Entertainment

Sport

Running

Running is the best cardiovascular exercise there is, and putting on a pair of trainers and going for a run is certainly a lot cheaper than joining a gym. It can be a bit difficult to motivate yourself when you first start though. So, have a look at Parkrun. Parkrun organises free Saturday morning runs all over the country where up to 400 runners, from olympic athletes to out-of-puff and overweight beginners, compete with themselves every week to better their best times. The course is 5 km and finishing times range from 15 minutes to 40 minutes (which is a brisk walking pace) so there's no need to feel embarassed, even if you've never run before in your life. It's an amazing event run entirely by volunteers. (In fact the runners are the volunteers - each runner is asked to help out with the run organisation three times a year, although there is no compulsion to do so.)

http://www.parkrun.com/

If there isn't a parkrun near you, you could always joing a local running club. Here's a list of running clubs in the UK:

http://www.bedfordharriers.co.uk/Home%20Page/links_to_local_running_clubs.htm

If you're in the relevant 50% of the population, you could also have a look at Women's Running Network, which was founded in 1998 to inspire women of all ages to run for fun and fitness:

http://www.womensrunningnetwork.co.uk/

As far as trainers go, New Balance last for ages and are (amazingly) manufactured in the UK.

Football

Instead of forking out fifty or sixty pounds to go and see a bunch of spoilt millionaire kids from wherever over-act, why not go and see your local team. It can be just as entertaining and a fraction of the price.

Here's the Isthmian league's website:

http://www.fansfocus.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/postlist/Board/2/page/1

Cinema

Saturday morning cinema

Cineworld run Saturday morning films for kids at £1 per ticket:

http://www.cineworld.co.uk/

You're not supposed to take your own sweeties with you (now there's the catch!) but we've not seen them doing body searches on the door yet...

They also have a special offer for adults at £4 per ticket on a Tuesday.

Odeon Cinemas run Saturday morning screenings for kids at reduced prices for the children (£2.50 each) and parents go free (one adult per child):

http://www.odeon.co.uk/fanatic/kids/

Orange Wednesdays

If you buy an Orange phone (make sure it's a pay as you go) then you can take advantage of a two for one cinema tickets offer every Wednesday at cinemas all over the country:

http://www.orange.co.uk/film/orange_wednesdays.htm

In fact I've just noticed on another site that you don't even need to buy a phone to take advantage of the offer - all you need to do is register for a free SIM card:

http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/simevent/june1freesim

Home Entertainment

We've put more information about television on our phone and TV page. You can receive over 100 channels free of charge with Freesat and 48 with Freeview.

For DVDs your best bet is your local library. Go and have a look - you'll probably be amazed at what a wide selection of current films they have, which they rent out for £2-4. Far cheaper than buying them, and whilst it might not be cheaper on a per film basis than an online subscription service, the problem with subscription services is that you end up paying whether you watch any films or not.

If you're into classical music, libraries typically lend out opera DVDs for free. Bigger libraries have a wide selection of pop, jazz and classical CDs which you can borrow.

Make Stuff

My wife has had the same sewing machine for twenty-seven years, and uses it all the time for sewing clothes, quilts and cushion covers.

Instead of couch-potatoeing you could actually save yourself some money by making stuff, and meet people at the same time:

http://www.themakelounge.com/

Craftster is an American site with all sorts of tips for making just about anything imaginable:

http://www.craftster.org

Threadbanger styles itself as the first network for people who make their own fashion:

http://www.threadbanger.com/

Ravelry is a social network for knitters and crocheters:

http://www.ravelry.com

For a truly beautiful design blog, have a look at:

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/

It has hundreds of DIY craft tutorials.

Other really handy craft sites with patterns, examples and information include -

Burda Style, open source sewing:

http://www.burdastyle.com/

Craft:

http://www.craftzine.com/

Design Sponge:

http://www.designspongeonline.com/

and Indiepublic:

http://www.indiepublic.com/

Cooking

As well as being great fun, cooking your own food can save a fortune. Having friends round for dinner can be far cheaper than eating out, whilst ready meals are a rip off as well as being unhealthy.

