The best things in life are…actually, yes, they are free. At least, creativity is free. It’s only in recent times that recreation and entertainment has been sold to us for a very high price. But do you really want to spend $30 for a movie and popcorn with a friend? Nah, you can do better – especially if you’re trying to save money these days, like most of us. Check out these ideas and step outside of the expensive, prepackaged entertainment box.

Guerrilla Gardening

Try your hand at guerrilla gardening. You know that boring patch of grass on the corner? I’m sure no one would mind if you sneaked in some sunflowers or a bunch of marigolds. Guerrilla gardening is an underground urban movement to take back the little green spaces most people ignore. Beautify your neighborhood, on the sly.

The Outdoors

Hiking, biking or walking in a local natural area or park. Yes, this is obvious, but sometimes we forget how free and easy some of the best pleasures are!

Concerts

Keep your eyes peeled for free concert and theater-in-the-park series starting in late spring and summer.

Urban Foraging

Take up urban foraging. Who doesn’t like free food? Learn about wild, regional edible plants or befriend a neighbor with an overloaded fruit tree going to waste. Augment your diet with fresh, free foods!

Sex

Have a partner? Have sex. Nature’s foremost free fun activity – get creative with it! (Getting busy is certainly one of our favorite healthy recommendations.)

Picnic

Take your honey or some friends on a good, old-fashioned picnic.

Trade Entertainment

Scour your books, CD’s and DVD’s for those items you just no longer need and trade them in for credit at a local used CD or bookstore. Spend the afternoon browsing for new reads and new tunes you’d never find otherwise. If there’s no used media store in your area, try a website like SwapTree or Title Trader.

Stargazing

Spend a night stargazing. Find star maps online or in the library, then scout out the darkest part of town and learn the constellations. Watch as they change through the seasons. Bring a romantic partner for extra motivation.

Podcasts

Explore the vast world of podcasts. I myself am a podcast addict, loving to enrich my mind with interviews and alternative news. You can find storytelling and comedy podcasts too if you prefer something a little lighter, or podcasts featuring music you’d never hear on the radio.

Volunteer

Try volunteering. I know, I know, this is not what people usually think of for fun, but my husband has shown me otherwise. He regularly volunteers for behind-the-scenes help at music festivals and expo’s, which means he meets lots of great people and attends the event for free. I’ve done it with him and I have to admit, it’s more fun than simply buying a ticket and being part of the audience.

Craigslist (and more)

Check out your local Craig’s List free section or Freecycle. This is a fun way to pick up free things you need, and maybe some fun items you can redecorate or make art with. Surprising things have been known to turn up…I’ve seen soap-making kits, antique roll-top desks and even a hot tub! It’s definitely worth a spin.

Clothing Swap

Call your friends and organize a clothing swap party. Tell them to bring all the clothing, shoes and accessories that no longer suit them (or fit them) and spend an evening hanging out and shopping for free.

Garage Sale

Have a yard sale. You know you have lots of stuff you could do well to pass along, and make a little extra cash while you’re at it. If the weather is still too cold where you live, start putting things aside now and you’ll be ready for yard sale season.

The Library

Make use of the public library. This has been one of my favorite free things since I was a kid. I mean, c’mon, books, movies, music – all for free!?! Depending on how extensive your local library system is, you will have an amazing amount of resources at your fingertips. Your taxes already paid for it, might as well take advantage.

Potluck

Host a potluck. Humans are social animals, and we all love to eat. Food is a great icebreaker.

Get Creative

Pull out a sketchbook and draw. If you’ve got colored pencils or watercolors, play around with those, too. Looking at something deeply enough to draw it can be a powerful exercise in perception – and recognizing beauty in surprising places.

Nature Knowledge

Get a regional plant identification guide (from the library, of course) and make a point of learning the names of the trees and plants in your area. It’s even more satisfying if you bring a sketchbook along and create your own personal botanical book.

Send a Note

Make homemade greeting cards for upcoming holidays and birthdays. You can use fabric scraps, magazine cut-outs and odd bits of beautiful paper. People love to receive snail mail.

Get Fit

Develop a workout routine that you can do without equipment (or minimal things you might already have, like a jump rope or dumbbells) and then do it! It’s most fun if you find a sweet spot outside, with the fresh air and shade under a tree. Need workout ideas? Here’s a place to start.

Write

Start keeping a journal. If you don’t like to write, don’t be dismayed. One of my favorite journalers simply does one small watercolor painting per day, and that’s all she needs to record the progress of her life. If you’re a crafty DIYer, you can easily make a journal yourself with simply things you have around the house.

Is that enough to get you started? What do you do for dollar-free fun?

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Last month, Mike introduced us all to the Ditty Bops and their fabulous Grammy-nominated popup album. The Ditties have a deceptively innocent sound that combines gorgeous harmonies with a fierce environmental message. Their live shows are part kids’ variety show and part musical circus, mixing in genres as diverse as acoustic folk, bluegrass, and jazz. They’re both absolutely beautiful and hip, but devoid of any annoying hipster ennui. They have an inherent sweetness that makes them approachable. The shows are highly interactive pieces of art with puppets, story telling, costumes, props, and plenty of politics.

