One of my blogging buddies, J. Money, recently published a post that bounced off a comment from yet another post.
(Blogging: Sometimes it’s a Ponzi scheme.)
That comment was from a guy who believes that entertainment should never cost more than a dollar an hour.
For example, a video game that costs $70 (!) needs to be played for at least 70 hours. A $60-a-month cable bill should mean your household watches a total of 60 hours of TV per month. And so on.
In “The ‘buck an hour’ rule,” J. Money noted that $1 was “a bit arbitrary and perhaps simplistic.” Just for fun, he took at look at some of his own ongoing expenses (only some of which were actual entertainment).
“It wasn’t pretty,” he admitted cheerfully.
Netflix yes, local newspaper no. Cellphone good, coffee not so much. Gasoline nope, currency collection nyet, historical society donation nein.
You never know when some “random thought” could affect a habit, J. Money concluded. So I decided to examine some of my own entertainment costs.
Movies
We tend to go on Tuesdays, when tickets are $5.75 all day long. Since movies don’t generally last 5¾ hours, this one’s an automatic fail. But it’s one I’m willing to accept.
(Possible workaround: Buy a discounted gift card to your movie palace of choice. I’ve saved anywhere from 8 to 30 percent this way. Find the deals at an aggregator site called Gift Card Granny.)
Walks
This one’s a total pass, because it costs nothing. When the weather isn’t horrific, DF and I like to take walks. Often that’s just around the neighborhood, putting in a mile or so in late afternoon/early evening. (Except in winter, of course, because late afternoon is already pretty dark. I have enough wariness about ice in the daylight, even when I’m wearing my spill-forestalling YakTrax.)
At times we might drive to a place like Glen Alps, the jumping-off place for a bunch of hikes, and take a short stroll or just drink in the view. Or we can go to Kincaid Park and maybe become wedding crashers.
Meals out
In the abstract, this one’s a big ol’ fail. Even if I pay $6 or $7 for a meal, it’s not going to last six or seven hour. Once a week or so, my pal Linda B. and I meet at our favorite lunch spot, Harley’s Old Thyme Café, and take turns picking up the check.
What’s life without a little sin? Besides, I’ve budgeted for these two meals out each month, and Harley’s has a great backstory: The fellow who ran it wanted to retire, and his cooks, at least some of whom are immigrants, bought it from him. Every time I eat there I’m supporting not just a local business but also an American dream.
(Possible workarounds: Discounted gift cards, again, if you eat at chain restaurants. Look for coupons in the blue Valpal envelope, in local shopper publications and online.)
Cooking
Both DF and I enjoy cooking together, so takeout never happens. This, in turn, helps me feel comfortable paying for lunch out a couple of times a month. So do the frugal hacks that keep our food budget low, including but not limited to:
- Buying stuff in bulk from Costco
- Buying everything else on sale (just stocked up on thick-cut oatmeal at 68 cents a pound at Fred Meyer)
- Buying stuff on sale with store and manufacturer coupons
- Buying stuff with the monthly Kroger senior discount
(Possible workarounds: Any of the frugal hacks noted above. You could also Google “quick easy recipes with [favorite ingredients]” and/or download the free “Good and Cheap: Eating Well on $4 a Day” cookbook from food scholar Leanne Brown.)
Reading
Absolute pass, here. We already own a bunch of books (some long-since-sunk-cost, some gifts and some found while dumpster wading). I’m also a big fan of the public library; in fact, I wrote much of my second book there. In other words, reading costs us $0 per hour.
(Possible workarounds: Look for a Little Free Library in your neighborhood. Check out sites like Project Gutenberg and Open Library for free e-books. Go to Amazon.com and search for “free books.”)
Television
This one’s a pass, thanks to my long-suffering bestie. Linda B. has cable and will DVR any shows she thinks I might enjoy watching with her.
(Possible workarounds: Again, the public library: Borrow entire seasons for some DIY binge-watching. Streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix, which have saved my daughter thousands of dollars. Or try Amazon Prime Video: Sign up for a free trial and see if the library has enough to keep you entranced; if you have a Medicaid or EBT card, there’s a discounted version of Prime that costs $5.99 a month instead of $8.25.)
Theater, music and opera
Both local and national productions are definitely a fail in terms of the cost-per-hour comparison. But supporting the arts – especially local arts – matters to us.
(Possible workarounds: Check out the cost of season tickets, which may save you a few bucks per seat. Search for pay-what-you-can performances. Inquire about discounts for bulk purchases, and then get a bunch of friends together, and also about military, senior and student discounts.)
Art openings
Maybe it’s called First Thursday, or Artwalk, or something else in your area. Here it’s referred to as First Friday, and it’s when local galleries (both college and commercial) and the city art museum open new shows on the same day. Huge pass here, because all it costs to attend is the gas to get us from place to place – and as I’ve noted before, it’s both a frugal and a cultured date night.
