Dinner out and a movie for a family of four, can cost more than $100.00 depending on where you eat, and often much more than that. An all-inclusive vacation may cost thousands. How can you do fun things with your friends and family without breaking the bank?
This is the fifth post in a series from my guest post Living in the Land of Enough on one of my favorite blogs: becomingminimalist.com by Joshua Becker.
Entertain more simply.
Unplug your TV and plan to enjoy your friends, family, the great outdoors, or a book you have been meaning to read. Do not spend time and money on expensive shows, travel or recreational activities. While the land of plenty calls you to spend more money for entertainment, you already have enough right where you are.
That was the recommendation for a short hiatus in the Land of Enough. For a longer stay, like a lifetime, you will need to think about how you entertain yourself.
Ask questions like:
- Can I have fun without spending money?
- Do I spend more time and money doing what other people enjoy?
- Am I lost without TV and internet?
- Should Facebook be considered quality entertainment?
- How do I feel when I have nothing to do?
I’m not suggesting that you never go to the movies, or out to dinner, but I do recommend a plan, and a budget for entertaining. This is especially true when you are paying down debt. I love when Dave Ramsey tells his radio listeners, “Until this debt is gone, you aren’t going to see the inside of a restaurant, unless you are working there!”
13 Ways to Entertain for Less
- Rent cheaper movies. You may not watch movies at all, but if you do, both Netflix and Redbox offer more affordable options than Blockbuster or other movie rental stores.
- Potluck. Ask friends to bring an appetizer or dessert to round off your next dinner party.
- Coffee break instead of lunch hour. I suggest this for personal and business gatherings. You will save money and be able to focus on the conversation instead of the menu.
- Sweat Together. Invite your friends to meet you at a yoga class, or to go for a run.
- Relocate. Sometimes a change of scenery in itself can be entertaining. Bring your dinner to the beach, the mountains, or even into another room in your house for a picnic. Here are more tips for family dinners.
- Cooking Class. Local kitchen stores often offer cooking classes. Bring a bottle of wine, learn to cook a new dish with your friends and family, and enjoy a nice meal together.
- Movie or Book Swap. If you have a movie or book collection, but are bored with your selection, host a swap. Ask everyone to bring the books and movies they don’t use. Donate any of the unpicked collection.
- Get outside. Turn off your TV for a night, or for good, and go play outside. Ski, bike, go sledding, build a snowman, rake leaves, or take a destination-less walk.
- Volunteer. Spending time giving back will be entertaining and fulfilling.
- Meet up. A friend of mine swears by meetup.com. She’s met great, like minded people for hikes, snowshoeing, and other fun activities. Plus, they have an awesome tag line…Do Something. Learn Something. Share Something. Change Something.
- Game or craft night. This could be an evening with friends and/or family. The tag line would be…Play Something. Build Something. Win Something. Lose Something. Really though, this might be a night for a marathon Monopoly game or just a quiet night of wine and knitting.
- Start a Blog. If there is something you are interested in, know something about, and really care about, share your ideas with the world. This is a great way to connect and even start your own minimalist business. Let me know if you need help getting started!
- Soup and Cookie Night. I had to include this. Cindy from Live a Colorful Life recently commented on No Credit Cards, No Matter What including ways she saves money during the holidays. “We have soup with our son, daughter-in-law, and the two kids, and then we make cookies. I stock up on sprinkles and frosting in a tube, and they can go to town decorating, even if they pour the whole bottle of sprinkles on four cookies. We love this tradition.”
I want to close with a reminder that we don’t need to be constantly entertained, or entertaining. Be mindful of your time and energy, especially during the next month, when you have more than enough to do. Build in some time to be free of entertainment and just listen to the season. With a little space and silence, you might notice how Winter sounds, what the Holiday Spirit feels like, and what miracles look like.
How do you like to entertain?
Series Links
How to Live in the Land of Enough: Money
How to Live in the Land of Enough: Time
How to Live in the Land of Enough: Disconnect
How to Live in the Land of Enough: Space
New to Be More With Less? Read more about what to expect, and this post with links to important posts and reader favorites.
These are great tips. One of the ways we’ve learned to save when we do go out is to go to happy hours. You can order water to drink and all the appetizers are $5 or less at our favorite restaurants. Since the enconomy tanked I find they’re competing to get people in the door. One problem if you do this too often is the food isn’t exactly healthy!
Tess, I think I would need a glass of wine at happy hour! 😉
Yikes! One of my ideas on your blog!! I’m thrilled. Thanks so much.
And I also highly recommend it. 🙂
Cindy
Cindy, I loved your comment and soup & cookie night idea. Thanks for sharing it with me.
