Entertainment
does not have to cost money. Though we have a regular entertainment
budget each week, sometimes we are perfectly happy and find ways to
be quite entertained and in the end we haven't spent any money. The
important thing is to set a weekly entertainment budget and stick to
it. I have a family of three; it is myself, my husband and our five
year old daughter and I have set our budget at $25 a week. Your
budget may be different than mine, because you may have a larger
family yet you can still find many free things to do around town to
keep you all busy.
There
are times when you will want to go out and do something special, like
go out to a nice restaurant or see a concert and these things cost
money. The idea here is to to find balance. Do you have to go out to
eat every single weekend or can you invite friends over for a
barbeque one weekend instead?
Let's
say there are four weekends in a month and your entertainment budget
for one week is $25. On two of the weekends, you can find something
to do that does not require you to spend all of your entertainment
budget, then you can afford to do something a little more expensive
the next weekend. Better yet, you could choose to save that money and use it
toward another goal, like a vacation.
Finding affordable entertainment is much more possible lately with our quick access to the media
and social calendars, as well as an impressive list of discount deal
sites and the availability of email deal clubs for restaurants.
I
have not planned anything for our entertainment calendar through the
end of this month, and there are three weekends left, so I need to get my
calendar together. I'm going to perform a little experiment here. I
am going to see, if in 20 minutes, I can search around and come up
with a list of things we can do that will not go over the $75
entertainment budget we have left for the month. (That's $25 a week.)
Here goes!
All
done. It took me about 20 minutes to look through community calendars
and search for half price deals to purchase. I found the information
I needed and I purchased my deals in that time.
I
found many options, but chose these particular events because it
illustrates how I would use our entire $75 budget that we have left
for this month.
Things
we could do this month:
Friday,
March 16th Downtown Alive (free concert!) (budget $10 for
refreshments)
Saturday,
March 17th This Saturday, we are going as a family to
friend's house for a barbeque.
Sunday,
March 18th Go out to eat at ACME Taco (The cost was $10
for the
deal, budget additional $5)=$15
Total Budgeted=$25
Friday,
March 23rd Downtown Alive (free concert!) (budget $10 for
refreshments)
Saturday,
March 24th
Michaels Arts and Crafts Easter Craft (budget $5 for the egg, all
other materials are included)
Saturday
Evening: Get a Redbox Movie and make popcorn (Free movie with code,
and popcorn from the pantry)
Total Budgeted=$15
Friday,
March 30th Downtown Alive (free concert!) (budget $10 for
refreshments)
Saturday,
March 31st Go to the movies: $20 (I am a member of ReelRewards, so I will bank points for this outing. It could be that we might choose to do this during the week and I would bank points and it would cost less)
Saturday,
March 31st
Michaels
Arts and Crafts Event:
Terra
Cotta Spring Butterfly Clay Pot Make-It Take-It (budget $5 for
clay pot, all other supplies included)
Total Budgeted=$35
but I had $10 left over last week so I didn't go over my $75 budget
for the month.
This
is just the short list. I love to look for free concerts, art events
and take my daughter to do the craft projects at the Michaels Arts
and Crafts Store. There are many other things to do around town that
are free or affordable, you just have to explore your options.
You
know as well as I do that things do not always work as planned, but
it is a great thing to have events on your calendar ahead of time so
that you will be using your entertainment budget efficiently. At least you'll have a plan in place.
Maybe
there will be an event I cannot attend that I have put on my
entertainment calendar. That's okay. I always have something up my
sleeve either from rewards I've banked from programs I've joined or a
free Redbox code or some other frugal entertainment option from
half-price deals I've previously purchased. If we do not spend our
budget for the week, then we can save that money and put it toward a
more costly outing later on, or the money can go into savings.
This
budget works well for my family of three and we are never bored. In
fact, there is always more than enough to keep us busy and happy. I
encourage you to work on your entertainment calendar and discover
free and frugal ways to stretch your entertainment budget too!
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