great ideas!

i'm on a disability pesnion so i do alot of this anyway. i grow stuff every summer. tomatoes, peppers, herbs, eggplant, etc. only my rule is that because i am a little "off" my garden has to be "a little off" so..the tomaotes can be anything but jjust plain red, the eggplant anything but purple, peppers not green, etc....it makes for a colorful but odd garden.

what i do for friends is that when i visit in the summer i take all the mexican things i grow and package them and bring along a bag of chips and its the makings of salsa..cheap easy and a fun way to spend time with your friends.

the library is a great place for free things...cd's, dvd's, books, programs, everything...also county park systems are excellent too..many offer free or low cost programs.

i belong to a group of friendsw who swap recipes and another who usually about once a month one of us will cook something different and make enough for all of us to share and then we rotate..so that we each get a few meals of something good and different.

i take my dogs to a free dog park. from there i have met many people and good friends which has led to many other adventures (usually free or low cost)...such as even hiking in the woods or even taking in dog shows or rescue events.

i'm cheap (yep i said it out loud..next up i can go to cheap anonymous..."hi my name is stumpy...and i am cheap!) and there ain't nothing wrong with it.

there are lots of things out there that are low cost and fun.