Frugal Tuesday - 10 Ways We Save Money on Entertainment

Yesterday's post was rather entertaining, to experience and to write, and I thought it might be a good idea to actually explore the wild side of entertainment when you live pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Wild.... Ummm... right....

Having chosen to live a life close to the earth and having it for the most part sustain us doesn't give one much time for entertainment for the much of the year. Some people seem to think that living like this is. in some way, easy and simple with no hassles. Where you sit in your rocker on the front porch in the evening and just enjoy the time, chatting about the day or whatever. That doesn't really happen.... Not that we wouldn't like it to once in a while. Mostly the porch is used for a short sit down while we eat or chat for a bit and then it is back to work. Especially during spring and fall when the days are long and every minute of sun is needed to get the chores done. The rest of the time when we might perhaps have time to sit on the porch it is either too cold or the hordes of mosquito's chase us in.

So what do we do for entertainment when we actually have the time? Like in the winter when there is nothing much to do, when we just need a break or it is a rain day like today. There a a lot of people out there who spend what I would consider hordes of money on entertainment but out here the reality is that if you want to have money for the necessary things entertainment takes the very back seat on the bus. A drive into town costs around $20 right now and if we wanted to see a movie it would be a six hour round trip. That is so not happening!

We don't have cable and while we do have a small TV, it is only used for special occasions when we really want to watch a favorite movie and we have a lot of power built up in the batteries. Most of the time when we want to watch something we cosy up on the sofa and watch it on the laptop. We have found you don't have to spend a lot of money to have good clean fun so have taken a chapter from a time when things were a bit simpler. Of course we do use modern gadgets like the internet! How else could I write a bog? Here are a few things we do which really don't hurt the pocket book.

1. Go for a drive in the country side: While this can cost a bit of money in gas, it gets us off the farm, which is sometimes a needed break. Of course if we take the quad is costs much less and we see a lot more wildlife.
2. Yahtzee: Mountain Man is really good a games and he trounces me time and a gain. Of course every once in a while I get him back. 
3. Chess: I know I could put these game in one category but they just don't seem to fit. I am really bad at chess! Inevitably I groan when I see the board come out but Mountain Man is determined to teach me how to play. 
4. Netflix: It is really inexpensive so a few years back we signed up with Netflix and enjoyed movie after movie as well as many shows we had missed, however, after a while it seemed we had seen all the good ones so discontinued our plan. We may go back to it this winter if they put some new movies out.
5. Make something: We both are rather crafty and you can find a lot of things we have made on the Frugal Tuesday page. The main criteria for anything we make is that it must not cost much, preferably nothing, to make. 
6. Read a book: I have found thousands upon thousands of free ebooks on the internet and using our little Android which has at least a 10 hour battery life I can read for nothing. Sure saves money as I love to read and the library just doesn't seem to be an option as I never know when I will get to town again. 
7. Music night: We both love music but come from very different backgrounds so have completely different tastes. Sometimes we will spend an evening... or even a whole day on the internet finding songs we love but the other person hasn't heard. This is especially difficult for me as Mountain Man knows so many songs and often can even tell me what year it was produced as well as trivia about the band. So I will go out of my way to see if I can find songs he can't name. It may sound corny but this is a very entertaining past time.
8. Watch a movie for free: Recently we discovered YouTube has loads of free movies but some of the channels are hard to find. One of our favorites is this one. Some of the latest movies we watched and really loved are: Shenandoah, How the West Was Won, (these movies have been delisted but you can still view them with the direct links I've posted), and Sargent York.  Of course they are very old movies, but who doesn't enjoy Jimmy Stewart movies or the Andy Griffith Show. For some reason we seem to connect with them more than the newer movies/shows out. We really like good clean movies from a time when swear words and sex where not considered par for the course. 
9. Write a blog: I can't tell you how much fun I have had writing this little blog and I hope you continue to enjoy my efforts. 
10. Watch the wildlife: This is a huge one here but unless you live in the country might be harder to do  Of course there are a lot of smaller birds and animals to watch too. We have spent a lot of time lately watching the ducks and geese fight for space on the pond and as I write this a fox came a long and got one of them. There is always something going on!

So if you are looking to save some money think about staying in or at least around home. You would be surprised what you can come up with to do for free or almost free which can not only be fun but can also bring you and your family a lot closer.

Also link in to Mind Body and Soul and Frugally Sustainable's blog hop.