Free Craft Events EVERY Saturday, Every Lakeshore Learning Store

Free Kids (ages 3  and up) Crafts at Lakeshore Learning every Saturday, every store

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Free (to borrow) New XO Laptops to Contributors Worldwide

Free  (to borrow) New XO Laptops to Contributors Worldwide

One Laptop per Child is getting ready to launch new XO-1.5 laptop.

Start a Laptop Project to Change Kids’ Lives Worldwide…

“Anyone can contribute: would you mentor a small group of tinkerers, or might you alone write a 21st century textbook to be put on all our laptops? Simply demonstrate your project furthers innovative education in poor countries, architecting something new – we will then provide the hardware you need to lead the way.”(Contributors Program)

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FREE online BBC video:Planet Earth [HD] Season 1, Episode 1 From Pole to Pole

FREE online BBC video:Planet Earth [HD] Season 1, Episode 1 From Pole to Pole

The lives of animals and plants are dominated by the sun and fresh
water which trigger seasonal journeys. The latest technology and aerial
photography enable the Planet Earth team to track some of the greatest
mass migrations.

In the Arctic spring, a mother polar bear and cubs emerge from their
winter den. They have just two weeks to cross the frozen sea before it
melts and they become stranded. Share the most intimate and complete
picture of polar bear life ever filmed. Further south, time-lapse
cameras capture the annual transformation created by the Okavango
floods.

EXPIRES: unknown

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Receive FREE sample packets of SUN CRYSTALS® All Natural Sweetener

Receive FREE sample packets of SUN CRYSTALS^® All Natural Sweetener

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FREE Printable Aveda Stimulus Coupon

FREE Printable Aveda Stimulus Coupon Includes:

* Free lavishly sized sample* of Aveda Hand Relief.

* Free Aroma Sensory Journey

* Free Cup of Comforting Tea

* Free Stree Relieving Hand Ritual

* Free 5-minute Stress-Relieving Neck and Shoulder Massage

* Free Makeup Finishing Touch

EXPIRES: : August 31, 2010.

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The Cheapskate Family Vacation

The Cheapskate Family Vacation

How did we do?

Our family was planning a special vacation for our child’s 7^th birthday.  So, we thought that this would make a great story for our LeapToCheap.com site. To us cheap actually means “smart savings”.  The smart part should imply that you don’t need to pitch a tent to save on a hotel room

This chart shows how much money we saved on our 4-day 3-night San Diego family vacation (2 adults and 1 child).  Check out how much we saved.

** Check with your child’s school as well as your local public library about summer reading programs that may offer discounts to attractions such as Legoland California.

*** San Diego Zoo – Kids (ages 3-11) enjoy FREE admission to the San Diego Zoo ! Through October 31, 2009

Here’s how we plotted our little savings adventure………

When to go?

Considerations

• We don’t like crowds very much. If for no other reason than waiting in long lines eats away at your vacation time with your family.
• We prefer cooler weather.
• Of course we never want to pay more than we need to.

Conclusion:

• Flight, hotel and attraction prices proved to be lower off season. So, since our child had a Thursday and Friday off from school, we opted for late September / early October travel dates.

Airline tickets – Flying high on lower prices

Considerations:

• We started checking out airfare prices about one month ahead of time (and monitored fares daily). We wanted to stay over on a Saturday night which has saved us money in the past. However, this was not the case this time around. So, we switched to a Wednesday evening departure and a Saturday night return. That little day of week switch saved us over 50% off each roundtrip ticket.

Conclusion:

• Airfare savings assumptions don’t always apply.
• Airlines are constantly changing the way that they price tickets. So, start early and try different departure and return days to see if they will can save money.
• Remember, Southwest Airlines ticket prices can ONLY be found on Southwest.com. They’re not included in results on Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. Since Southwest sort of started the whole flying cheap thing, its always a good idea to check them first. Also, be sure to factor in the baggage fees when comparing airline ticket prices.

