Usually when we talk about frugal entertainment, the idea of sitting at home on the couch with a glass of wine will come to mind.  Or if you feel like being social, there’s always the idea of potluck and games nights.

After several nights in, even with friends, one may need to get out of house and just do something outside  It is still the summer after all. With the season being so short over here, one needs to make the most of it and enjoy the good weather while you can. Aside from going to the beach, cottage or camping, people often spend their time outdoors going to the festivals and concerts. While this is all good and fun, you and I both know that these festivals and concerts can get quite pricey. Not only do you have to pay for tickets, you may have to pay for parking depending on whether the festival is accessible by public transportation and overpriced beer and food.

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I used to go to A LOT of concerts back in high school thanks to the bank of mom and dad (I know, I was spoiled, but I’m more independent now. I swear). Nowadays, I don’t even consider going to concerts so much anymore. I find the tickets quite expensive  If you’re into that kind of environment, that’s cool. However, I will be in full agreement with my fiancé in preferring to go a concert at a smaller venue, where it’s more intimate. I feel you would be able to enjoy the music more, but then again it may depend on what type of music. You can actually see the musician/performer up close, rather than on the gigantic screen.

I know that this is not a huge revenue generating idea, but I think it would be nice if artists played a few smaller gigs here and there, such as the places they may have been playing at before they got discovered.

A more frugal form of entertainment would be to check out the local street entertainment in the larger cities, because it doesn’t seem to exist in suburbia. You get to listen to mini concerts performed by street musicians for a fraction of the price (basically loose change).  I’ve often heard musicians in the subway which is a nice touch to the hustle and bustle throughout the day. I’m definitely more inclined to give street performers (also known as buskers), my spare change rather than a homeless person because they’re actually working for their money and not just begging for it.

Busking has become so popular that cities even have festivals solely dedicated to busking to draw even bigger crowds. It’s great because you get to many different types of acts: from juggling to miming to breakdancing. It’s usually free to attend and again, all you need is a few dollars. I find it’s worth it and more enjoyable because the acts often involve the participation of the crowd. People get to feel like they are part of the act.

There is no such thing as a nosebleed seat, but maybe perhaps a nosebleed spot, if you are vertically challenged like me. A lot of the times other crowd goers will try and make room for you if it possible.  You won’t feel you’ve lost your voice or become deaf. You don’t have to stay for the entire show if you don’t want to. There’s also that freedom of being able to wander from show to show.

Have you been to a busking festival lately? If you were to be a busker, what would your form of entertainment be?

One of the many great things about the internet is that you can search for almost any product online and find several reviews on the product by people who have already purchased it. I’ll be honest, while I tend to do my research online on most of the items I buy and scrutinize the reviews, I have never written a review myself.

I’m all about helping people and wanting people to make smart consumer choices, but I’m also pretty lazy and can’t be bothered writing about a product review. Unless I got paid for it.

Which brings me to my next point. Have you ever wondered whether people actually got paid to write good reviews?  It seems that the majority of store reviews on the website seem to be positive. Sure they have the few negative ones here and there, but more often than not, the reviewers tend to rave about how great this product is.  So I think to myself, hey this product got great reviews and it worked for other people, so I’m going to go and buy it.  If it worked for them, it’ll work for me, right?

Not always the case.

My last two recent purchases were skin care and hair care products.  Both were more expensive than your drug store brand and from higher end beauty stores. Both products were recommended by store employees (each product was from a different store) that would supposedly help my beauty problems. I read the online reviews, which of course were mostly positive and thus proceeded to try the products out.

Unfortunately I did not see any results with either of the products I used. I knew the proposed effect would not happen immediately, so I decided to give the products at least a few weeks before calling it quits. The employees said I should notice the difference within a few weeks.  Nothing happened. I still was experiencing the same skin and hair problems. I wonder if the employees knew it wasn’t that great, but promoted the products anyway.

While I had used up the entire skin care product, I am still left with the hair care stuff that doesn’t really do specifically what it was so-called “formulated” to do. I still use it to wash my hair though because I didn’t want to waste it, but I am still disappointed I had to pay more for it than a regular shampoo.  I felt like I had wasted my money and that I might as well just have bought a regular shampoo.

I know with certain products, especially skin care, makeup and hair care, there is a LOT of trial and error involved. Thus meaning, you most likely will spend a LOT of money, trying out different brands to see which fits you best. I always thought that reviews would minimize this and help me save money instead.

I still find I am spending a lot of money because I haven’t found certain products that can help me in certain ways. You don’t always get what you pay for.  After I had booked my trip to Greece with a tour company, I was given a list of hotels to choose from.  I had looked up every hotel on the list and based my decision on the location of the hotel and the reviews on Trip Advisor. Our hotel in Athens was great and aside from the fact that the room appeared to be a lot smaller than on the website, it met my expectations. However, our beach resort was a different story. It was rated as a 4 star resort.  I personally considered it more of a 3 star, 3.5 stars at most. The beds were not that comfortable and the sheets didn’t feel as nice to sleep on.  The location was perfect though. It was in a quiet town and literally a less than 5 min walk to the beach.

I think reviews can be biased to a certain extent. I should also take product reviews and any review for that matter with a grain of salt.  A restaurant, hotel or product will always have at least one negative review for whatever reason.

Do you feel product reviews are useful in helping you make a purchase? Why or why not?