What Are Your Favorite Cheap Entertainment Options?

[ughubug]

We are going CHEAP these days with unemployment over both of us in our household. We love to play games and watch movies. What other cheap entertainment do you enjoy? What games (cards or whatever) do you enjoy?

 

[Nanisu]

We are big on games--I got two for Christmas, Mad Gab and Mexican Train Dominoes. We've had lots of fun with them!

 

[raebates]

The Furry Guy's a big fan of chess. He and our Baby Boy enjoy playing, but I never learned. Together we all enjoy Parcheesi and Yahtzee. We sometimes play Othello, but it's not my favorite. I love Trivial Pursuit (both the regular and the Bible versions), but The Furry Guy refuses to play against me. He'll play those if we're on a team together, though.As for movies, we like the old ones. North to Alaska is cued up and ready to play right now. I can't start it because The Furry Guy is reading instructions for a new tool he needs to use and gets too distracted by John Wayne. (He'll watch it after I'm out cold this evening.)

 

[mrssyvo]

At my previous church, our pastor also taught the married couples class, and had a contest to the couples to go on a date during the week, and the couple that spent the least amount of money won- $5. limit. Here was the "winner's" date They went to Sam's club for appetizers (eating their way on samples through the store) Went to Hardee's for dinner- buy one, get one free kid's meal- $1.99, then went to Von Maur's for entertainment. Von Maurs is an upscale department store in the Mall, and in the center of the store, near the escalators, there is a Grand Piano, with an excellent piano player, and comfortable couches. They had so much fun, reconnected as a couple, and won dinner out and a movie-. The lesson was, you can enjoy time with each other, not spend a lot of money, if you are creative.

 

[straitfan]

We like Farkle (a dice game that comes in a little film canister). DH also got a Pass the Pig game for Christmas that is very similar, expect instead of 6 dice, there are 2 plastic pigs with a dot on one side. Loads of fun!!

 

[susanr613]

Wow that is so cool Sue!

Games are huge here, especially the classics like Battleship, Monopoly, and cards. I grew up playing variations of gin rummy and am now mastering poker.

If you have even basic cable, you can still find some great old movies. Public television is offering a greater and greater variety of programming too.

Have fun and good luck on the employment front!

 

[candiejayne]

We have little ones so right now our favorites are Candyland, Kerplunk, Lets go fishin, memory, and Chutes and Ladders.

We had a couple friends over last night and brought in the new year playing euchre! When we do get nights out with friends, we go to a local pub, get a couple pitchers of beer, and play euchre, its a nice time and with everyone chipping in for the pitchers, it's not too expensive!

 

[flemings99]

We got the kids Giant Spoons from Hearthsong.com Was 16.98 Even my 3 1/2 yr old has figured it out. Best part is my husband doesn't "do games" and he'll even play. YOu don't need the game, just some spoons from the kitchen and a deck of cards.

We've had lots of fun family time since Christmas. If you have little ones, they also got the monopoly for kids--the one with the talking car. Both my 3 & 6 yr olds like it too--but seem to loose interest before it's over.

Probably won't work on older kids, but we have slumber party nights (just our family). We put the blow up bed in the living room, play games, and watch whatever movies we have or is on cable. My kids get a real kick out of it and think it's great to sleep in the living room with mom. Dad enjoys our bed to himself for the night.

 

[Jules711]

I just played Bananagrams over Christmas and that was a lot of fun. My mom & love 500 Rummy. My DD loves Dominoes (she's 5). And PUZZLES! They take awhile and are fun. Also, find someone that loves them and borrow them. Then it's free. Our family plays a lot of Euchre, but it takes more people so it's not as easy to get a game going.Love games!

 

[byrd1956]

Always loved playing with the Etch-a-Sketch. Going to the state and metro parks...especially where we can take Heidi, our little Maltese. Liked the games Payday and Clue. DH and I have enjoyed playing Battleship.... there is only the 2 of us so it works out great.

 

[babywings76]

Some great games that we just love: Cities and Knights of Catan (expanded on the Settler's of Catan game), Thurns and Taxis, Ticket to Ride, 5 Crowns (card game that has 5 suits, our 7 & 9 yr olds can even play and love it), Rook, Wizard, and some other card games played with regular decks. We play games with our neighbors every weekend.

