3 Ways To Decrease Your Entertainment Expenses
As you know if you’ve read the “About MoneySaver.us” section of this blog – I haven’t always been a money saver. In fact – I was a big money-spender for quite some time. You learn a lot from your mistakes and Entertainment is where a majority of my money went during and shortly-after college. Now I’m not one of those people that is going to tell you that you have to completely change your life and sit and home eating Ramen watching television on a television with rabbit ears – you still need to have fun!
What I can teach you is a few great ways to reduce your spending on entertainment. Follow these three tips and you might find yourself saving hundreds or thousands of dollars a month. For me I was quickly able to save over $1,000/month by applying these three techniques. Did I still have fun? Yes! I just learned to plan my entertainment budget better.
1) Reduce Spending on Restaurants Notice I don’t say “Stop eating at restaurants” like so many financial advisers. You can still eat-out but set a budget for how much you can reasonable spend on eating-out each month. Once you have a number you have to realize a simple fact – the lower the price of the restaurant – the more you can eat out each month! If you want to eat at five star restaurants you might have to cut back, but you can eat out just as much but pick some restaurants that aren’t quite as expensive.
Don’t eat fast food – instead eat great food, but do your research. Go online and read restaurant reviews – find great restaurants that don’t cost and arm and a leg to eat at. Also look for restaurants that have deals during certain hours. I’ll give you an example – there is a restaurant in Los Angeles near my place called “Palomino” that is a nice upscale restaurant with a great wood oven. Between 4PM – 6PM daily they have incredible pricing on food and drinks. We go to this restaurant during happy hour and can easily get a full dinner and drinks for under $20 each. If we went after happy hour the pricing would be more than double. That’s just one example – try to find the same opportunities in your city!
2) Buy Less Alcohol At Bars, Clubs, and Restaurants Buying alcohol in restaurants, bars, and clubs is often very expensive. In most Los Angeles bars beers are about $7/each – the same price you can buy an entire six-pack for at the grocery store. This is a simple tip that will go a long way – buy less alcohol when you go out. You can have a great time going-out without buying a ton of drinks – set a maximum for yourself and don’t exceed it. The great thing is not only will you save money but you’ll feel MUCH better in the morning.
3) Watch Movies At Home I love movies! I’ve loved movies since I can remember. Seeing a movie at the theater is a great experience but can be expensive. I’m not saying you should never step foot in a movie theater again but I will say that you should limit yourself to one or two movies a month in the theater – don’t go once or twice a week – it adds-up. Instead buy some popcorn (at Trader Joe’s – healthy and cheap) and a box of red vines (or your favorite candy) and make your living room your theater.
One trick to making the home movie experience better is to have the same amenities you would have in a theater or even better. Always have popcorn, candy, and soda (or beer/wine if you prefer). Make your couch more comfortable by getting pillow from your bed and putting them behind your back. This will be more comfortable than a movie theater and a lot cheaper!
That’s it! Follow these three steps and you’ll see you entertainment expenses drop like a rock without having to sacrifice the fun in your life. It’s not as hard as you think but old habits die hard so you’ll really have to commit yourself to these techniques if you want to scale back your entertainment expenses!
Have a tip of your own? Comment and share your own tips for decreasing entertainment expenses!
