It really is an awaking to see how much money and more importantly time we spent last year on entertainment. The total calculation on entertainment for 2010 is $1,541.57. Putting that amount into perspective, our current rent on our home per month is $1100. If you include in our monthly utilities I would say we are close to $1600 a month. We spent basically one month’s rent and utilities on just entertainment!
Unfortunately (or fortunately), there is no way to calculate the time we invested into entertainment. To me this is the greater cost than money. On just RedBox alone we rented 30 movies. If the average movie is two hours than we wasted 60 hours of our life on simple sitting and viewing a movie!
I have always felt the American society is hyper focused on entertainment. However, our family is hyper focused and on steroids when it comes to entertainment. This exercise of chronicling our finances is hard, but well worth awareness it brings!
| Company | Times Visited | Total Amount Spent | Recommendation | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1800Flowers.com | 1 | $46.52 | Ryan & Lacy Like | We had a friend in my masters program give birth and my classmates got together and put together a party for her. We all went in on some flowers and food. Lacy used 1800Flowers. It was amazing how fast the flowers came. You never know when you are shipping flowers, but I would definitely do it again. It was easy, cheap, and personal! |
| Anniversary Inn | 1 | $280.47 | Ryan & Lacy Like | All I am going to say about Anniversary Inn is that their theme bedrooms definitely sets the mood for a memorable night! |
| Aramark PNC Park | 1 | $36.00 | Family Likes | Aramark PNC Park is where the Pittsburgh Pirates play. They are a lousy baseball team (the worst in the entire league), but going to a game is so worth it. The park is set right next to the three rivers that converge in Pittsburgh, and it truly is breathe taking! The Pirates lost that night (no surprise), but I would go again just for the experience. |
| Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh | 1 | $41.00 | Family Likes | The Carnegie Museum is an amazing museum and if you are in Pittsburgh a must see. However, be prepared to pay through the nose. As a student I got in free, but still for two adults (Lacy's mom was visiting) we had to pay $20.50, which is just insane prices! |
| Design it Yourself | 1 | $78.95 | Lacy Loves | One of the greatest things I love about Lacy is her thoughtfulness. In 2010 my sister's mother inlaw passed away. Neither Lacy or I knew her well, but that didn't matter. Lacy went to designityourselfgiftbaskets.com and created a custom basket for my sister and her husband. The site created a perfect gift for them, and they loved it. It was a creative way to say I love you! |
| Downtown Smicksburg | 1 | $27.55 | Family Loves | Read Review |
| Gettsburg Foundation | 1 | $85.29 | Family Likes | Like Smicksburgh (read review) we love to take our out of town visitors to the famous Gettsburg. It is a beautiful and holy place that everyone should go to. The $85+ we spent at the Gettsburg Foundation was a CD travel guide around the park (plus books). You just insert the cd into your car stereo and you have an instant guide. Both Lacy and my parents went with us this year, and they loved it. It really is worth going to this national treasure and enjoying it in your own car. |
| Just Ducky Tours | 2 | $178.70 | Family LIkes | Okay, if you ever come to Pittsburgh I strongly recommend Just Ducky Tours. We did this twice last year when family visited and it was a blast! You're taken around Pittsburgh in an amphibian mobile. Basically, this is vehicle that can travel on both land and water. Lots of fun for both adult and children. Also, the stories you learn about Pittsburgh are amazing! |
| Keystone Fireworks | 1 | 126.11 | Family Likes | Yes, I spent over a hundred dollars this last year on fireworks. Keystone Fireworks is like every fireworks stand -- expensive and addictive. I am a piro by nature and may have gone a little extreme this year. The fireworks were fun, but at the end I felt like I had just taken a pile of money and set it on fire! |
| MCM Theaters | 1 | $17.25 | Ryan & Lacy Love | Read Review |
