Many chem. teachers face the challenge of bringing motivating lessons and demonstrations to their students on a limited budget.ChemEDX and the Journal of Chem. Education provide a wealth of activities that use only simple, inexpensive, and easy-to-obtain materials.The use of such familiar materials in a hands-on manner provides students with accessible connections to important scientific concepts such as measurement, significant figures, mol. polarity, solubility, Beer's Law, and redox reactions.Popular activities such as "Build a Boat (and a Classroom Culture)" will be covered.In addition, a few activities related to the chem. of outer space will be discussed.