When my husband and I decided to buy our house last September we decided to save money by attempting to live without our cable TV (something I was VERY addicted to). But you know what? We don't miss it at all!
These days there are MUCH cheaper (and yes, legal) options for viewing a majority of your favorite shows. Most major TV networks will let you watch full episodes directly from their websites. There are also other legal sites for watching full TV episodes AND movies.
Check out:
NBC
ABC
CBS
MTV
Comedy Central
HULU
and there are many more.
Drawback: You do have to deal with "buffering" lagtime sometimes and free TV and movies usually come at the price of frequent forced advertisement. But how much does cable cost these days? A short wait here and there is definitely worth it to us.
Not Free, But Still Cheaper Than Cable/Satellite
Some other ways that my husband and I get our TV fix is by buying movies, shows and DVD collections. Some can be expensive, but you can usually find good buys on:
Ebay
Amazon's New and Used section (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)
iTunes
Half.com (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)
or the used sections of stores like Rasputin
We love to buy and share our collections with friends, or invite people over to watch movies or for TV marathons.
Series we currently own or are in the process of collecting:
Other Cheaper Ways We are Entertaining Ourselves
Games - Lately we've had several Scrabble nights and after my birthday party last weekend a group of us played a game called Apples to Apples and had a blast! Board/Card games may seem silly at first, but they can be a jumpstart for conversation and a good time in general. Have everyone contribute an inexpensive snack, and it's all the better. I also geek out on Saturday nights playing DND and sometimes Magic the Gathering. Games that require some initital investment, but can be hours upon hours of entertainment.
We also find ourself playing a lot of video games. Sure, the initial investments of most game systems can be costly, but the newer systems are especially great for parties and getting people to interact. WE LOVE OUR Wii and XBox 360! For less than we'd pay for cable in one month we can buy one or two used games. And, being complete geeks (we admit it!) we still LOVE our old-school Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64. Games for those systems are CHEAP. Right now we're addicted to Rock Band 2 for the 360 (especially when friends are over) and my husband and I in our alone time are playing Diddy's Kong Quest for the Super Nintendo. I cannot believe how much use we get out of our old games, but I'm glad that we do.
Reading - This is something that my husband and I have done together since we started dating. We both love to read comic books (especially him) but at 2.99 or 3.99 a pop (sometimes more!) he has had to reduce the number of titles he follows every month. Eventually a lot of comic runs are reproduced into bigger volumes called trade paperbacks or hardcovers. Both can be expensive, but many major bookstores carry them (Barnes and Nobles, Borders, etc.) We have spent many hours combing through bookstore shelves and enjoying the quiet library-like atmosphere, reading books together. Be careful to eat before you go, though, or else you might end up buying a $10 designer muffin at the coffee shop inside the store.
Of course you can also buy used books for super cheap at Amazon and Half.com. There's also an awesome site called Paperback Swap where you can trade books with other people for free. You only pay when you ship your book to someone (which is very cheap), not when they ship it to you.
The only way I will ever get cable again is if I can afford a DVR. Otherwise I feel like I'm just wasting my money. But that will be a long time from now. Besides, I seem a lot more productive without the constant flow that is television. Now watching something is more of a treat because I have to intentially seek it out.
What entertainment cost(s) have you cut? Do you miss it/them?
Are there any entertainment options that you would recommend?
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