The cost of entertainment
My wife and I often talk about finances; Keeping an eye on things, evaluating and generally staying informed seems like the right thing to do. This has been more important in the last few months as we have begun the early planning stage for a year off work to travel around the country. We will have no income and no money flowing into our investments but the same sort of costs we would normally incur. So, some balance needs to be found.
We were chatting about cost-saving concepts and our attention turned to our home entertainment costs:
- Premium pay TV $153/month
- Unlimited internet service $120/month
- Spotify $11/month
- Netflix $12/month
That's $3,552 a year, a pretty sizable figure. This doesn't include the costs around flat panel television's, Bluetooth speakers, our surround sound system, computer, projector and screen, mobile phones, iPad and so on - The true figure is much greater.
Most of our out-of-home entertainment is free: Kayaking, hiking, walking, the beach and so on, we don't get spendy for entertainment when out really but at home, we like movies, watching documentaries and motorsport plus we need the internet for work and recreation, general life really so...It seems a necessity. Still, $3,500 is a lot of money.
We've been calculating which costs will remain, which will be cut off and which we may be able to mitigate during that year off and seeing the entertainment cost over an annual period got us thinking.
The easy answer would be to cut down on our home entertainment costs, maybe drop the Premium TV service for a cut down package. We could slow our internet service down and delete Netflix and Spotify altogether leaving us with about $2,400 of cost, a saving of $1,152 annually which is pretty good but...
Faith and I work hard. We're generally sensible spenders using the need over want ethos, are not big drinkers, don't smoke cigarettes (costly things here in Australia) and whilst I wouldn't call us frugal we certainly think before we spend. We have a savings and investment plan which we stick to, and we go without things to do that...Is it wrong to lash out on the entertainment thing? I don't think so.
Faith and I plan things out, we don't live by chance and our budget accommodates everything we do including my quite costly hobbies and our desire to travel. We know we could save more, but at the same time as future planning we think about life now so tend to seek a balance. I believe one of our key strengths is evaluating our position and what we have around us and whilst we sometimes lash out a little mostly we do a pretty good job.
How about you? What do you spend on entertainment in a year? Do you have any entertainment life-hacks that save you money? Don't hold back, tell me about your scenario and what works, or doesn't work for you. I'm always looking for hints and tips!
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
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