Sometimes, Good Things in Life ARE Free!

It just amazes me what is available for free on the Internet!  Why some companies offer their services without any charge is really beyond my comprehension. But, I am certainly glad that they do!

Here are just a few examples:

Free Media:

It has always surprised me that you can read a magazine or a newspaper on-line without a paid subscription. This does seem to be changing however.  Our local paper now offers a free trial period, after which you must have a paid subscription to be able to view their news.

Many people now read newspapers on-line instead of the paper version.

Free Calendars:

Before my daughter got a driver's license, some of the moms of her swim club teammates and I decided to form a carpool. We would take turns transporting the kids to school from the pool in the mornings, and back to the pool from school in the afternoons. I was in charge of creating the carpool schedule, based on each mom's availability.  Needing a blank calendar to work from, I found out there are a variety of sites, such as Printable 2015 Calendars, where you can download calendar pages for any year.  Once I completed the calendar for the month, copies could be provided to all of the moms. Using this system kept my personal calendar from becoming cluttered with the switches and changes that were made.  

Now there are actually free apps available to create and share carpool schedules on-line, which would make this scheduling task really easy.  But these blank calendars can still be useful in many ways!  

Being able to print out a calendar page when you need to is a very handy tool!

Free Maps:

The coolest thing I have recently found is World Map Maker. This site lets you plot the places you have visited on a map - and even color code them.  Instead of making lists to keep track of places I have been, I can now edit and update my own map. This is so fun, I just might add it to the "About Me" page on this blog! (The html code is provided, so you can reproduce it other places.)  It is a great, free way to track the places you have been!

Here's my current map:

This map shows in gray how many 

countries I have yet to visit!

Map Legend: 14%, 38 of 263 Territories

 Yellow - Countries where I have lived. 

 Maroon - Countries I have visited 

© worldmapmaker.com | Travel Insurance

Free Blogs:

Before I became a blogger, I didn't really understand that when I searched the Internet for a recipe, craft, or an answer to a question, a lot of the time my answer was being supplied by a blogger.  If you land on a blog site, clicking on the home page often leads to a whole blog of wonderful things. These are usually terrific resources - offered to you, for free! Often times, the only thing the blogger hopes to receive back from you is that you will follow their site, and return to visit often - and hopefully leave a comment when you do!

http://www.ofeverymoment.com

Pretty amazing, don't you think?

I have mentioned only a few of the many free resources available on the Internet. Which are your favorites?

All of the opinions expressed here are entirely my own and I received no compensation (other than the free services provided) for any of the content provided in this post.

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