Uncommon Cents

I’m not a television guy. In fact, I’ve not had one for years now. I had given up watching (but still had one where I live) when my mom’s set died so I replaced it with the one I stopped watching instead of buying a new set (I am planning on buying one for her relatively soon). My mother still takes in the paper daily but has unreliable delivery; I’ve told her before that she could consider stopping the delivery altogether and reading online, but that is a huge challenge for her as she is not tech literate. Still, it brings forth a significant question: how can we find entertainment at a lower cost in these tight financial times?

Some of the expenses that I (and others) have for entertainment–television, music, movies, magazines, newspapers, books–can be replaced free or at low cost with a computer and fast access to the Internet–or what passes for fast access in the US (and with the proper equipment, on a television and through a home sound system). Others can be replaced with decidedly lower tech but time tested solutions–thrift stores and the public library.

Television: Many of the network Web sites have replays of their shows available, or you can also try Hulu. iTunes has lots of shows for sale at pretty low cost as well. If you can stand to wait, often after a season is done, they are often available on DVD as a complete set.

Music: the iTunes Store or competitors like Amazon allow people to buy just a single song at a time for a buck or less. AOL Radio, Last.fm, and Pandora let you set up “stations” of your favorite artists or genres; The Sixty One helps you discover new music; and lets not forget how independent artists like Geoff Smith or Jonathan Coulton sell music directly to the listener on the Internet. And the library may be a big help here; our public library system has hundreds if not thousands of CDs available for borrowing at no cost.

Movies: Subscription type services like Netflix allow either rental of DVDs or streaming video into your home; the iTunes Store also sells or rents movies online. Let’s not forget our old friend the public library; here DVDs are rented for a buck for a week! Also see the discussion above on the public library for DVDs; remember that a lot of shows come out on DVD after the season!

Magazines and newspapers: The public library has magazines free for browsing in house and often has a swap table where magazines are exchanged without cost; let’s also keep in mind that Web sites often have all or most of the content of the magazines online.

Books: Repeat after me: the public library. Besides loaners, we also have “honorbacks”, which people can just take and return at their leisure. Additionally, our libraries have “Friends of the Library” groups which have book sales on a constant basis. And let’s not overlook thrift stores as well.

There are many ways to cut your entertainment costs; as you can see above, some are right at your computer, others involve some low tech time tested institutions, but all of them can help you spend less, and that’s what frugality ends up being all about!

Tags: Budgeting, do it yourself, Frugality, Social aspects

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