Also, we have a vending machine type video rental outside our local grocery stores called Redbox. DVD's rentals are just $1!!! Very cheap date!

 

[wadesgirl]

I love board and card games, wish I could play them more. A few of my favorite board games are Othello (great for just two people), Scattegories (makes you think, great for 2 or more), Sequence (fun board game with cards involved) and Life (no matter how many times you play the outcome is always different). As far as other kind of games I love Cribbage and Backgammon. Taking the time to learn either of these games is a lot of fun and can make for some great memories. I still try to play my sister as much as I can but sometimes we only get in a couple games a year.

 

[gingertannery]

OMG!! My grandson (6yrs) got Uno -flash I think was the name. We played it over and over.. It was so much fun. I highly recommend it. It is better with 4 or more players. It moves quickly and changes so you can't get the hang of it and strategize....WE also played Sorry.

 

[pampermejolene]

Apples to Apples, by far one of the best games ever! I just got a new game for Christmas too, Backseat Drawing, it's fun too. And Scattagories is a favorite too. yard sale shopping is also a big hobby in my house. I actaully got Apples to Apples at a yard sale, almost new (4 of the 6 decks of cards were still wrapped in cellophane) for ONE DOLLAR! It retails for $18-22.

 

[scottcooks]

There's an awesome new DS company that has games featured on Ellen - "Simply Fun". I had a show in November and really love their Walk the Dog game, and am looking forward to being able to buy Liebrary - everyone gets the actual title and a synapsis of a real book, then writes down the first pretend words. One person gets the actual first words of the book, then reads everyone's out loud and folks vote on which one they think is the actual. Anyone who votes for your "lie" give you points. A game Daryl Hannah invented. They have tons of other great games - I use some at school and play many at home with my family. PM me for contact info for a consultant I know.

My in-laws are fierce card players. We've become Pinochle players, plus a funky Gin game called Shanghai - progressive rummy; very fun, plus Knock Knock and Hearts.

 

[wadesgirl]

There's an awesome new DS company that has games featured on Ellen - "Simply Fun". I had a show in November and really love their Walk the Dog game, and am looking forward to being able to buy Liebrary - everyone gets the actual title and a synapsis of a real book, then writes down the first pretend words. One person gets the actual first words of the book, then reads everyone's out loud and folks vote on which one they think is the actual. Anyone who votes for your "lie" give you points. A game Daryl Hannah invented. They have tons of other great games - I use some at school and play many at home with my family. PM me for contact info for a consultant I know.

My in-laws are fierce card players. We've become Pinochle players, plus a funky Gin game called Shanghai - progressive rummy; very fun, plus Knock Knock and Hearts.

Love Shanghai rummy! We used to play it all the time with my best friend's family. Her mom would get so mad when you stole the card she wanted!

 

[gailz2]

Our family plays a lot of Euchre, but it takes more people so it's not as easy to get a game going.

Love games!

Do you ever play 3-man euchre? It can be quite fun -- if you haven't played it, remove the 9s and it ends up 2 against 1 each game, and we play "stick the dealer" when we play euchre (they have to make trump if no one else has).

 

[ChefBeckyD]

We love Strategy games. Risk is really fun, and one that we discovered a few years ago, and absolutely love is Blokus. That game is addictive! It takes strategy and thought, but the concept is still simple enough that even our 4 yr old is beginning to "Get it" and be able to play with us.

We are blessed in that we have some family members who always get us gift certificates to favorite restaurants for Christmas. We got enough GC's this year to keep us being able to have date nights for several months!:thumbup:

When the weather is warmer, an ice cream cone and a walk in the park is a favorite date. We aren't movie people much - other than family movies - so we don't usually opt for a movie type of date.
We also aren't big TV people, but DH and I have discovered that we love to watch Dancing With The Stars together, so it's fun to put DS to bed, pop a bowl of popcorn, and have fun watching!

 

[jbarnhill]

I just played bananagrams this week and it was a blast. A couple of us had so much fun we went out and bought the game ourselves. I found mine on ebay for cheaper than the stores around here. Last night we got together for our final Christmas and played it again and even got my bf to play. It was a lot of fun!

My other favorite game to play is sequence.