The title song of their new album, Summer Rains, has a lazy Hawaiian twang and notes as light as air, but the message is a heavy one about global warming. Their environmental cred is serious. The pair once toured the United States by bicycle and were instrumental in pushing San Francisco’s plastic bag ban. They married one another last fall. Congratulations Abby and Amanda! We recently we caught up with the Ditty duo and asked them a few questions about their music and their lives together.

Tell us how you went about concepting and designing the album and the process for actually getting it made.

We love popup books and wanted to make a popup CD. We thought since we are already producing this independent of a record label, and since most CD art bores us, and many people download songs from iTunes or illegally, we thought if we made some beautiful packaging art to go along with the music it would give people a good reason to buy it.

First we contacted a handful of paper engineers. There aren’t that many but we found someone in Los Angeles, Renee Jablo. We worked with her and our graphic designer, Rick Whitmore in designing the vision that we had. Finding green printers who can assemble popups is not easy.  But we did find someone to do it in California. It is much more expensive than doing it in China or Korea, which is where most popups are assembled, but it was important to us.

Who are your musical inspirations and why?

Abby: Inspiration changes for me moment to moment – the radical street art of Skateboarders, a book I pulled from the shelf at a new age bookstore, my childhood stuffed animals, the mystique of 1930s movie stars.

Things that were once inspiring can go flat. I think it’s wonderful and essential to really be honest about what excites you.

How long have you been playing music together and how did the partnership start?

We are lovers in life and life is our art project. 10 years ago our partnership began. We play music and create all sorts of spontaneous art in between.

What was your best gig ever?

Abby: The best gig ever was when I walked top-free for 5 miles through the streets of Los Angeles. It was truth to me. It was beautiful. I had enough of seeing men hiking my favorite trails on 95-degree days without shirts. One day I counted 12 shirtless men in one hour. That was it. I took my shirt off and walked. Amanda was with me and it was the best gig so far. It was also painfully revealing, not just in that my naked breasts were exposed to the world, that part was empowering beyond belief, but in the way our society says our women are free but we are chained. It was a transformative experience. I was singing and screaming life.

I’ve heard that you have lived in LA without a car. Can you give readers tips for getting around LA (or any city) without driving?

Amanda: We live in West Hollywood”¦centrally located, if you can say that about LA. We live in an area where there is a lot within walking distance so it is obviously a lot easier to get by without a car than for people who work far from their residence. We now have a car again. Abby was smacked by a car in November and broke her knee. She is walking again but we are not commuting as much by bicycle.

You turned your driveway into an edible garden. What’s growing there right now?

We have marjoram, thyme, rosemary, parsley, three kinds of sage, oregano, Swiss chard, baby lettuces, strawberries, edible flowers for garnishing salads, a tangerine tree that had five little fruits this winter, a lime tree that had one lime, and a lot of succulents.

Because I write about food and I know you think it’s important, I want to know what 3 edibles are always in your refrigerator.

We love yogurt. We always eat it. We were getting this really great raw goat yogurt from a raw foods club in Venice. Raw almond butter we love. We use it in desserts and also on celery as a snack. And we have sprouted toast with avocado. We always have a lot of people coming and going from our place and they love avocado on sprouted toast so we gotta have it for them.

Listen and buy here.

Images: Norman Jean Roy, Sachi Kato, courtesy of The Ditty Bops

If you see the above album gracing the shelves of your local music store – take a closer look.

Once it’s open, the contents will leap out at you. The album is filled with the eco-friendliest pop-up art imaginable: soy inks and recycled paper replacing the usual non-renewable inlays. You wouldn’t expect the big labels to go for something this creative, and the Ditty Bops – Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald – felt the same way. They source all their manufacturers and suppliers themselves. They do their own design and artwork. In fact, it might be quicker to list the things they don’t do for their albums.

This won’t be a surprise to anyone who knows them. Barrett and DeWald were awarded a certificate of honor for helping San Francisco go urban-tumbleweed-free in 2007 (via their nonprofit You And I Save The World) and just to hammer the message home, they performed in costumes made of plastic bags. They toured for four months, between Los Angeles and New York City, using bicycles (yes, 4,700 miles on bikes). They’ve even turned their driveway into a food garden. Impassioned environmentalists? And then some.

For those who don’t yet know them, you’ll be hearing a lot about them on Sunday. Summer Rains is up for a Grammy. The reason is obvious – they’re completely brilliant (there goes my journalistic objectivity), playfully and uniquely employing a huge range of styles to give the kind of soothing, witty sound you’d associate with the best of A Prairie Home Companion. They’re even on the soundtrack for Grey’s Anatomy. They’re unstoppable.

Nice folk making brilliant Folk – and spreading a green message as they go. That’s got to be worth at least one Grammy.

Summer Rains is available to buy here.

Image: The Ditty Bops