I used to go to Blockbuster for a rental and walk out with $50 worth of used DVDs. Even if I had just been complaining about having no money for gas to get to work.
I don’t go to blockbuster anymore, lol. Those used movie tables are evil tricks.
This is a great list, Courtney. I especially like that soup and cookie night thing!
Chase good point. I can think of many times I thought I had no money but it magically appeared for little things. Those little things add up!
How about playing cards with friends (for free of course)?? Cribbage?? Board games like monopoly?? Darts?? Chess?? Etc??
Join a walking club which is free??
Make the wine ($2/bottle if you have the equipment-check kijiji) bring your friends over, split on the cost, and bottle it together (don’t forget sampling as your bottling, that is the most fun part) LOL
Great ideas Justin!
I was unemployed for about 4 months last year, and during that time we found many things to do for little or no money. We had year passes to the zoo and to a local theme park, so we did those things a lot. We typically packed our lunch in a cooler instead of eating the expensive meals there. We also went to the beach, to parks to play on the playground or walk around in nature, to art shows and festivals. For movies we have a netflix subscription and we often go to the local dollar theater where the entire family of three can see a move for three dollars, and can keep it under $15 even with popcorn and drinks.
My wife has used Meetup.com to find mom’s groups so that her and my daughter could connect with other kids to play with.
There are many, many things that can be done for little or no money.
It’s great that you chose to get creative and still find ways to have fun with your family during unemployment. It probably made a tough situation more enjoyable.
When I saw this was on entertainment at first I thought, “eh, may not be for me, we don’t do much “entertainment”,” I quickly realized entertainment is what we do with/to each other every chance we get. I guess I’ve just come to think of it as, actually finding time to live and then doing something fun with it. It’s funny because in our family of two we’ve adopted much of these recommendations and every time we set out to do something we thought we would want to do that costs more, is a bit more of a sacrifice to our budget, we are often sharply disappointed. We’ve finally come to realize experiences are more light hearted and often most enjoyable to us when less is required overall. Our favorite is potluck dinners with friends.
Such a great point that translates into almost every area of my life…”We’ve finally come to realize experiences are more light hearted and often most enjoyable to us when less is required overall.” Thank you for that.
Getting together for a sing-along can be a lot of fun. Pick a theme like Christmas, 80s, ABBA, or The Beatles and let go of all inhibitions.
You had me at ABBA! Thanks Tabita.
Relaxing to just read about these money-saving tips. I’m all for earning more money by not spending it.
Just invited a website client to afternoon coffee before reading this and had the same thought!
Most of these tips are also great for couples. Saving money means entertaining each other – means a better relationship I say.
Ali – Good point. When we are more focused on each other and less on the external, the relationship can only get better.
Terrific list!! I sometimes tell people we’re having “just desserts.” Takes the stress off me but then if I have time to make and add some savories, they are nicely surprised. Biggest hit appetizer of the last bring-one-thing gathering we had: 3 lbs. of smoked kielbasa bulk buy from the local big-box store, just heated on the grill and served with mustard (and toothpicks). Simple works.
Nothing wrong with “just desserts” 😉
Just had a group of friends over tonight. We each brought a finger food or a dessert. We had 6 families together and had a great time!
I also just love the time to do nothing. Walk, read, talk to a friend, nap…
Great post Courtney!
Bernice
http://livingthebalancedlife.com/2010/the-walking-wounded/
Bernice, I love that you had a fun evening with friends, without having to spend too much or do too much.
We have found that living near college campuses often provides free or cheap entertainment in the form of concerts or plays. (The smaller the school the cheaper!) Churches often have free events too.
Courtney,
I loved all your ideas! Especially the one about starting a blog? I am unemployed @ the moment and REALLY into getting rid of too much stuff! Any ideas or links you could give me to help start a blog, would be deeply appreciated!!
As a family with 2 kids (12 and 14), letting go of satellite tv a few years ago was tough, but letting go of the price tag wasn’t. We purchased a good antennae to get local stations. We use the county-wide library system for books, movie rentals, and entire seasons of the latest tv shows. No movie these days is worth spending the money on, and I don’t mind being put on the waiting list. Redbox email updates let me see the latest dvd movies coming out. I check my library website for availability and put a hold on it. Doesn’t cost me a thing. Missed weekly tv shows can be seen on Hulu (especially if you miss a show because you’re watching another one), and there’s live-streaming tv news on the internet (Zahipedia). Plus there’s always the radio. We have plenty of board games, but I’ve searched the internet for instructions to card games I played as a child. I found instructions for “James Bond” and “Spit”, and we played for hours last night. Didn’t cost me a thing, and my kids had so much fun. — I just love this site. Such great ideas from everyone who joins in.