(Possible workarounds: None. How can you beat “free”? Bonus: Some of these openings even feed you.)
Readers: Do you ever sit down and figure out the cost of entertainment? How many of your pastimes cost little to nothing, and how many could run you into the poorhouse if you weren’t careful?
My $100 outdoor antenna has helped with $1/hr. entertainment.
The movies always screw me up cause I must.have.food. we do have cable but we are three people with 3 TVs who lots of international sports. I tend to be a wow value kind of person when evaluating such.
Wow value, indeed: If I spend a bunch of money on the symphony or a ticket to really good play, it’s worth it.
Besides, all the walks and reading balance out the expense.
An. Antenna and Amazon Prime make tv watching for us a great pass. Just this week I used gift cards to treat my SILand BIL to dinner as we’ve been staying at their house is being fixed from a sewer pipe collapse.
When I visit my daughter I like to cash in rewards points for restaurant gift cards. Any food you do not have to cook and clean up after is, by definition, good food.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
I’ve taken up knitting in the last year and a half. While I sometimes gulp paying $6-$15 for a skein of beautiful yarn, it takes me hours to complete a project and my cost is generally less that $1 per hour. Plus I have a beautiful finished product. I still have the yarn in a different for–it wasn’t consumed in the process.
I feel that way about my needlepoint habit. 🙂 In fact, I have to go digging through my small leftovers tonight to finish a few details on the Halloween ornament I am making for a stitching group party.
Sort of like the scientific law that matter cannot be created or destroyed — only changed in form.
And no knitter ever had enough yarn, nor quilters enough fabric. That, too, is a scientific law.
As I was reading this I was reminded of one of your blogs about the “manager’s special” discounted meat sales. I had been nervous but after I read the blog I went boldly to the meat department and I now save at least a couple times a month on discounted meat. It has be be something I like and know how to cook, but I am freed from my discounted meat fear. I can’t remember what you call it, but I know it was funny.
DF calls it “used meat.” I think it’s funny, too. Glad to hear you’re saving so boldly. 🙂
Many Artwalks and First Thursdays/Fridays have food and wine/beer tastings (at least in my city they do) so you get your “culture” and a free “dinner.” Our First Thursday used to have $1 a scoop Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, but they increased the price to $2 a scoop. Still, if you share the scoop with a friend, you’ll have culture, dinner and dessert!
That’s why I called “bonus” on First Friday: Some of them do feed you. One of the First Friday places here grills fancy sausages and other meat and puts out fancy cheese because it shares the space with a fromagerie.
Which reminds me of a really terrible joke:
Did you hear about the new fromagerie they’re starting in Israel? It’s called Cheeses of Nazareth.
#sorrynotsorry
am I the only one who thinks a dollar is way to low and for that price I wouldn’t have anything to enjoy? LOL I go to the movies maybe 4 times a year?!? probably less and my cable bill with wifi is $80 a month and theres no way I watch 80 hours of TV but I got it mostly for the wifi and im constantly on that so in my opinion is totally worth it. I hate cooking so that’s out walking as well lol but hmm maybe I need more past times lol I work to much food for thought interesting article
It does seem a little low. But heck, I’ll play along.
my wife is a painter and goes to first friday quite often in buffalo. we both appreciate your general support of the arts, especially local ones. dog walks are free, except for pet expenses, of course. my baseball streaming subscription was cheap enough to cover a buck an hour i think.
cooking is a fail by that metric but a big win for being cheaper than any alternative.
Ah, but when watching a movie you also get to count the time spent dissecting I mean discussing it afterwards. The debates that have raged in my family regarding ‘Infinity Wars’ went a long way towards averaging down those ticket costs! 😀
Hmm, I think my bread-baking hobby probably falls under $1/hour, especially with slower rising doughs! Also, there’s so much to learn and a lot of info is free online, like the wonderful King Arthur Flour website.
Mmmmm….freshly baked bread….
DF loves to make bread, especially in the winter. And I love smelling it bake and then eating it with butter and a glass of tea. I have been known to make an entire supper out of this, sometimes with a hard-boiled egg to add protein.
Homemade bread is the best!
When the kids were little, we made many an unintentional supper of bread and cheese. MrH would get home from work as the bread was cooling. While I was trying to decide what to make for dinner, we’d slice into a nice hot loaf. We’d slice cheese to go along, and before long we’d realize that we didn’t need to make supper, because we were full of delicious bread and cheese.
Sometimes I’d make a skillet full of cornbread to go with a pot of beans, and wind up eating nothing but cornbread for supper. It never tastes as good the next day as it does fresh, hot and soaked with butter.
Live entertainment can be free. We usher at our local theatre. For a half hour work handing out programs we get to see of $25 play free.
J Money is one of my favorite bloggers when it comes to finance! Love how he helped you and others alike take a step back to think about where all your hard earned money is ending up and how it does not have to be that way! Glad to hear about your budget habits 🙂