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Family Entertainment

It's no great secret that there are a lot of ways you can entertain yourself without costing a lot of money.   We all know this, and wouldn't it be ideal if we all could sit down and play board games all afternoon or go ice skating.    Those are a couple things our family occassionally does, but the majority of the time on the weekends, particularly in the winter?  One teenager on the phone, a couple kids in front of the wii, and a couple of us ready for a movie on TV.  So, we found just a few ways to make these electronic choices cost a little less.

Television

Our choice for television viewing has been cable, this is because we also have cable internet and live somewhat rurally.  If we lived near a large city, I do believe we would just use an antenna.  I loathe cable bills, they get you every way they can. 

As far as television goes, you have to determine the least amount that you are willing to live with and start with that.  We do basic cable with no extras.  We have a nice HDTV, but opted not to go with HD transmission.  We felt the only time we really enjoyed the HD was during movies and you really don't need a HD movie, on DVD, to look awesome on a HD set. 

The bottom line is to pick the least expensive plan you can deal with. 

Movies

As a family of six, we learned long ago that movies are far too expensive, particularly when they come out on DVD as quickly as they do.  For years, we went to our local video store and rented movies, figuring we were saving a ton of money by avoiding the cinemas. 

Sure, we were saving money, but not like we are since joining NetFlix.  I'd seen the commercials, and thought about it a while, but never realized the true value of NetFlix before.  I'm sure many of you have had NetFlix for a long time, but for those that haven't yet tried it, let me share the benefits:

1.  You can sit in your home and choose your queue of movies without strolling up and down that video store aisle until your head was spinning.

2.  You save on gas, the movies come right to your mailbox very quickly.  If you live in a rural location, this alone is worth the savings!

3.  No late fees! They simply don't send you a new movie until the previous has been returned.

4.  It's a monthly charge no matter how many movies you go through.  The faster you watch and return them, the more value it is and the more you save.

5.  You can watch older movies and TV series free online at anytime.  We actually hook our laptop up to our HDTV and watch them that way.

I highly recommend NetFlix rather than traditional movie rental places IF you find you spend your winters watching a lot of movies like we do. 

Another way to get movies absolutely free is to visit your local library.  This might actually be the most cost effective way to go in the larger cities where libraries will most likely have a huge selection.  For those in small town America, though, NetFlix is unbeatable.

Telephones

I'm not sure I should be placing telephone savings on the Entertainment page, but it seems to be just that for our teenagers.

I do believe that one of the biggest savings we've managed lately is getting rid of the old land line.  I know many people are getting on the band wagon with this one.  There are a couple benefits to land lines, like 911 capabilities. Frugally speaking, however, giving up the land line is very cost effective.   Worrying about how many minutes you use or roaming is becoming practically obsolete with all the companies competing with better plans and bigger circles. 

Basically, we felt that the difference in money to drop the land line, more than covered two more of our children receiving cell phones.  Again, we go with the most basic plan, which includes no text messaging or internet services.  The entire family is always able to reach one another, and we've never missed the land line, or the bill.

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