How to spend less on entertainment

First of all you need to work out how you usually spend your free time. This will help you to get an idea of what you spend money on and make it easier to identify where you can make savings.

Consider things like:

• Do you often eat out?
• Do you often go to the cinema or theatre?
• Do you often meet friends for coffee?
• Do you go for family days out to theme parks or other attractions?
• Do you go for spa treatments?
• Do you go bowling?
• Do you often go to pubs or clubs?
• Do you go to festivals? Opera, ballet, comedy clubs?
• Do you watch a lot of TV?
• Do you read a lot of books?
• Do you buy lots of magazines?
• What do you do for entertainment on a night in?
• Do you go to sporting events?

It's a good idea to note down how often you do each of the activities, as well as when (day/evening/weekends/holidays), where, with who and what it costs each time. This will help you to build up a picture of where your money is going and make it easier to find cheaper alternatives.