Household budgets are getting squeezed across the United Kingdom. While finances become harder to manage, it makes sense to look for cost-saving exercises across the board. One of the first that many homes begin to cut back on is entertainment, be it gaming or streaming. However, it does not always have to be the case.
There are plenty of ways you can stay entertained while enjoying music, television, and games. Below, we discuss the different areas and how to cut costs.
Shopping Around
The first step is to make sure you shop around. From everything to your broadband service to televisionproviders, you may be able to get a much better deal. These are not just the ones in print either. Make sure you contact companies and try to negotiate a better contract. They may be able to take out things you won’t use, switch them around, or give trial periods at a lower cost.
Luckily, when households have less to spend on entertainment, providers become competitive, and this means better offers for those using the service. Anyone who is into iGaming will have seen the offers available on many of the competing platforms. For example, Bonus.com has comparative offers from providers of Book of Dead, a popular slot. Each site has various incentives and provides free spins, so you can play for a time without using your own money. By doing a check on a site like this, you can make savings immediately.
Dropping Your Tiers
Another way to save money without cancelling altogether is to drop your tier level. Several major providers of streaming and gaming services have introduced measures that allow this, fearing it is better for people to pay for reduced services than have them cancel altogether.
For music fans, it is fairly easy. You can use Spotify for free, though you will have to endure ads popping up before and after plays. If you use the mobile app, it also has an annoying shuffle mode where you can play songs by an artist, but not a particular track.
The major streaming services have also introduced ad-supported tiers. The only problem with these is many of them don’t offer considerable savings. As an example, the basic ad-supported tier for Netflix is £4.99 a month, while the next one is £6.99. That is only a £2 difference. The basic tier won’t have an offline mode and can only be used on one device, rendering it useless for most families. Thus, many will prefer to pay for the screens.
Settling for Free Offers
Of course, the biggest savings come from limiting yourself to free offers. With television and streaming, this is surprisingly easy to do. Most televisions will let you record from the free channels on offer, or access ITV Hub and BBC iPlayer. While you may have to do a little more work to see what you want to watch and record it, most major shows have terrestrial debuts at some point.
When it comes to gaming, you can also make big savings. A host of games are free, especially for people who pay for subscription packages. Some of the best games of the past few years have been free-play models from Genshin Impact to World of Tanks. You just need to have discipline and make sure you don’t get carried away and end up buying the new releases.