15 ways to stay frugal when it comes to Entertainment

Xavier Knight

20 Feb, 2020

With a new decade beginning, there have been a lot of changes happening around the world. I have become more aware of how life changes a lot and how priorities change too whether it be through external influences such as the economy, your job or other factors such as personal belief.

Frugality is something a lot of us are considering nowadays and my thoughts about this continue to cross my mind.

In my previous article, I took a look at ways of staying frugal when it came to grocery shopping. I'd like to continue looking at the frugality theme so are 15 ways to stay frugal when it comes to entertainment.

Have a weekly entertainment budget and do not go over it.
If you have any spare cash set it one side and use it as part of next week's allocation so you have some additional money to spend.
Ask or hint at vouchers for your birthday or Christmas so you can get things that benefit you such as vouchers to restaurants or coffee shops, or for other things such as tea in a hotel (some places do traditional English tea and that includes sandwiches and scones).
Encourage friends to do low spend things such as picnics in the summer or hiking or visiting each other and having meals at home and playing board games (or video games) with each other in the winter.
Use your local library, there is certainly a lot on offer there such as newspapers to read, magazines, books and some also have music and DVD's you can borrow to listen to and watch.
Use your local tourist centre or library to help plan a trip out. Quite often they have lots of resources such as leaflets and guides that help you to learn what's on and help you to get to know your local city or neighbouring places.
Carefully consider taking out a membership to local attractions as it can often be cheaper. Some attractions in the UK are covered by the national trust.
Consider visiting free sites of beauty, for example in the UK there is the South Downs which can be free to visit and there are lots of beautiful sites to see.
Consider saving the leftover money from the entertainment budget as part of a gift budget. Sometimes it's great to buy a voucher and offer someone an experience as a gift on their birthday. Quite often experience can be a better gift than an item.
Subscribe to various newsletters for your favourite coffee shops or restaurants, sometimes they have money of deals over the year. Take advantage of this. If there are no newsletters they might have an app as well, it is worth looking into.
Consider looking at apps such as Groupon and Wowcher which sometimes have discounts. There maybe alternative apps in your country.
Invite friends over to each other's place for coffee or tea. You can quite often save more money here, perhaps mix it up a bit where one week you have it at your home another at a café and the following week at a friend's place.
Change your lifestyle a little and spend some time at home. Cinema can be replaced with DVD nights. Having alternatives revolving around the home is a great way to save money.
Make sure you plan your activities for the week and don't go over budget.
Consider signing up to Meetup.com. They have different clubs for different things and it can be low cost and free to attend some meet ups and do fun things such as hiking and a great way of meeting new people.