There are literally thousands of great cookery websites where you can find recipes for just about anything. One of the very best is the BBC Food recipe website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/

The Telegraph also has a very good recipes section on its website:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/

Cooking by Numbers suggests recipes based on what ingredients you've got in the house:

http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/

The Frugal Cook has a lot of good advice on cooking economically:

http://thefrugalcook.blogspot.com/

Reactive Cooking has hundreds of great recipes, based on the idea of using up what you've got in the fridge:

http://www.reactivecooking.com/

101 Cookbooks is a recipe site by someone who has more than a hundred cookbooks, and it shows:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/

Gardening

We've got a tiny back garden, so all we can really grow in it is some herbs (a bay tree, rosemary, sage, thyme and in the summer basil, parsley and oregano). We've got a friend with a similarly tiny back garden who has planted fruit bushes around the sides (blackberries, red currants, gooseberries.)

We have also got an allotment, but it took us over three years to get it. For the first year or two the council seemed to keep losing our application. Eventually we started sharing a patch with a friend who already had one, and other allotment holders told us that the waiting list didn't really work in a linear fashion, and that it would be a lot quicker if we pestered the lady in charge regularly to show that we were genuinely keen - which worked.

Our only tip after the first year would be don't plant too many courgettes - they're like triffids - they take over and end up as ginormous marrows if you're not careful.

I'm a bit sceptical as to whether you really save all that much money by growing your own vegetables, given that you can buy them so cheaply in the greengrocers or supermarket, although it is true that on the allotment you do also tend to get given a lot of stuff by other people who have grown more than they need.

Where you do make a big saving though is that time on the allotment (and you do need a lot of it just to keep the weeds under control) keeps you well away from any shops, thus keeping your Saturday expenditure to zero...

The allotment is good fun (apart possibly from the endless weeding). There is a great sense of community. On ours there are lots of other families with kids who can all run around together without the chance of getting run over. We've even got a swing at one end of the allotment that wouldn't have fitted in our back garden.

The Royal Horticultural Society has a good website with lots of advice on growing your own fruit and vegetables:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/growyourown/

A Walk in the Park

A walk in the park is usually free.

Britain's national parks are listed here:

http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk/

If you live in or near London, some of the nicest parks in which to walk are the Royal ones:

http://www.royalparks.org.uk/

The National Trails website has lots of information about beautiful walks all over the country:

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/

If you fancy walking in a group you could always join the Ramblers:

http://www.ramblers.org.uk/

They also have lots of very good general information about walks on their website.

The Guardian has a series of walks all across the country linked to different themes:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/series/go-walk

Architectural follies make excellent starting and finishing points for walks. "Follies and Monuments" has pictures and information on Follies all over the UK:

http://www.follytowers.com/

Young, Free and Single

If you're young, free and single, or even not all three of those, one of the most popular internet dating sites happens to be entirely free of charge. Have a look at:

http://www.plentyoffish.com/

Free Events in London

A bit London-centric this one, but Time Out online lets you search for all free events over the next week in London:

http://www.timeout.com/london/search.php?date=Next+7+days&free_event=1&search=2

This site also lists free events in London:

http://www.londonisfree.com/

Children's Parties

Hiring a venue and entertainer for children's parties can cost an absolute fortune. With a bit of baking and other preparation, having a birthday party at home, or in a park in the summer, can be even more fun than getting someone else to organise it.

Party Game Central has hundreds of free game ideas:

http://www.partygamecentral.com/

as does:

http://partygameideas.com/

You can find all the baking recipes you would ever need on this website:

http://thefoody.com/baking/index.html

If you need some help with planning the party, then iVillage has an excellent guide:

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/parenting/occasions/birthdays/articles/0,,637040_638152,00.html

Bollocks to Alton Towers

A great little book caught my eye in the library the other day, aptly entitled "Bollocks to Alton Towers". It features quirky museums and attractions all across the UK.

There is a follow up called "More Bollocks to Alton Towers" which was published this year, but which I haven't read yet.

Here are a few of the attractions which feature in the first book (they're not all free of charge):

Secret Museums

This Time Out article lists seventy of London's lesser-known museums. Quite a few of them are free:

http://www.timeout.com/london/museums-attractions/features/1496/1.html

National Museums

We are extremely fortunate that there is no entrance fee for most national museums in the UK. A trip to a museum provides probably the best free (or nearly free) day out you can get.The Science Museum is our kids' favourite with it's "Launchpad" area where they can play and experiment for hours.

Here's a list of all the National Museums in the UK from Wikipedia: