It’s a new year and we’re spent — tired from all those parties and tired of plunking down cash. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t fun to still be had. It just has to be the cheaper, less expensive kind. Achievable, with luck, and our picks for the weekend’s top five events.

Free Week
It’s better than cheap, it’s downright free. For the next 9 days, you can catch a huge smattering of free shows at the music venues along Red River and the East Side. (But for real, they’re so many shows.)

Festivities kicked off this week, and run through January 12. And while Mohawk, Red 7, Holy Mountain and Beerland are the official partners of Transmission Events' Free Week options, a host of other music bars, dives and favorites will have their own free shows, too. Fuzzy, Metric-y Austin-based group Ume, for example, will be playing a no-cover set at Emo’s Friday night at 8:30 p.m.

Django at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz
There’s no Jamie Foxx or Leo DiCaprio in this one. But this Italian spaghetti western directed by Sergio Corbucci is also crazy violent! Franco Nero stars as the original Django, a drifter who drags around a coffin seeking to enact sweet, sweet revenge on a league of bandits that killed his wife.

Historically, this is the Django that started it all, spawning a litany of spirit “sequels,” Tarantino’s latest, Django Unchained, included. Brush up on your film history and catch one of Alamo Drafthouse’s screenings — we suggest the one Saturday at 1 p.m. at their downtown Ritz location.

Video Games Live Tour
Though the feeling of vindication may or may not rival what Nate Silver must have felt after last year’s presidential election, it still might be worthwhile to nab one of the remaining tickets of the Video Games Live Tour, at the Long Center for Performing Arts Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

If you have ever hummed along to the borderline jamboree that is the Legend of Zelda soundtrack, then experiencing them performed loud and live will be...a different experience. Remember that one Zelda game where it was all about learning songs? Prescient.

Family First Sunday at Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum
Kids these days. Lacking in any sort of appreciation for sculptural art. Be the change you want to see in the world: The Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum offers kid friendly (ages four through 15), hands-on fun and activities the first Sunday of every month with the price of admission (about $3.50) and the Austin Public Library holds a story time.

The collection has more than 200 sculptures and is located just a stone’s throw away from Zilker Park. It’ll be chilly, so enjoy our brief annual bout of cool and bundle up.

Superstorm Sandy benefit concert at Antone’s
Close out the weekend with some local talent looking to offer some national help. To aid the thousands affected by Superstorm Sandy, Austin artists with Jersey roots David Holt, Van Wilks, Colin Brooks and Nathan Fleming will be headlining a benefit concert at Antone’s.

The show, which starts at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, is free, but they are taking donations at the door.