Works For Me - Free Show Tickets

As I had explained in one of the past memes, one of my favorite hobbies is to win free tickets to shows and movies from the local tv or radio stations - if it's a show I've been wishing to see. In the last few years every little bit of any extra money we save goes towards scraping together and using it for treatment or now adoptions costs. So we don't spend on anything frivolous (other than trying to grow a family - if some of you may consider that frivolous), and with that commitment we have won quite a few tickets to some neat shows and stuff. And hubby and I can have some neat date times which we would otherwise never get a chance to enjoy.

We've won tickets to see:
- Cirque de Soleil for two ($100 each ticket!)
- 2 nights of hockey
- Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk unlimited rides (enjoyed this last weekend)
- baseball games
- movies like Man of the Year, Sahara, Fun With Dick and Jane, Cheaper By the Dozen
- Universal Studios
- George Lopez Stand Up Comedy Tour
- the Zoo

The main way to get these tickets is to keep an ear out for upcoming shows you may be interested in. Some radio and tv stations begin giving away tickets a month in advance.

If you miss out on those, you may find other stations that offer them a day or so before the event date.

Then write down the list of all the phone numbers of all the stations that give away tickets so you can be one of the first to call when they start giving the heads up to get ready. If you know a contest is coming up in a few minutes, you can dial the number and hang up quickly so that when it's time you can just use the redial button.

And if you get a busy signal, then try try again because sometimes they are looking for caller number "7" for example and it takes a few calls to be that number.

And sometimes it works if you can use the home phone, and then slap the cell phone to hubby's ear so you can juggle to phones calling at once.

It may be too much effort for some, but it sure does work for those of us who really need to budget well yet also really need to go out and have some fun at events we would otherwise not afford.

If you like, you can check out Rocks In My Dryer for more ideas.