{"id":221,"date":"2008-04-08T07:45:59","date_gmt":"2008-04-08T13:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/2008\/04\/08\/in-love-with-freebies\/"},"modified":"2008-04-08T07:45:59","modified_gmt":"2008-04-08T13:45:59","slug":"in-love-with-freebies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/2008\/04\/08\/in-love-with-freebies\/","title":{"rendered":"In Love With: Freebies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"free<\/a><\/p>\n

free. TheAlieness GiselaGiardino\u00b2\u00b3<\/a>\/Flickr<\/font><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve seen the news. The economy dips while the price of gas, food, and everything else rises. If you\u2019re trying to watch your budget or boost your savings, your entertainment options can get limited pretty quickly. Fortunately the Birmingham area is home to plenty of spots where you can have fun for free. Here are some to seek out no matter the state of the economy:<\/p>\n

A lot of people don\u2019t realize that our local libraries offer an extensive array of movies and CDs\u2014all for free. You\u2019ll find new releases, classics, and even foreign titles. And while some locations have richer selections than others, the cooperative agreement linking all public libraries in Jefferson County allows you to go to one website<\/a>, see what\u2019s available, and have it delivered to your nearest library. Think of it as Netflix without the monthly fee. All you need is a library card.<\/p>\n

Many destinations around the city also offer free admission, including the Botanical Gardens<\/a>, Ruffner Mountain Nature Center<\/a>, Sloss Furnaces<\/a>, and the Birmingham Museum of Art<\/a>. And while you\u2019re at the museum, see what else is going on for free, from movies to talks to tours of the collection.<\/p>\n

It seems college students are continually broke, so naturally the area\u2019s universities are brimming with free events. You\u2019ll find calendars full of free concerts, movies, readings, sporting events, lectures, and entire festivals open to the general public. You\u2019ll often find information about these events on the schools\u2019 websites, though you may have to dig a little. In addition, some of them may be listed on the\u00a0<\/a>Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham<\/a>‘s activeculture<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

If all the free stuff makes you feel like splurging a little, spend a whopping $3 per person to enjoy Oak Mountain State Park<\/a>. Hike the trails, interact with animals, or laze about on the beach. It\u2019s not the Gulf Coast, but think of all the gas money you\u2019ll save!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

Charles takes a look at some of the best things to do for free around metro Birmingham. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32],"tags":[83,1021,132,1026,311,364,367,1038,510,522],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-love-with","tag-al","tag-alabama","tag-bham","tag-birmingham","tag-destinations","tag-free","tag-free-spots","tag-in-love-with","tag-libraries","tag-locations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4PdO-3z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}