Entertainment

Give up the premium cable channels. It's a lot cheaper to rent one film a week than to watch one on premium cable channels that may cost more than $500 a year.

Borrow books rather than buying them. Borrowing books and reading magazines at your library, rather than buying reading material, can save you hundreds of dollars a year.

Attend high school rather than college or pro sports events. High school sports events rarely cost more than $5 and are often free, with hot dogs and sodas typically costing $1 to $2. College and pro football and basketball games rarely cost less than $20, and their concessions are usually several times as expensive.

Socialize at potluck meals rather than at restaurants. Because one wants to be generous to friends and family members, there may be huge cost savings here.

SOURCE: America Saves

Invite friends over instead of going out. Almost every activity at home is less expensive than going out. Invite some friends over and have a cookout or a potluck meal, and then play some cards and have a few drinks. Everyone will have fun, the cost will be low, and the others will likely reciprocate not long afterward.

Don't spend big money entertaining your children. Most children, especially young ones, can be entertained very cheaply. Buy them an end roll of newsprint from a newspaper and let their creativity run wild. Make a game out of ordinary stuff around the house, such as tossing pennies into a jar, even. Realize that what your children want most of all is your time, not your stuff, and you'll find money in your pocket and joy in your heart.

Buy video games that have a lot of replay value — and don't acquire new ones until you've mastered what you have. My video-game buying habits have changed quite a bit since my "game of the week" days. Now I focus on games that can be played over and over and over again, and I focus on mastering the games that I buy. Good targets include puzzle games and long, involved quest games — they maximize the value of your gaming dollar.

Swap books, music and DVDs cheaply on the Internet through services such as PaperBackSwap. You can very easily swap the books, CDs and DVDs you've grown bored with over the Internet with others. Just use sites such as www.paperbackswap.com, clean out your media collection and trade items with others online. The best part? You'll get a flood of new books (or CDs or DVDs) to enjoy, mailed right to you — for free.

Talk to your loved ones about what your dreams are. This seems like an odd way to save money, but think about it. If you spend time with the people you love the most and come to some consensus about your dreams, it becomes easy for you all to plan for it. If you're all planning and working together toward this dream, it becomes easier to stay focused on it and reach it. Set a big, audacious goal together and encourage each other to be financially fit. Soon, you'll find that you're doing it naturally, and your dreams are coming closer than ever.

Cancel unused club memberships. Are you paying dues at a club that you never use? Like, for instance, a gym membership or a country club membership? Cancel these club memberships, even if you think you might use them again someday. You can always renew the membership later if it turns out that you actually do miss it.

Join up with a volunteer program. It's a great way to meet people, get some exercise and involve yourself in a positive project that can lift your spirit. It also comes without a cost to you and can provide a lot of entertainment and a fulfilling day when you're in the right mind-set. I've come to spend more and more of my time volunteering, serving on various committees and groups in the community — and it's the best thing I've ever done.

Don't go to stores or shopping centers for entertainment. Doing so is just an encouragement to spend money you don't really have on stuff you don't really need. Instead, find other places to entertain yourself — the park, the basketball court, a museum, a friend's house or even your own home. Don't substitute shopping for entertainment, and you'll be way better off.

Get rid of subscriptions to unread magazines. Do you have a pile of unread magazines sitting around your house? It's likely the result of a subscription that you're not reading. Not only should you not renew that magazine, but you should give its subscription department a call and try to cancel for a refund — sometimes it will give you the prorated amount back. I've had to cull my subscriptions in the past, but I've never regretted it.

Check out what the city's Parks and Recreation Department has to offer. You can discover wonderful parks, free basketball and tennis courts, free disk golf, trails, and lots of other stuff just there waiting to be used. You can go have fun for hours out in the wonderful outdoors, playing sports, hiking on trails or trying other activities — and it's all there for free. All you have to do is discover it.

Dig into your community calendar. There are often tons of free events going on that you don't even know about. Stop by the library or by City Hall and ask how you can get a listing of upcoming community events, and make an effort to hit the interesting ones. You can often get free meals, free entertainment and free stuff just by paying attention — even better, you'll get in touch with what's going on around you.

Hit the library — hard. Don't look at a library as just a place to get old books. Look at it as a free place to do all sorts of things. I've used it to learn a foreign language, meet people, use the Internet anonymously, check out movies and CDs, read free newspapers and keep up on community events. Best of all, it doesn't cost a dime.

Find out about all of the benefits of your job. Most people aren't even aware of all of the benefits available to them. Spend some time with a human-resources person finding out about all the benefits of your job — you might be surprised at what you might find. I found free tickets to sporting events, free personal improvement opportunities and an optional employee match on some retirement funds that maximized the money I was socking away. This not only cut down on my own spending on things such as sporting and community events and educational classes, but it also improved my retirement plan.

Encourage your friends to do less-expensive activities. This is often a tricky thing to do, but there are a number of techniques you can try. My favorite one is to be the first one to suggest something — that often gives you the power to steer the group toward things that are cheaper. If you can persuade your friends to go to the park and shoot hoops instead of going golfing, those green fees are going to stay in your pocket.

Read more. Reading is one of the cheapest — and most beneficial — hobbies around. Tucson and most towns have libraries available to the public — just go there and check out some books that interest you. Then spend some of your free time in a cozy place in your house, just reading away. You'll learn something new, improve your reading ability and enjoy yourself, and you won't have to spend a dime.

Cut down on your vacation spending. Instead of going on a big, extravagant trip, pack up the car and see some of America some years for vacation. One of the best vacations I've ever taken was when my son was an infant — we just packed up the car and drove around Minnesota, eventually camping for a few days along the north shore of Lake Superior. For a weeklong relaxing vacation, it was incredibly cheap and quite memorable, too.

SOURCE: The Simple Dollar blog