Have worked in the credit card industry for 25 years. You want advice from an insider? DO NOT USE THEM. Insiders laugh at people that pump money thru credit cards to get some meaningless perk. Every product you buy is more expensive because people are chasing these silly perks. 99% never get them. And these perks will soon disappear. This is because Visa has lost a very important legal battle that allowed them to force merchants to engage in this practice. In the very near future merchants will be forced to charge an interchange fee to every transaction where a credit card is used. I have heard up to 7%
I use every excuse to hold a cheap party. We have game nights and pot luck dinners. Halloween in my neighborhood is huge--we had 800 kids this year. We invite friends from rural neighborhoods and have everyone bring candy. Everyone has fun and we don't spend hundreds of dollars on candy.
We tend to look for free things going on around town. When it comes to movies, we use Netflix, but also go to a local place that is dinner & a movie. For $50 we can see a new release movie, get a pitcher of soda, large popcorn and large pizza for a family of 4. We also take advantage of all the parks we have around & purchase a yearly pass for the state parks.
Oh my, that does sound awful. And no need to apologize for the rant. We Americans do our own share of ranting! We do have to pay credit card "convenience fees" sometimes here. But the idea of a credit card checkout fee is new.
Hi Tim -- Before the settlement, the contract between Visa/MC and the retailers prohibited the merchants from charging this checkout fee. So the settlement removed that restriction.
We save by staying home and enjoying family time together most of the time! When we do go out, it is usually for something special and something we've saved up for. Eating out is a rare treat, so it is something to look forward to as well. When you do something often, it becomes commonplace and the "specialness" is lost.
For books and movies, we borrow from the library. We tend not to go to the movie theater often. We also get museum passes from the library. There are free, local events in the papers or online and we take advantage of those. If we can use a AAA discount, we do. The only way we aren't able to really save is on concerts and sporting events.
Hi Becky -- Yes, websites can charge this fee, too. But they're supposed to disclose it on the home page, so they can't surprise you with it when you check out. I'm hoping we won't see a lot of these fees, but I want everyone to be on the lookout for them.
We save on entertainment with Groupon, military discount, and dollar theaters! Also we try to be outdoorsy and do free stuff instead of paying to do stuff.
Reminding ourselves that we should be social an acceptable amount, not constantly, has helped (a hard lesson to learn in your twenties). That means staying in most Fridays and not beating ourselves up about it (we're exhausted anyway).
I use the free version of Hulu to stream TV shows, and rent 1-3 movies from Redbox or the library every month. I also take advantage of free days at the museums. Very worth it!
Buy sports tickets at the box office to save the online ticket convenience charges. Wait for movies to come out as rentals. Buy a section higher/farther away than I'd like for concerts, or only go to small-venue concerts, which are usually cheaper.
Good article! Hahaha... I can just imagine somebody leaning over to see the balance of a 13-year old's passbook and being shocked that it was more than they themselves had. $120 in the 80s *was* serious moola!
I've always been fairly frugal and for all my working career I put away my 10-15% (as everyone recommends) like a good little squirrel. However, after seeing my retirement investments flounder, lose some value, or do absolutely nothing at all, I decided about 3 years ago to take it into my own hands and learn all this stuff. 'Cause it seemed to me that nobody cared about my money as much as I did--certainly not the advisers. Once they had the initial investment, they could care less about the returns.
Last year I decided to get tough. 15% isn't really that much. I boosted my saving to 30% (no noticeable change in lifestyle), 42% (still no noticeable change in lifestyle), and now I'm at 50-55% savings. It's radical, but seeing my net worth go so quickly off the charts has been well worth it. There's lots of resources out there that tell people how to save that much.
Our primary entertainment expense is movies. We go probably once a week on average. We have a few ways of cutting down on the expenses.
1. We go to a smaller, independantly owned 1st run theater whenever we can. They only have 4 screens and the seats aren't super comfortable, but they show 1st run movies for 5 bucks before 6 PM and 6.50 after. In Chicago where the average ticket price is 11-12 dollars, this is a huge savings.
2. Shhhh, we sneak in candy.
3. We enter a lot of contests with local movie blogs that host preview screenings for critics and use winners to fill the theatre. We win about 50% of the time, so we get to see a lot of the movies we want to see for free.