Hotel costs

Considerations:

• We were looking for a hotel with highly rated visitor reviews.
• A smoke free room was a must.
• Accommodations for two adults and one child were needed (at least two full beds).
• We wanted a microwave and refrigerator in the room.
• We wanted a really good free breakfast for the family.
• We wanted a hotel in a safe area and close to either Legoland or the San Diego Zoo.
• We always insist on a really clean room in good repair.
• It would be nice to find a hotel that matched up with our frequent stay programs.

Conclusion:

• Hotels.com is one of the best sources of hotel reviews. We checked there and found a 4.5 of 5 user rated suite hotel near Legoland for less than $100 a night (taxes included). The hotel had the best breakfast buffet that we had ever seen. The hotel was nothing fancy, but it was in excellent repair, super clean, great customer service and a pool. On top of all that, they offered Legoland and San Diego Zoo tickets at the awesome prices. We ended up booking through Hotels.com so that we could snag their welcome rewards points. If you’re curious, the hotel was the Ramada in Carlsbad, CA.

What lessons did we learned on this trip?

• Planning paid off big.
• The food and drink at both Legoland and the San Diego are anything but cheap.
• Packing your own soda, water and snacks in your backpack saved us quite a bit of money.

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Finding free stuff that’s actually free….

When it comes to free stuff, the saying “there is no such thing as a free lunch” applies most of the time.  You end up working for potentially  free stuff  by giving out your email and street addresses, completing surveys and jumping through several internet based hoops.    We took a look around on the internet and found some deals that are actually free.

• Earn college credits (or even a degree) by taking free online courses.  No, were not kidding.  That being said, you will need to do some leg work of your own for this to work.
  • We think that this web site is probably the best place to start.  Remember stay away from the many bait and switch web sites where free is not actually free.
• Free software
  • If don’t feel like shelling a bunch of cash for Microsoft’s office product, try the free software equivalent called  open office (Word processing (like Microsoft Word), Spreadsheet software (like Excel), a drawing application (like Visio) and even presentation software (like Power Point).
  • Free software replacements for proprietary applications running on Microsoft windows.
  • A well respected and free Anti-Virus software package known as AVG
  • Ad-Aware free SpyWare removal software.
• Free Food
  • Apparently Saturdays are the best time to snag free samples at grocery and warehouse stores (like Costco)
  • Kids eat free deals  (search for restaurants by zip code)
  • Sign up for email specials directly on restaurant web sites (only give out a trashable email address that you will check weekly.  Never give out your actual street address or phone numbers if you want to avoid unwanted spam).  Examples include:  El Torito,  Sizzler,  Olive Garden,  California Pizza Kitchen, PF Changs Outback Steak House , Dennys
• Free teacher and learning resources from the Federal Government
  • Federal resources for education excellence.
• Free eBooks  – Project Gutenberg has 28,000 eBooks to download and print free.
  • Project Gutenbert FREE ebooks
• Free Internet Radio customized to your specific artists.  Essentially, you build the station play list yourself.
  • Pandora Internet Radio
• Print your own Free graph paper (several different styles)
  • Incompetech Free Graph Paper PDF’s
• Create your own work or personal planner forms. Choose from about 100 templates.
  • Download, print and customize your own planner at D*I*Y planner
• Kinda Free stuff - There  are tons of free stuff web sites on the internet.  Most of them will require you to provide your name, email and street address, etc.  If you want to try this, I would strongly suggest that you:
  • Sign up with the post office for a local post office box ($30 for 6 months).
  • Create a new email address that you are willing to trash later
  • Never provide your real birthday, social security number or phone number (or any other private information).
  • So, when you sign up provide them with your P.O. Box Address, your new trashable email address, a fake birthday, etc.
  • Go forth and Google something like “free stuff”
  • One final word of advice, if the site suggests that you try something to win a discount coupon, etc.  Skip it and move on.   The main thing you have to loose is your time.
• More kinda free stuff.
  • 250 Business Cards for Free?
    Well, not exactly.  After going through the online setup for the free business cards,  you’re billed about six bucks for the shipping and handling.  And that is the cheap slow boat to china shipping option.  So, you figure that might make two to three bucks on the deal.  The other not so free aspect of  order the business cards online is the avalanche of  offers you need to skip (or de-select) before you can finalize your order.  That being said, it was worth it for us to sign up for the not so free cards.  If you are interested just google “free business cards”.

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