Six Ways to Cut Back on Your Entertainment Expenses

Last night I had the privilege of taking a wonderful young lady out, and dating is not cheap these days. I took her to Applebees and then to the Century Theater to watch Evan Almighty. We didn't even get snacks at the movie theater, and I still ended up paying well over $40.00 for the evening! Entertainment can be very expensive if we're not careful. Here are some great ways to spend less money on your monthly entertainment expenses.

Travel Less - Gasoline is certainly not as cheap as it used to be, and plane tickets are just as expensive. Traveling can add up to be a lot of money over time. Instead of going places to visit people, invite them to come visit you!

Re-evaluate Club Memberships - Are you a member to a health club, a country club, or a something-of-the-month club? Most people don't make use of club memberships enough to justify the cost of being a member. If you go to a gym less than once a week, likely the membership isn't worth it.

Cut the Cable - A lot of us are paying upwards of $100 a month for a ridiculous cable package that has seemingly ever feature under the sun. Premium movie channels, high-speed internet access, high-definition channels, a DVR, On Demand, and the like. Most of us rarely make use of these features and you'd be better off just to get rid of most of them. Get a decent basic cable package and you'll save a lot of money.

Periodicals - There was a while when I received a Newspaper every single day, and I read it maybe two or three days a week. If you get a magazine subscription or have a newspaper subscription that you rarely ever read, cancel it! It's just un-necessary clutter in your life to get rid of.

Think Cheap - Chances are your city has lots of great inexpensive entertainment options if you make use of them. For example our parks department shows an outdoor movie every Saturday night. There are probably all sorts of parks, community events, libraries and the like that you could enjoy for next to nothing.

Paid Services - A lot of people have a tendency to subscribe to a bunch of small monthly services which really add up over time, such as paying $19.95 a month for Netflix, maybe $5.00 a month to download their favorite radio show, a subscription to Napster, or something of that sort. Right now I'm only paying $5.00 a month in regular subscriptions, which is for a remote-backup service for my data. Seriously consider if you're actually getting your money's worth and if there's a better way to get the same service on an ala-carte basis.

Keeping yourself entertained can be a costly proposition if you go out and do what everyone else does all the time. Movies, dining out, bars and the like get very expensive very quickly. Be a smart entertainment consumer and save a lot of money.