We love to go to the movies but that can be a real budget buster so we try to make sure we catch the first daily viewing since that time slot is the cheapest at our theater, that alone saves us $3-4 a ticket and then we usually bring a little snack from home instead of getting gouged on the concession stand prices. We also use Redbox and try to primarily get rentals when I find a freebie code to use on the machine.
I hang out with a people who have similar spending habits so we find really fun free or cheap things to do, like small local concerts, art walks, and discount movie theaters. We also cook a lot together rather than going out for food.
buy groupons and goldstar trickets for entertainment...may not be the best seats in the house, but usually still a great experience and at greatly reduced prices
My favorite entertainment savings is to use the website Goldstar Events (goldstar.com). No, I don't work them, but love them. Membership is free. There are Goldstar sites in most major cities and they offer half price, sometimes free tickets to concerts, theatre events and sporting events.
Other ideas: free concerts in the park in the summer, student rush tickets at Broadway shows if you are a college student (half price or less) and of course, the "lottery" that is held prior to many Broadway shows in NY and LA (you go to the theare a couple of hours early and they sell the unused cast seats -- the best in the house -- for $40). Here's an article on how the tricks of seeing Broadway shows on a budget: http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/article/82428-Broadway-Rush-Lotter...
My favorite way to save money on movies is to go to early shows. Most major movie chains have a pre-noon discount, which can be about half price. If your show starts at 11:30, its' not too different from having it start after noon. Or go to a 9:30/10 am show, and get out just in time for lunch!
We take advantage of Groupon deals and Restaurant.com deals. We also have potluck meals at home. For seeing movies, we often borrow DVDs from friends. Our concert going is usually when someone offers us tickets, and that happens with amazing frequency! My husband and I both have Kindles and enjoy reading a great deal, but we both subscribe to BookBub, which allows us to get books for free and greatly reduced rates. Travel is usually by car with a cooler in the back seat.
We belong to Social Living, Groupon, and a couple other 2-for-1 sites to get some serious discounts on local activities.
Have worked in the credit card industry for 25 years. You want advice from an insider? DO NOT USE THEM. Insiders laugh at people that pump money thru credit cards to get some meaningless perk. Every product you buy is more expensive because people are chasing these silly perks. 99% never get them. And these perks will soon disappear. This is because Visa has lost a very important legal battle that allowed them to force merchants to engage in this practice. In the very near future merchants will be forced to charge an interchange fee to every transaction where a credit card is used. I have heard up to 7%
I use every excuse to hold a cheap party. We have game nights and pot luck dinners. Halloween in my neighborhood is huge--we had 800 kids this year. We invite friends from rural neighborhoods and have everyone bring candy. Everyone has fun and we don't spend hundreds of dollars on candy.
I go to free movie screenings and rent video games to save on my entertainment budget.
We tend to look for free things going on around town. When it comes to movies, we use Netflix, but also go to a local place that is dinner & a movie. For $50 we can see a new release movie, get a pitcher of soda, large popcorn and large pizza for a family of 4. We also take advantage of all the parks we have around & purchase a yearly pass for the state parks.
Hey, I'm with you all the way. Consumer Power!
Oh my, that does sound awful. And no need to apologize for the rant. We Americans do our own share of ranting! We do have to pay credit card "convenience fees" sometimes here. But the idea of a credit card checkout fee is new.
Hi Tim -- Before the settlement, the contract between Visa/MC and the retailers prohibited the merchants from charging this checkout fee. So the settlement removed that restriction.
We cut the cord and got rid of cable. Saved $85 a month by getting an HD antenna + netflix + hulu plus.
We save by staying home and enjoying family time together most of the time! When we do go out, it is usually for something special and something we've saved up for. Eating out is a rare treat, so it is something to look forward to as well. When you do something often, it becomes commonplace and the "specialness" is lost.
For books and movies, we borrow from the library. We tend not to go to the movie theater often. We also get museum passes from the library. There are free, local events in the papers or online and we take advantage of those. If we can use a AAA discount, we do. The only way we aren't able to really save is on concerts and sporting events.
Hi Becky -- Yes, websites can charge this fee, too. But they're supposed to disclose it on the home page, so they can't surprise you with it when you check out. I'm hoping we won't see a lot of these fees, but I want everyone to be on the lookout for them.
