As a retired educator, I want to remain a life long learner. 

There's a new studio about 25 minutes away that has classes and I've attended a couple of them. But they are expensive and basically a treat. But since I've married DH and we live in a small town, I'm on the lookout for more economical things.

I know many of us have talked about what a money saver the local library is. We live outside the city limits so I have to pay $60 a year to use the library, but it is a bargain nonetheless. Our library prints out a little receipt when something is checked out and says how much it would cost if you bought the books you checked out. So far, it says I've saved $820.88 since I started using this library. Besides the books I've checked out, they have different programs, all free. Once a month is "True Crime Night" and it's pretty interesting. We've had two authors come and talk plus another expert besides the library director leading discussions. They have craft nights where everything is available for your use. I've made a couple cute items including a macrame keychain and a carrot using foam, rope, greenery, and paint. Then they started a crochet night and they have patterns and yarn for different things. The first two or three times, I helped the instructor since I knew how to crochet. 

In February I attended a class about Tussie Mussies which was offered through our local extention department. I learned about flowers and what many of them mean and we made a small one...again, all free. 

Another small library near us had a doormat painting class last month and I had a granddaughter join and we did doormats for $20 each. Not a bad deal and a little bonding time. 

We have a senior center in this little town and although I've seen some of the things they have, the one that caught my eye was a tea blending class. I attended that today. It was $5 and a herbalist led it and talked about the fundamentals of different herbs. We each got to blend a tea and take it home. I had a chance also ask some questions about some of the herbs I am interested in plus I have enough of loose leaf tea to make 3-4 cups. 

In addition to these, I'm also looking things up online, trying to gather information on other things and be informed. 

A friend of mine is going to retire in a few months. I get that she's tired of working, but I suggested she start looking for these free items to attend and she informed me she didn't need to attend anything. She was content with what she knew. Yowza...I was put in my place. I predict, and I hope I'm wrong, but she's going to retire and realize she has no money to do anything fun since she has not planned for retirement, just that she wants to retire because she's tired of working. What good is being retired if you cannot have some fun, even if it is done on a shoestring?

Today has been a fun day. With the rain forecast, doing much outside was sort of a risk. DH and I had tried to get as much done earlier in the week outside so we could do stuff inside. 

As mentioned before, I have been making greeting cards. I wrote down all the people from now until the end of the year and as I have time, I make a couple here or there. It's not really a cost savings, but I enjoy making them. Dollar Tree has had some cool little embellishments so I add those in addition to some buttons I had. Not sure how many of you have button jars or tins. I have saved buttons for years. When I have a shirt or another piece of clothing that just can't be used or donated, I cut off the buttons and save them. If one has priced buttons lately, they are outrageous!

The hubster has been working with his laser. This week was a laserfest which was free, which meant watching lots of ads, but one has to pay for one's thrills, right? But he got some good ideas and learned a few things. We watched a few together and we both learned some things, so that's a plus. If you watched to the end, the presenter then would give the viewer the free pattern so that was a nice addition. 

Today I worked on pouring some candles. They aren't the fanciest, but I'm trying to use up wax from older candles and clean up my area. The next couple of days will be major cleaning since we are hosting Easter for the family. So, I wanted to get some stuff cleared away and then clean up. DH had me stain some wood stuff he lasered. It will be dry by tomorrow so we can clean up the craft area. Again, this isn't the cheapest hobby, but a friend gave me some used candles. She volunteers at a thrift store and they were going to throw them away. I had to melt them down and add some color to try and get a workable color, but I figure I'm helping by not throwing stuff away. I reused one of the candle containers after washing it. I have antoher one I will have to really scrub. It was a huge jar. It only had aobut 1/3 of the wax, but I could tell it didn't burn evenly, so I think the jar might have been too big and the opening too narrow. I was thinking about scrubbing it up and maybe using it as a vase for flowers since it doesn't have a top. Who knows, hubby might laser it and decorate it. 

Last night I attended a door mat painting event at a local library. It wasn't super expensive -- $20 and that included all the stuff. I worked on a spring/summer type mat which I figure will come in handy at the door. Plus, now I know all the tips on making my own. 

Recently I ran across this group called Mather. They are out of Illinois and offer free things. One thing was an art kit. You had to be over 50 and live in Illinois, but they send you the materials and directions and you can learn how to make some new things. It's grant funded so it is legitimate and they don't advertise, so I figured, this might be a good way to learn some new things to do. The beauty is if I don't like the craft, than I'm only out my time. I told a friend of mine about it and all she could do was complain that she didn't think she would like some of the stuff. I'm thinking, free is free and learning new things is good for the brain, even if you don't plan on doing it again. Oh, well, as my mom used to say, some people would complain about everything.