Early Retirement Extreme Forums

What's your favourite free form of entertainment> Mine is the library, by which I mean reading the books the library provides me for free.

My local library is one of around 8 branches in the municipality. As such I have access to all the books in all the branches and only have to go online, order a book and I get a phone call when it is ready to be picked up at my local branch. I can also get free movie DVD's and e-books. All in all, I consider the library one of the most valuable services available to anyone and it's FREE.

I've always been a 'reader' and average around 3 books per week. If I had to buy those books even at lawn sale prices, it would certainly mount up to a lot of money over time.

I'd have to say the library is for me too. I'm part of two city library systems, so, combined, I have access to uncountable books, e-books, DVDs, newspapers, magazines... you name it.

After that, I'd say any random art/music events that popup in the community that week.

Find free wifi at a library, coffeeshop, McD, hotel or whereever.
With a cheap smartphone (no carrier), go to reddit /r/documentaries.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/
Find interesting documentaries.
Using the app Tubemate, download the documentaries, saving them to the sd card.
Watch them when you have time, either on the smartphone or laptop.

To get the app Tubemate, use a non-google search engine, such as Duck Duck Go.
https://duckduckgo.com
or just go here:
http://tubemate.net/

Walking through city park and trail systems, trying to identify birds by song (in spring/summer). Library. Not quite free but for a small capital investment, I have derived much entertainment and social interactions through board game night. I watch one TV show via a cheap OTA TV antenna and/or free online broadcast by local TV stations. Online courses via Coursera and edX.

Hiking/walking, noodling with a guitar, fishing, writing, listening to Baroque music over the internet. There's an amount of startup cost associated with some of those--hiking requires a decent pair of shoes and appropriate clothing, etc.

My local library gets $140 a year from my property taxes. Not free! I've found getting the media I want through them to be much too time consuming. After accounting for travel and delays, I prefer to consume less and buy used online. I would prefer to opt out of the forced annual fee.

My wife, on the other hand, quite likes the library.

I find most free options have extra hidden costs in there somewhere. It might be my attention for advertising or competing with a bunch of cheapskates for space and resources. I am shocked how little it costs to convince some people to wait in line for hours. The biggest problem with free is poor quality of service wasting my time.

I tend to favor simple activities with minor financial barriers to entry. The local arbor is eighty bucks a year. The gym is thirty bucks a month. A well timed month of Netflix is dozens of hours of entertainment for nine bucks. I will happily pay for quality.

Cooking is also good, since I already have to feed myself, it's already budgeted for.

My favorite free entertainment is my Sunday bike rides into the country with the local cycle club. Usually >60 miles, so a fun day out.

Admittedly there are some small start up costs*, the yearly membership fee of £15 plus cost of club clothing ~£100 for shorts and jersey (£80 after rebates).

There's also a small cost of a slice of cake and cup of coffee (if you forget to bring your own!).

*If you were being really cheap, you could tag along without actually being a member or wearing the kit, but it's a small price to pay to join a friendly bunch, and being a member has many benefits, including discounted entry to velodrome, local races, discounts at LBS etc.

I love the library too and it is only half a km from my house, so that's even better.

My favourite free entertainment is cycling down to the lake and along the waterfront to Burlington. It is our number one date idea for the good weather. It's also fun riding down the Niagara escarpment (but somewhat less fun walking our bikes back up it).

I chose the words 'entertainment' and 'free' to try and limit responses. Obviously, that didn't work.

I consider the library free entertainment even if it does come out of property tax. I cannot avoid paying property tax.

I enjoy hiking, cycling and most other outdoor activities but I see them as activities not entertainment. I guess people would argue that reading is an activity though. LOL

Just to be that guy, I would argue any activity that includes social interaction could be considered entertainment. But I get your point, you mean some sort of performance?

That's harder, I guess I really enjoy listening to the radio, I've really become adventurous with my taste in recent years and appreciate music a lot more.

Umm... sex? LOL.

Reading, writing, gaming, long walks, cooking.

Dota 2 is free. Whether it counts as entertainment is debatable.

Well, I'm definitely a heavy user(+) of the library to the extent that as long as the city tells me that my taxes go to the library, I don't mind paying them. The 30 minute fireworks ($15000 worth of tax payer dollars) display at 7/4th is another matter entirely.

Quite spectacular though!! (We can watch it from our backyard)

(+) I currently---on average at all times, really---have 7 books out and 5 interlibrary loans on hold/transit.

That said, I don't look for or think in terms of free entertainment. I'll pay almost whatever [within reason] to access entertaining activities(*), but I try to develop the ability/skill to add value and so such entertainment often ends up paying me. Currently, I'm netting six-figures being entertained ;-P Should such activities cease to entertain me, I'll stop, naturally. But overall, I really enjoy trying to add value. Maybe it's from some INTJ drive to increase efficiency whenever I care about someone/something. It probably is.

(*) After all, my stated goal in life is not to get bored.

GandK, sex is not entertainment unless it is some kind of 'show' you are going to see. Have you been visiting strip clubs or something?

I completely disagree, OldPro. I think if sex isn't entertaining, you might be doing it wrong.

OK GandK, next time I'll ask my wife to tell jokes while we are 'interacting'.

Walking outside, reading, and people watching are my most common forms of free entertainment.

I don't grok the distinction between "entertainment" and "activity," but anyway my list of free-ish entertainment that's fit for mixed company is:

reading library books, participating in forums, reading blogs, recreational computer programming, bike rides to points of interest, podcasts, over-air TV, music videos on YouTube, playing musical instruments, pen-and-paper roleplaying games (OGL D20 rules), cooking elaborate meals, the local university's free movie night

OldPro wrote:I chose the words 'entertainment' and 'free' to try and limit responses. Obviously, that didn't work.

I consider the library free entertainment even if it does come out of property tax. I cannot avoid paying property tax.

I enjoy hiking, cycling and most other outdoor activities but I see them as activities not entertainment. I guess people would argue that reading is an activity though. LOL

Well, that's rather pedantic.

Project Gutenberg: It has 48,582 free ebooks which are in the public domain and has almost all of the classics.

But it is slanted towards having only Western authors.

If I remember correctly, quite a few books listed in the ERE book Bibliography are available there including The Making of a Radical, Walden or... any significant book published 50 to 2500 years ago.

If you are one of those people who like having printed/physical paper to read, getting pages printed from a photocopier could be cheaper/more convenient than buying it, especially since the author is long dead for more than 50 to 70 years for it to enter the public domain depending on his country.

Plato's The Republic is my favourite. Main problem with some of these books (at least for me) is I cannot read them for extended periods of time without losing reading comprehension or distracting myself.