Yup. Now college classes are free, too. You just watch the lectures on the web. You can take classes at Harvard, Yale, Brown, UCLA, OU (my alma mater; Boomer Sooner), and many others.
Three websites gathered all the data you need to find the right class for you. They link directly to the websites of those universities.
Open Culture
It provides links to 1,700 free online courses. Most do not offer course credit. You may audit some of the courses. You will get to learn all the information though and attend the same lectures as if you were on the Harvard, Yale, or OU campus, but without the commute. Everything gets delivered via video. Since you listen to the lectures, you can take these courses while you learn to read or improve your reading skills. Nifty, huh?
Open Culture does not only provide college classes. You can also find free kindergarten through 12th-grade courses, 1000 free audio books, 200 free textbooks, 800 free e-books, plus more than 1,100 free movies and free music as well as free sheet music. We’re talking 85,000 free classical music scores, so if you play an instrument or are learning one, this is your source for sheet music.
Coursera
Here you can find more courses and resources. Not all courses on Coursera are free. They are all clearly marked with the price though. You can take only the free ones or mix it up. You can earn certificates though from recognized major universities in a number of areas though. You study at home and take all classes online. We’re talking about schools like Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Illinois.
EdX
This website co-lists a few of the classes available through Open Culture, but it also catalogs many more. The site lists more than 3000 online courses available from University of California at Berkeley, University of Texas, Boston University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Most cost nothing to take. If you want to pursue a certificate program, that costs $50. Seriously.
Learn And Earn: Get Your GED
But, what if you are not ready for that yet? What if you still need a high school diploma? How about I give you the link to a free GED study course online? Yep. Free. (I told you it was cheap to stay productively busy.) Talk about easy on the budget!
The website Study.com links to every free GED prep course online. You can pick your favorite or take them all to get really prepared for taking the test.
When you are ready, you take the test at GED.com. It is the test I mentioned earlier that also costs $50.
Since COVID-19 means children switched to temporarily homeschooling, using these sites lets you all learn at home and all at once. Since most take an edutainment approach, you get entertained while you learn.
Easy On the Budget: Dining Out Through Delivery
Never fear. Besides all those free movies and music and books, there are other things to do, too.
You might want to order in for a leisurely night at home. It could happen. It could. Really.
But, that would cost more than $10 you say.
Nope. It won’t.
Easy on The Budget: Dinner’s On Your Favorite Store
You do two things. You join MyPoints. You join Bing Rewards.
Use them both on a daily basis. MP sends out emails that let you earn free points. You can also earn points on purchases you already make. It essentially provides a loyalty program that spans hundreds of companies instead of just one like a hotel loyalty program would. This means when you shop online at Walmart, Target, Amazon, Ulta, etc. you earn a portion of your purchase back. It goes into the MP account. You can trade your points in for gift certificates, either at restaurants or retail stores. You can also trade them in for a deposit to your PayPal account or a Visa gift card.
This stuff adds up quickly. I mean, so quickly that between it, Bing and my Starbucks Gold status, in the past two years, I literally deposited my own money from my bank to my Starbucks card twice. Otherwise, MP and Starbucks paid for all of my coffee. I typically went to Starbucks daily until I moved to my current home.
Bing Rewards pays you simply for using Bing search. You rack up the points if you happen to subscribe to any Microsoft service. I mean, if you pay the few dollars each month to use Microsoft Word or Excel, Bing actually pays you back a couple of bucks of it in points. Just like MP, you get to trade the points in for gift certificates.
Now, my coffee-addicted self used all of my points from all three places on Starbucks, but you could pick any place for which both MP and Bing have a gift certificate. Since November, I have not cashed anything in, so the points simply accrue. You can build them up like a little bank account. When my older sister and I were both in college, we saved our MPs until the Christmas season. We each cashed out for restaurant gift certificates and store certificates. That let us go out for free and buy some presents without having a lot of extra cash.
