There’s snow on the ground, maybe ice on the streets, and it’s a weekend. You don’t feel like going outside, it’s too cold for that! So, while you’re sitting there bundled up on the couch in a blanket catching up on your episodes. How about make your day a little more productive by knocking out that to do list. No, I don’t mean the fixer upper list, I mean your tech list. So here are a few items to make your snow day a little more productive with my list of productive things to do on a snow day for adults.
1.Find a better laptop.
Your laptop looks like it’s from 1981 and you have to reboot it every 5 minutes so it doesn’t overheat. Every weekend you tell yourself you’re going to get a new laptop, but you never do. Now you have the time to pick out a new laptop, look online and see which brand is best for you whether it’s HP, Apple, Acer, Gateway, Sony, etc. There’s too many to list them all.
Also, don’t just buy it because it looks cool or appears to have all these bells and whistles. Always remember the more bells and whistles, the higher the cost. An important thing to do when buying a new laptop (or any tech item) is to make a list of criteria that you want and based on that list look for laptops. The other important thing is to do your research.
When you find a laptop you really like look for reviews online and see if it stands up to the hype or it was really just a piece of crap and a wast of time. Don’t just look at the first few reviews that pop up, look at the one start and five star ratings and find out why people did or didn’t like it and look for detailed reviews not just ‘I love it and there’s nothing wrong with it’.
Finally find a store that has the laptop and see if they have displays where you can test them out like Best Buy and Micro Center so you can make the best decision and be happy with it.
2. Make a grocery list.
The kitchen cabinets are starting to look a little bare and you keep having to cook the same things everyday. Start a grocery list, start with the basics that you always get like milk, ketchup, jelly, and so on and so forth. Next, think of the meals you make or haven’t made in while and add those additional ingredients on to your list. Also, if you’re getting tired of the same meals find new ones online maybe you bought a bottle of sesame oil for a dish and it’s been sitting in your cabinet for 2 months: find a recipe that uses that ingredient. Now you have used that ingredient and added another meal to your repertoire.
Your list is complete now it’s time to look online for your weekly ads. Don’t just look at the store you always go to out of convenience look at local stores around you and see if they have lower prices. Yeah, you may have to go to more than one store, but overall you’re saving money. Also, look for coupons online and in the paper to save a few extra pennies.
A site I really like is coupons.com, the sign up is simple, the coupons are free, and it goes directly to my printer. However, with this site you have to have a physical printer to print to, you can’t just save it as PDF and print it later. If you’re really set on going to one store make sure you have their rewards card if it applies or download the app. Walmart and Target are good examples of this.
Walmart has what they call the Savings Catcher(you can do this online or download the app from Google Play or the App Store), all you do is scan your receipt within 7 days of the purchase and it searches surroundings stores to see if they have better deals. If it so happens that the store across the street had a better deal on them apples Walmart puts the difference onto a digital gift card.
Within the Target app you can browse the weekly ads or you can download their other app: Cartwheel which gives you special coupons and you can add more coupons for your trip by unlocking badges in the app. And as always, don’t go grocery shopping when you’re hungry, it’s inevitable for you to spend more money than you meant by going hungry and without a list.
3. Look at your finances & budget.
Of course, when you’re talking about buying any items you have to talk about money and if you can really afford it. So while you’re stuck inside, organize your finances and create a budget for yourself. A tool I use a lot is Quicken, even though I have a Mac I don’t like the platform for it so I use the Windows application and use VirtualBox to run it within my Mac.
This is a great app to use if you have a Mac, but really need to run a Windows software and don’t want to buy another machine. Within Quicken you can sync your bank accounts, add transactions from your purchases, make a budget, and make reminders for yourself for bills or incomes. This app really lets you see where your money goes and allows you to cutback if need be so you have a little extra money at the end of the month for more fun, personal items.
Just a few things to do while you’re snowed in, if you have other ideas of some other productive things to do on a snow day for adults please leave a comment and help somebody else out.