| Miracle Lanes | 1 | $22.00 | Family Likes | I don't think bowling is as popular in the East as it is in the West. We had a devil of time trying to find a bowling alley, and when we found Miracle Lanes it wasn't easy to get to (it's hidden behind a building). However, we had a lot of fun, and will hopefully go more often in 2011. |
| Nationality Room | 3 | $36.00 | Family Likes | One thing I love about Pittsburgh is how diverse it is. The University of Pittsburgh (aka The Pitt) has capitalized on the many cultures found in this great city. When you visit their campus they have an entire floor of their administration building dedicated to the different nationalities around the world. Basically, they decorated 35 different classrooms to show a different culture for each classroom. You rent a tape recorder and go into each classroom and hear the history behind the classroom. This is another activity that we like to take visitors to. It's not expensive and Pitt has done an amazing job! |
| Netflix | 7 | $58.79 | Family Likes | Read Review |
| Oaks Theater | 4 | $67.00 | Ryan & Lacy Like | Lacy and I feel like we found a hidden gem in Pittsburgh when it comes to the Oaks Theater. You can't tell from the outside, but the Oaks Theater is a magnificent early 20th century movie theatre. It is in fantastic condition and is a lot of fun to watch movies at. Also, if you go you have to try out their many flavors of popcorn. Lacy loves their jalapeno flavor! |
| Pandora.com | 1 | $36.00 | Ryan Likes | I probably listen to Pandora about 10 to 12 hours a day. I work alone, and so I just put on my headphones and jam away (yes, I am listening to Pandora now). The best thing I did was to buy an annual membership. No longer do I have to listen to ads, which in a 12 hour period is really, really nice! |
| Pittsburg Irish | 1 | $24.00 | Family Likes | Our oldest daughter is a fiery red head. She is almost 2 but full of personality. Last year we took her to the Irish festival in Pittsburgh and it was a lot of fun to have so many people stop us asking if our little girl was Irish. Seriously, though the Irish festival was a lot of fun. There is a booth for just about anything, and of course the yummiest (and fattiest) food you will ever eat! So much fun. It is something we will definitely do this year! |
| Pittsburgh Zoo | 1 | $23.54 | Family Likes | The Pittsburgh Zoo is only three miles from our house, but we only went once in 2010. However, it was a lot of fun. We went for Halloween and all of us dressed up. Lacy had our family do a theme. She was eight months pregnant and felt like a bloated cow. So her and I our oldest daughter were cows, while I was a farmer. We fit right in with the rest of the zoo! |
| RedBox | 35 | $128.40 | Family Likes | We have a love hate relationship with Redbox in our house. We love the convenience Redbox brings to our evenings, and who can argue with the price! However, this year we spent more in late fees and lost DVDs than we did in actually renting a movie. Here's the breakdown. We spent $75 in replacing lost DVDs and had $23 in late fees. If you subtract this amount from our overall cost you can see that we only actually rented 30 movies for 2010 (which is still crazy!). |
| SandCastle | 1 | $102.50 | Family Likes | We are big fans of amusements and water parks. SandCastle is a mixture of both (though, more on the water park side). Lacy and our daughter are practically fish and love the water. If there was an animal that was allergic to water that would be me. So, SandCastle isn't my cup of tea, but it is still worth going to at least once. |
| AMC Loews Waterfront | 2 | $36.00 | Ryan & Lacy Like | When you have children you don't seem to get to go to movies as often as you like (particularly new releases). However, Lacy and I for our dates nights will sometimes venture into Pittsburgh and go to the Waterfront. With tickets at $9 a pop it's not something we try to do too often. Waterfront, though, is one of the better theaters I've been do. Modern and big is an easy way to describe it. |
| Waterworks Cinema | 5 | $89.50 | Ryan Dislikes | What I find interesting is that Lacy and I went to the AMC theater twice in 2010 and spent $36 for our movies. However, in the two times we went we spent an average of $48.25 on snacks (piggers.com is an adequate domain for us). I don't know if I am more appalled at the prices or at us for willingly buying such outrageously priced snacks! |