Four cheap ways to entertain yourself

Own one of the best sci-fi shows ever for less than $20.

(Credit: Amazon)

After yesterday's free-pizza minidebacle (make sure to read my final update to learn how to get a free order of Cinnastix), I thought I'd shift gears and find deals designed to entertain your brain rather than tickle your tastebuds:

• DVD: Amazon has "Firefly - The Complete Series" on sale for $19.99 shipped. This is one of my all-time favorite shows. And check out the five-star ratings from nearly 3,000 reviewers!
• Game: Like first-person shooters? Newegg has Prey (PC) for $5.99 shipped. It has a lot of action, but very story-driven. Highly recommended.
• Music: Amazon MP3 is offering "99 Perfectly Relaxing Songs" for 99 cents. Choirs, chanting monks, classical classics--all designed to chill you out. A penny a tune! Beat that.
• App: Guide airplanes to their runways in Flight Control (iTunes link), a ridiculously fun and addictive game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It's a steal at 99 cents.

So those are my picks; how do you have fun on the cheap? Hulu? Your local library? Buck-a-movie RedBox rentals? Hit the Comments and share your favorite sources of cheap entertainment.

[GrahamNY]

Thanks Rick,
Appreciate your Sunday Tweet about the 750 GB WD drive from New Egg. I'd purchased the same drive for $10 more from Amazon a few days earlier. Thanks to your post, I now have two of them softly purring away in my desktop.
Keep up the great work!

[Jon34511]

I keep myself entertained with firefly all the time...only it happens to be the firefly vodka ice-tea I can buy down here in the south, its very delicious!

[rickbroida]

Sure, but is it cheap? ;)

[Jon34511]

It's roughly the same price $20 but the bottle won't least nearly as long as an entire series. Thanks! :)

[mmmbrains]

ooooh... thanks! This was a great show! Did you see Serenity? I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan.

[ktappe]

Darn, you beat me to suggesting Flight Control. :-)

[unwritten_law9]

Living in a dorm there are dvd's and video games galore to be borrowed and traded. So that's how I keep my entertainment down. That and the girls.

[bryanb867]

I like to get DVDs from the library. My county library system as a great online reservations system, so I can line up about 20 movies and they call when the DVDs are available (kind of like NetFlix, but I have to pick them up). I've also suggested several titles they should add to their collection and when they do, I'm the first one that gets to check it out.

If you already own a GPS, you could try GeoCaching. It's a fun treasure-hunt where you are told the coordinates of the 'treasure' and you go find it. Obviously, the GPS isn't cheap, but if you already have one, GeoCaching is free. Check out www.geocaching.com if you want more info.

[checodaman]

Call of Duty 4 (5 sucks)
ESPN Streak for the Cash
Happy Hour
Kickball
Basketball
Design

[cmsell]

Besides that album listed above, amazon has a daily mp3 album deal - usually under $3. If you want to build up your music collection but are trying to save a few bucks, this is a great way to do it. No matter what your taste, you'll usually find at least two or three good ones each week. I use the following page (and gadget) to following the daily deal:

http://www.frugalgadgets.com/amazon-mp3-daily-deal.php

[adhlssu07]

The album looks to have gone up in price... now being listed at $5.99. I missed out because I couldn't download that much at work, and you can't buy now, download later.

[newyorkcommuter]

Re: Music: Amazon MP3 is offering "99 Perfectly Relaxing Songs" for 99 cents. Choirs, chanting monks, classical classics--all designed to chill you out. A penny a tune! Beat that.

I only see this item on Amazon for $5.99, not $.99. Am I crazy?

[rickbroida]

Nope, not crazy. Unfortunately the price went up shortly after I posted. Kicking myself, as Amazon had that deal going for days...

[vocalbass]

so when it says complete series, how many seasons/episodes are we looking at?

[Masterface7]

The series is 1 season of 14 of the best television episodes ever, however instead of paying 20 bucks you can check them all out on Hulu free of charge with a few commercials
[url]http://www.hulu.com/firefly[/url]

[tlwingo]

Nothing can beat free. The $1 large beverage, on sale at this time, at MCDonald' is free, or is it. If you consider, attached to the side of the cup is a peel off coupon for a free DVD rental at Redbox. So, free is free, but was the drink or the rental free. Another chicken and the egg classic struggle if you ask me.
Plus, redbox.com will 'texted' you a code every Monday for a free DVD retail on Monday. Privacy worriers be forewarned; all you have to do is disclose your cell phone number. Since our family flick night is Friday, we burn the image on Monday and watch it on Friday. Thank you Redbox.

[ctrapp]

Dear Rick,
You rock. Your advice on the Soyo 22"monitor was first-rate. I'm now looking at it's giant screen, which makes writing and all the work I do here at my computer so much more pleasant. Filled out the two rebate forms, as you directed. Best $100 (after rebate) ever spent! THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE GREAT ADVICE.

[john94857]

In the process of finding cheap ways to entertain myself, I tend to shop online quite a bit (along with Costco). One of my favorite stores online is Amazon, which is very reputable with good service when you need it and often has good prices.

Recently I came across a pretty neat "filler finder" for Amazon's free shipping. It is at:
http://www.superfiller.com

Perhaps others will find it useful too in our quest to be, uh, cheap/frugal. :)