Do You Really Need to Spend That Much on Entertainment?
September 30, 2016As the baseball season winds down, and my beloved Baltimore Orioles are in a downward spiral and may fall out of playoff contention, the big story on local sports radio is about the lack of attendance at Orioles games in the midst of a playoff race. When Oriole Park at Camden Yards (the best ballpark in the country in my opinion) opened 20+ years ago, it was sold out every night. 14 years of losing baseball, as well as some questionable business practices, drove attendance down over the years.
Several seasons ago, the O’s made it to the playoffs for the first time since the late 90’s, and the town went nuts. It was tough to get a ticket at the end of the year, and playoff tickets were being sold on the secondary market for outrageous sums of money. This year, I’m almost embarrassed to say that I haven’t made it to a game yet, and tickets are available on the secondary market for next to nothing. My kids haven’t expressed interest this season. Friends that I normally go with haven’t been all that enthusiastic.
It’s weird. If I don’t go in the next week or two, I will go a whole season without going to a game. That may not have happened since I was 2 or 3 years old, and I’m questioning why I haven’t. It hasn’t bugged me until today. That’s an answer that I’ll wrestle with on my own, and as I write this, I’m checking the O’s home schedule and sending a message to friends to make sure we at least get to one game.
While I wrestle with this question, it also raises the larger issue of how I spend my entertainment dollars. Along with the cost of housing, cars and food, entertainment is one of the big line items in most family budgets. Vacations, cable TV, movies, sports tickets, concerts, shopping, going out for dinner – there are a lot of dollars being spent on entertaining ourselves. When we are having a tough time making ends meet, the entertainment budget is usually the first to go. When it doesn’t, credit card bills can mount.
Most of the people I’ve talked to who are in deep credit card debt will tell me that they spent the money on “stupid stuff” (their words, not mine). A lot of times, it was because times were tough, and they felt that all they did was work, so they wanted to “reward themselves” with a little bit of fun. That fun usually ended up on a credit card, and a $100 expense turned into a $300 payoff amount after many months of minimum payments and high interest rates.
Here’s my challenge to you: Take a look at how much money you’ve spent on entertainment over the last 3-6 months. Are there ways you could have just as much fun while spending less? Hikes, bike rides on local trails, and a kayak rental at a local lake are all very low cost ways I’ve replaced my fairly expensive baseball habit. Rather than eating stadium nachos (now I’m hungry!) and drinking expensive yet lousy beer, I’ve been sweating and spending way less money while drinking water and eating protein bars.
If I can do it, you can too. Find one habit/entertainment source where you think you might spend more than you’d like. Pick a fun and free (or close to free) activity to replace the more expensive one. Spend the next 30, 60 or 90 days re-configuring your entertainment habits. I have a hunch you’ll find the change of pace enjoyable, and you might even be able to REALLY reward yourself in the long run.