Tips on Saving Money on Entertainment

April 2nd, 2011 Sarah Rae Leave a comment Go to comments

We save quite a bit of money every month by using Netflix in place of other more expensive entertainment options.

Before we began our Debt Free Adventure back in January of 2009 we used to go out to eat 3-5 times each week and would go to the movie theater about 3 times per month. If you do the math the numbers add up quickly. Just the theater visits alone were costing us roughly $78/month!

What did we do? We quit eating out and going to the theater.

Whenever you remove one thing you need to replace it with an alternative. To replace eating out all the time we began cooking more. I love cooking so its a natural fit and we eat much healthier now. Would you believe I havent eaten fast food in about 2 1/2 years? Its true!

When we were frequenting movie theaters Netflix wasnt worth it because we didnt watch many movies at home. Now that we only visit the theater on special occasions Netflix delivers incredible value. We are on the $14.99 plan which allows us 2 DVDs out at a time, along with unlimited streaming using our Xbox 360. Because we stream most of our movies we may go down to the 1 DVD $9.99 plan. There is also an unlimited streaming (no DVD) option for $7.99 available.

Want to save money? Do what we did stop going to the theater so much and sign up for a one month free-trial with Netflix and save! You can cancel at any time so you have nothing to lose.

Gamefly offers pretty much the same scenario for people who play a lot of video games.

Rather than buying games that you play for a few weeks, proceed to solve, and never play again use Gamefly to rent them. You can keep the games until you solve them, then return them after you lose interest. Even if you only rent 2 games per month youre still only spending $22.95 rather than buying them for $80-$120.

If you rent the games from your local video rental store you can only keep them for a few days, maybe a week tops. And as were all painfully aware late fees add up fast!

Want to save money? Sign up for a 10 day Gamefly free-trial. Their other pricing options are:

1 game out at at time for $15.95 ($7.95 for the first month)
2 games out at a time for $22.95 ($11.95 for the first month)

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