Last weekend I was on my own with Mini and we decided to have a great day for zero dollars. Nothing unusual so far, right? Read on my fellow frugal followers…

October 1st = Decorations

First up, we were delightfully obligated to decorate for Halloween since our calendar was screaming (not really) October 1st! At night the lights twinkle and the haunted mansion makes spooky sounds. See a pic of our ridiculously awesome paper skeleton front door decoration below.

Delicious Cupcakes

Fall is for making comfort food. Our vote (hint of things to come later in this post 😉 elevated cupcakes to the front of the line. We whipped up a batch of chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing. Mini decided we should use dinosaurs and sprinkles in a colorful green, blue, and white medley…not quite screaming fall but still fun AND free! After fighting over who got to lick the bowl cleaning up our mess and putting our carefully crafted cupcakes away for later we headed to a presidential political rally, naturally. Interestingly, tickets were free and it was being held just around the corner from our house. Double. Frugal. Win. And educational too! I won’t divulge which candidate it was since this is SO NOT a political blog. I also won’t divulge whether or not we supported said candidate because this is SO NOT a political blog.

We Went To A Political Rally

We left the house at 3:30pm, we picked up my sister and headed to the rally. The candidate was not supposed to arrive until 7pm so we were plenty early. I questioned my decision to take Mini to this event over and over again because, well, she’s 7. But that’s also the reason I ultimately decided to take her. I wanted to expose her to our political system and how people in her inner circle feel strongly over one candidate while others feel strongly about the other candidate. How am I doing on being politically correct so far? 😛

When we arrived we parked a million miles away (total exaggeration) and made the trek to the end of the line. We stood in line listening to supporters all around us for 2 hours outside in the rain. Yes. It was raining. I likely would’ve passed on the event due to the weather had I not involved my sister the day before. After a long, wet 2 hours holding umbrellas over our heads, we made it inside!

After we were inside we were able to ditch the umbrellas, use the restrooms (yay!) and had some nibbles of food being passed around by the friendly people we met in line. We were all required to go through security which consisted of metal detectors and wands. Even 7-year olds weren’t exempt. Again, I wanted her to experience this, for good or bad. Inside the event hall we waiting patiently for the candidate. Then we waited some more. And then we waited some more. We then started to wait impatiently. Poor Mini started to lose it and just wanted to go home to her warm bed. Just as we were about to throw in our political towel and head out the door, we heard, “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE WELCOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!” We quickly searched out a reasonable spot in the back and I threw Mini on my shoulders – not really – more like I kneeled down and she walked onto my shoulders before I stood up. I held her up high so she could see for as long as possible (AKA about 5 minutes). We stayed another 5 minutes after that and then felt good about walking out the door.

We were back home and snug as a bug in our beds by 10pm. I have officially declared that day a financial, educational, and familial success. After all, it’s not everyday you make memories with your family that will last a lifetime.

In sum, zero dollars were spent, holiday bliss was achieved, baked goodies were manufactured, and one helluva memory was made. Rain included.

What have you done on the cheap lately?

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