You can cash them out as often as you like. MP and Bing start the cash out at about 650 or 6,500 points which roughly equals $5. Essentially, you pay, in points about $1.50 every $5 for the processing fees the loyalty program pays to the retailer for the gift certificate.
This means, you can earn gift certificates to your favorite restaurants, so when you order your dinner for delivery, it is free. You earned the points on stuff you had to buy. You can earn points on your grocery purchases at Walmart or Target or other stores. It is truly stuff you already buy every week which is exactly why it adds up so quickly. Who the heck does not buy groceries?
The Bing thing. Let’s face it. Every person with either a cell phone or a computer makes an Internet search now and then. Most of us make a few every day. Using Bing lets you earn 5 points per search. Basically, Microsoft gives you a nickel every search you make. Mull that over for a moment.
Easy on The Budget: Making Saving Up Points a Family Giving Experience
No need to be greedy either. You can make your points earning help others, too. Let’s say you want to teach your kids how to pay it forward. Both MP and Bing also provide a number of charities that have partnered with them. You can make donations to your favorite charity through either site. We are talking non-profits that help everybody across the world like the Red Cross.
Since the points accounts work like a savings account, you spend them in multiple ways. Let’s say you want to teach your kids that others do not have what they do. You can make a rule that when someone cashes out for a gift certificate, they must also cash out an equal amount for a charitable donation.
You could point out to the whole family that the points are a “bonus” to life and since the companies are giving back, the family should, too. You could make it a game to see how much the family can save during one year, then donate it all at Christmas or on New Year’s Eve. You could also help a charity each week or month since the donations typically start at 100/1,000 points or $1. There is no fee to make a donation since there is not a gift certificate issued.
Easy On the Budget: Movie Nights With Those Delivery Dinners
Entertaining the family at home does not have to cost a lot. In fact, it really can cost nothing. Besides the free movies on the Open Course site, you can also subscribe to a digital entertainment site. These cost very little. I mean nothing to less than $10 per month.
VuDu is free to join. Many of its television shows and movies are free. You do need a credit card or prepaid card if you want to purchase episodes of TV shows or pay-per-view movies. These vary in cost from about $1 to $5 making it easier to spend wisely.
Hulu costs $6.99 per month for the essential service. You get access to everything except live TV. That means more than 5,000 TV shows and movies to watch.
YouTube is free. You can watch all you want of the many free listings. You will need a credit card or prepaid card or to register your Google wallet, if you want to watch a TV show or movie that costs money.
The entertainment options that cost just above that consist of Amazon Prime Video ($14.99 per month). Both ESPN and Fox let you watch many shows and sports events for free. You can do the same at NBC Sports. Download the app and enjoy your viewing. Most of the broadcast TV stations offer many of their TV shows for free. You download their app, register and voila! You get to watch all the latest episodes, typically the day after they air on broadcast TV. That means, even if you do not have a TV, as long as you have a smart phone and data or you can connect to WiFi, you can watch TV.
Movie night, anyone?
Staying at Home Can Be Fun. And Inexpensive.
Welcome to the Smart Budgeting with the Budgetry Store.
In Conclusion - Living That Is Easy on The Budget
See? You thought you would be bored staying at home, but not so long as you use the suggestions in this article. You can have all the nifty entertainment for nothing or nearly nothing.
You can use the time at home to learn to read, earn your GED, earn yourself an educational certificate or college degree, watch television or movies, read books, learn to play an instrument, or get better at the one you already play. All this fun and most of it can help you in the long run. When you learn a new skill, like coding Python or negotiation or grammar, you can apply that to your existing job. It could help you land a new job, too.
You could end up earning more and then, you can live better. Bust out the $14 a month for the Amazon Prime Video. I bet though, you won’t want to do that. My prediction, as it were, is that once you get a taste of productively spending your time in a pursuit that lets you entertain yourself and learn something new, you will never want to stop learning.