With the continuing squeeze on household finances, family entertainment is suffering. Holidays are being cut back, leading to more time spent at home. Yet the cost of in-house entertainment is also on the rise with price rises put out by cable and satellite. So what can you do to keep the family and yourself entertained via the box, without having to resort to extremes?

Netflix

If you have an internet-connected TV, or the ability to hook a computer or compatible games console up to your TV, you could instead of buying DVD’s and blu-ray discs at £5-35 a go that you’ll only watch once, instead stream down your broadband on-demand for a flat fee just £5.99 a month. Sign up via QuidCo and get £7 cashback, too!

LoveFilm

If your broadband isn’t up to the challenge of streaming realtime video, or the items you routinely watch are not available via Netflix: don’t despair just yet. The older, more established competitor of Netflix, while also offering streaming, allows you to order physical DVDs and blu-rays as well as games all through the post.

There are numerous packages to choose from and starting at just £4.89 a month the price is comparable to Netflix and still cheaper than buying a single title in the shop!

Got Cable or Sky? Haggle!

If you are out of your minimum contract period with either provider, it is time to give them a call to talk down your package costs. Do you watch every package you subscribe to? If not, knock it off. If you’re contemplating giving it up altogether then give them a ring and see if they are prepared to offer you a deal to keep you as a customer.

See my 6 Steps to 21st Century Haggling to help you win the battle!

Switch to Freeview or Freesat

If you decide to get rid of Sky or Virgin completely, there is nothing to fear. You are no longer limited to 4 (or 5, depending on your location) channels of rather dubious quality. Freeview now has over 50 channels and 4 of those are in HD, and completely free to watch. All you need is a suitable receiver if one isn’t already built into your TV.

If you go away from Sky, keep your equipment. You will still receive the ‘free to air’ channels. You won’t be able to use the Sky+ features on them though.

Get into Reading

If money is really tight then you could do worse than get rid of your ‘idiot box’ as my step-dad calls it, and delve into your dusty book collection instead. Those of us in the 21st century may have a book reader (did I ever tell you I love my Kindle?), and can download books anywhere, anytime, for a fraction of the cost of buying in print.

Of course if you don’t have one already, going out and buying one isn’t the cheapest option, initially. Consider re-reading your dusty library first!

If you have yet to sample the delights of having a LoveFilm subscription, then now is the time to try.

I’ve been a member of LoveFilm now for 7 months, and it has revolutionised my film watching. Each DVD has cost me just £0.89 to watch thus far, compared to the typical purchase price of £15. If I want to see something again later, I just pop it back in my list. I’d have to rent it nearly 17 times in that fashion to make purchasing it worthwhile!

ING Direct has an offer on at the moment for a 30 day free trial, and a £10 Homebase voucher to go with it. It’s worth taking out the trial just for the voucher. Cancel within your trial period, and pay nothing.

Click here for more details.

Being frugal isn’t about becoming miserly and miserable. It’s about making sound financial choices that will make you prosper, save you money in the long run, and re-evaluate your connection with consumerism.

Every Friday I give you my tip of the week on all things frugal – except this week I’m giving you 5 to chew on over the weekend!

Use a 30 Day List

Want a new laptop? Fridge? TV? DVD Player? DVD?

Whenever you consider making a non-essential purchase such as the latest DVD, or a big purchase such as a new laptop, don’t go and order it the moment you think about it. I know Stuff Magazine says its the best TV on the planet, but do you need the 72″ version?

The idea behind the 30 Day List is you write down the stuff you want to buy right now and then the date of whatever today + 30 days will be, and disallow yourself to buy it until that date comes round. You sleep on it for 30 nights, research it during the 30 days, and perhaps find something better or cheaper in the meantime. It’s also possible you decide during the enforced wait that actually, you’d rather keep the £3,000 you were going to spend in your savings account instead.

Count to Ten

This is the smaller cousin of the 30 Day List and is much simpler. Despite its simplicity, it’s still really, really effective. Imagine you’ve picked up a £14.95 DVD in Tesco because you really want to watch it. Before you put it in your trolley, hold it and just count to ten. Convince yourself why you should buy it right now, rather than just put it in your LoveFilm list. Still want to shell out £14.95?

Didn’t think so.

Drop a Price Plan

Mobile phones are expensive, and deliberately so. Are you really using the 5,000 minutes and 45,000 text messages included in your plan at £55 a month? Could you make do with 300 minutes and 300 texts instead at just £15 a month (or somewhere inbetween)? Even if you’re still in contract, most carriers will permit you to drop one price plan after a couple of months – if you can still fit your usage comfortably in the plan below – switch to it. You could save hundreds of pounds a year!

Eat Out Less

The old favourite! Eating out is hellishly expensive, and it’s not all that good for your waistline either. If you eat out three times a week (not outside the realms of possibility for most folk), then you’re going to spend at least £10 a time. If there are 2 or more of you then that shoots up to £25 or beyond with ease. I’m going to shock you now:

That’s £3,900 a year on takeaways or restaurant food (based on £25 a pop, 3 times a week for a year)! That pays for the TV if you really want it on your 30 Day List, plus enough left over to get the surround sound cinema system to go with it.

If your primary excuse for eating out is a lack of time, then you might want to take a gander at last week’s Frugal Friday tip.

Switch to Energy-Saving Lightbulbs

According to the Energy Saving Trust, if you replace every lightbulb in your home with energy saving equivalents you could save upwards of £45 a year or more. Most retailers have deals on at the moment on these, so there has never been a better time to go and grab an armful. They last considerably longer as well so even if you spend £45 this year buying them, you’ll make back that inside 12 months.

And you won’t have to buy any for another 3-5 years netting you somewhere between £135 and £225 off your electricity bill during their lifetime.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Got a frugal tip to share? See you in the comments.