What’s your favorite thing to do for under $10

Caroline Monday - Coffee Shops

I think it was my years as an English major that conditioned me to love spending hours on end at coffee shops. To study English, one must spend much of their time reading and doing so at home alone can get pretty lonely. Coffee shops are the perfect alternative to a couch.

Coffee shops are all about an atmosphere that appeals to all the senses. They smell nice, they sell delicious caffeinated beverages and there is the consistent low rumble of the coffee grinder and of people chatting happily with their friends. Plus, no one thinks it’s weird if you just decide to spend the whole afternoon there studying, reading the newspaper or writing in your journal.

My favorite coffee shop in Boone is Espresso News, located on Howard Street, near Footsloggers. Espresso News is like a coffee shop, newsstand and bookstore all rolled into one, which means there is plenty of available reading material, in addition to a generous selection of hot teas.

For me, the perfect Saturday afternoon costs only the price of a cup of jasmine green tea ($1.35).

Melanie Davis - Netflix

My choice for entertainment is not localized, though it is readily available in the High Country. Also, a very efficient use of $10 for entertainment, my choice lasts an entire month.

Netflix, the greatest service offered via the Internet, is so convenient and easy. I spend most of my time online anyway. An extra five minutes a week to choose my next viewing selection is nothing. There are two aspects of Netflix that immediately caught my attention. First, the $7.99 price tag. Second, the movie selection.

There are few new releases that can hold my attention span, which is comparable to a goldfish. During good-new-release droughts, I can rent old favorites like the Goonies or Short Circuit, or documentaries about space, history and insects of the rain forest.

I like to add 10 movies to my queue and then leave it alone for a while. After a long day, opening the mail box becomes like opening a surprise package. Who doesn’t love receiving something in the mail that doesn’t have a due date and a dollar sign?

Speaking of due date, that was my main problem with traditional video rental stores. Forgetting the film on the coffee table, leaving it in the car for two days, racking up late fees. Now if I forget, I am only wasting my $8 per month unlimited rentals.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there is a documentary about honey bees I need to add to my queue.

Jeff Eason - Canning

For the past few months my wife and I have made regular trips to the store for Mason and Bell jars. For less than $10, we can purchase a dozen pint or quart jars and spend the evening having a blast canning vegetables from our garden.

We’ve taken a new approach to this time-honored kitchen tradition by looking up new recipes on the Internet. For instance, last night I canned five pints of cranberry and habanero relish from a recipe that I got from an online source that quoted Dewitt’s Hot & Spicy & Meatless cookbook. It’s sweet, tangy, hot and perfect for those post-Thanksgiving leftover turkey sandwiches.

We also use the computer to make our own canning labels with funny names for our creations such as “Tio Jefe’s Belizian Blaze Hot Sauce.” With more canned goods than we can possibly use in a year, we put the surplus in gift baskets at Christmas and give them to our friends and family.