Frugal Hobbies Update

On August 31, I wrote a post on frugal hobbies. I have done a couple craft posts as follow up.. Today we turn to letter boxing and or geocaching. My kids and I did the letter boxing until we ran out of spots in our area. This was in Walla Walla WA.I also wanted to do geocaching since there were many more areas to do that nearby but to find the caches you need coordinates, not just directions and really need a GPS which I was not willing to fork out for.


I firsts read about letterboxing in Family Fun magazine. I looked it up on the internet and there is a wonderful site which shows all boxes in your area. Via Wikipedia: Letter boxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art, and puzzle solving. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks)^[1] and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs, on one of several web sites, or by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes usually contain a notebook and a rubber stamp.^[2] Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp, either on their personal notebook or on a postcard, and leave an impression of their personal stamp on the letterbox's "visitors' book" or "logbook" — as proof of having found the box and letting other letterboxers know who has visited. Many letterboxers keep careful track of their "find count".


We did this in WA discovering and stamping about 5 boxes. (I had planned to start a box which is how they get going, but was so busy kind of got sidetracked and we just quit doing it.) I still have my letterbox kit with the stamp and info in it. I did get a letter boxing email weekly way back, but cut that when I had not done it for awhile. Because of this post I am thinking of looking up boxes in this area.

When I looked up letter boxing I saw several sites as well as the Wikipedia article. I do have several types of threads going through thib blog but I believe I will add more on letter boxing as well as give sites and also a post on geocaching in the future. For now I am linking the Wikipedia article if you wish to read more. There is history letter boxing beginnings. and the different types of boxes. I did not know the diversity of this hobby. there is further reading recommendations and for super extreme enthusiests gatherings that take place.

This hobby is very frugal. Transportation was my only limit. If you live in town or city and can walk ,there will be more opportunity. You do need  a stamp and ink to leave your "mark" in the box and on the letter. Sometimes there are notes in the box from others and you may want to have a pen handy to add a note other than just doing the stamp. I left gospel tracts in the boxes in WA. The site I got email from had 1 complaint about that, but really what could they do about it?
So read up on it on link and get moving on it. I will try to add links on here in the next few days to help you. it is a great fun frugal Hobby.