We save on entertainment with Groupon, military discount, and dollar theaters! Also we try to be outdoorsy and do free stuff instead of paying to do stuff.
Reminding ourselves that we should be social an acceptable amount, not constantly, has helped (a hard lesson to learn in your twenties). That means staying in most Fridays and not beating ourselves up about it (we're exhausted anyway).
I use the free version of Hulu to stream TV shows, and rent 1-3 movies from Redbox or the library every month. I also take advantage of free days at the museums. Very worth it!
Buy sports tickets at the box office to save the online ticket convenience charges. Wait for movies to come out as rentals. Buy a section higher/farther away than I'd like for concerts, or only go to small-venue concerts, which are usually cheaper.
Good article! Hahaha... I can just imagine somebody leaning over to see the balance of a 13-year old's passbook and being shocked that it was more than they themselves had. $120 in the 80s *was* serious moola!
I've always been fairly frugal and for all my working career I put away my 10-15% (as everyone recommends) like a good little squirrel. However, after seeing my retirement investments flounder, lose some value, or do absolutely nothing at all, I decided about 3 years ago to take it into my own hands and learn all this stuff. 'Cause it seemed to me that nobody cared about my money as much as I did--certainly not the advisers. Once they had the initial investment, they could care less about the returns.
Last year I decided to get tough. 15% isn't really that much. I boosted my saving to 30% (no noticeable change in lifestyle), 42% (still no noticeable change in lifestyle), and now I'm at 50-55% savings. It's radical, but seeing my net worth go so quickly off the charts has been well worth it. There's lots of resources out there that tell people how to save that much.
Our primary entertainment expense is movies. We go probably once a week on average. We have a few ways of cutting down on the expenses.
1. We go to a smaller, independantly owned 1st run theater whenever we can. They only have 4 screens and the seats aren't super comfortable, but they show 1st run movies for 5 bucks before 6 PM and 6.50 after. In Chicago where the average ticket price is 11-12 dollars, this is a huge savings.
2. Shhhh, we sneak in candy.
3. We enter a lot of contests with local movie blogs that host preview screenings for critics and use winners to fill the theatre. We win about 50% of the time, so we get to see a lot of the movies we want to see for free.
We love to go to the movies but that can be a real budget buster so we try to make sure we catch the first daily viewing since that time slot is the cheapest at our theater, that alone saves us $3-4 a ticket and then we usually bring a little snack from home instead of getting gouged on the concession stand prices. We also use Redbox and try to primarily get rentals when I find a freebie code to use on the machine.
I hang out with a people who have similar spending habits so we find really fun free or cheap things to do, like small local concerts, art walks, and discount movie theaters. We also cook a lot together rather than going out for food.
buy groupons and goldstar trickets for entertainment...may not be the best seats in the house, but usually still a great experience and at greatly reduced prices
My laptop is hooked up to my tv. Most shows can be accessed online, so I no longer subscribe to cable which saves about $600 a year.
My favorite entertainment savings is to use the website Goldstar Events (goldstar.com). No, I don't work them, but love them. Membership is free. There are Goldstar sites in most major cities and they offer half price, sometimes free tickets to concerts, theatre events and sporting events.
Other ideas: free concerts in the park in the summer, student rush tickets at Broadway shows if you are a college student (half price or less) and of course, the "lottery" that is held prior to many Broadway shows in NY and LA (you go to the theare a couple of hours early and they sell the unused cast seats -- the best in the house -- for $40). Here's an article on how the tricks of seeing Broadway shows on a budget: http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/article/82428-Broadway-Rush-Lotter...
My favorite way to save money on movies is to go to early shows. Most major movie chains have a pre-noon discount, which can be about half price. If your show starts at 11:30, its' not too different from having it start after noon. Or go to a 9:30/10 am show, and get out just in time for lunch!
We take advantage of Groupon deals and Restaurant.com deals. We also have potluck meals at home. For seeing movies, we often borrow DVDs from friends. Our concert going is usually when someone offers us tickets, and that happens with amazing frequency! My husband and I both have Kindles and enjoy reading a great deal, but we both subscribe to BookBub, which allows us to get books for free and greatly reduced rates. Travel is usually by car with a cooler in the back seat.