Frugal Entertainment - Online

The internet is a treasure trove of free entertainment; from watching video clips to playing fun online games to listening to classic audiobooks and more. Here is a sample:

Free Online Puzzles

Crosswords , sudoku , memory or logic

Free games you can download.

There are many great freeware (completely free) games on the web from strategy to role playing, including full versions of the original games of hits GTA and Command and Conquer. However some sites claiming to contain freeware games only provide free trials and you have to pay to have the proper game.

Tucows.com has a wide range of freeware software for Windows PC's, Mac's and Linux. It often pays to go to the website of the provider to download though as Tucows may not have the latest release. It as shareware and demo versions as well. Over 45,000 titles in total.

This site has over a hundred mainly arcade games.

If you don't want to download games to your computer or want to challenge others, there are a number of sites that provide free online games. Most of the games from these sites are quick to learn and don't take long to play, to complete a level usually takes a few minutes or less.

Free online games.com Has hundreds of bright fun online games of all categories - a few games have advertising that you have to wait for, even between levels. Recommended - Bushes hot dog stand

Miniclip.com Also has hundreds of games. None I played had ads between the levels and I didn't find any bugs. It also has massively multiplayer online games and worlds like Runescape and Disney's Club Penguin.

www.net-games.biz has over 1,000 online games. Lots of ads. Magic Pen is a great imagination and logic building game for kids of all ages.

Free Audiobooks

The following sites have free audio books. Most of these are mp3's of classics or older books.

LibriVox provides nearly 1500 free audiobooks from the public domain. Usually these are older books whose copyright has expired.

Audiobooksforfree has both free audiobooks and ones you have to pay for. Most are free at the lowest sound quality and you pay for greater sound quality.

freeclassicaudiobooks contains a mixture of free human voiced books and computer generated text to speech ones.

Free Fiction

Free Online Novels Contains over a hundred online novels. Some with pictures. If they're too long it also hosts a variety of short stories

Starry contains a few virtual novels .These novels are written by readers who add to the story as they read it.

freeonlinereading has free fiction plus some links to other sites.

And if you're a fan of Shakespare's works this site could be for you

Free Podcasts.

Podcasts are audio shows you can download and listen to on your computer or mp3 player. Use an free aggregator like Apple itunes or Ziepod to subscribe to or download over 100,000 individual podcasts on everything from gossip and entertainment to science and technology.

Free music.

Free internet radio streamed from a huge range of stations. Search and receive them for free with an one program like itunes or winamp, or google and go to their individual station sites. Or get a free customized radio service from Pandora.

Free video clips.

You tube has huge amount of videos of homemade and professional content. Or check out all video sites to see what other video sites are out there in the U.S and around the world.

Downsize your expenses

By reducing the things you own, you reduce clutter, reducing the size of house you need, reducing your heating and cooling usage. Getting rid of unnecessary stuff is the start of a avalanche that can save you thousands in mortgage payments alone. Cleaning the house out of unwanted and unnecessary stuff also generates a lot of gear to sell either online at Craigslist of Ebay, or in a yard sale. If you can't bring yourself to get rid of a lot of it, consider still going with a smaller house and using a storage unit for the things you rarely use.

Blog name change

I've recently changed the name of the blog from Frugal Twig to Centsureall - a combinational of Cent - sure - all, to sound like Sensual.

Keeping down with the Joneses

The Joneses are those people we compare ourselves to, our neighborers and others we see whom seem to have it all: nice cars, big houses and the latest clothes. But like a duck gliding serenely across a pond you don't see the hard paddling going on beneath the water. You don't see the long hours they work or the stress they feel as they struggle deep in debt to keep up appearances.

When you break it down, how much time do you spend thinking about your neighbor's, friend's or relatives' material quality of life? A few minutes a day? Maybe even less. Yet for many of us these transient thoughts guide a big part of our lives - what car we will look successful in, what labels to wear and how many rooms our house has. So we drown in debt also, spending like the Joneses.