Valley holds many options for entertainment on the cheap

By Timothy Woodlock
West Times Staff

Need a little repose from the anxiety of rising tuition, steep parking fees, soaring gas prices, and relentless inflation? We can’t buy you a ticket for the Health and Wealth raffle, but we can offer you this list of money saving activities and tips that’ll help you take a load off without taking a loan out.

YouTube
It’s free and can entertain you for hours whether you mean for it to or not – everyone knows that. But have you searched “people falling”?
www.youtube.com

Cabela’s
Even if you’re broke, you can still come here and gawk at all the dead animals, get finger marks on the aquarium glass, and handle all the used rifles you want.
101 & Glendale

Swapagift
Perhaps the greatest Web site ever created, Swapagift allows you to buy discounted gift cards, sell or exchange gift cards you don’t think you’ll use, or even pay bills using gift cards. Jonesing for a steak dinner, but all you have is a gift card to Taco Bell?
www.swapagift.com

Coupons
Sounds obvious enough, but most of us fail to realize that nearly any business with a Web site has coupons you can print, including restaurants, movie theaters, playhouses, and nearly every other form of recreation.

AMF Christown
Sunday through Thursday nights from 9 p.m. to closing, games are $1.69 and rental shoes are $2.
19th Ave. and Bethany

Phoenix Art Museum
Admission is free every Thursday from 3-9 p.m. and you get to feel smart, too.
Central and McDowell

Bookman’s
Stop by and pick up a schedule of free weekly classes for belly dancing, yoga, swing dancing, and more. And, just throwing this out there, used books are dirt cheap.
19th Ave. and Northern

Palo Verde Golf Course
It’s owned by City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation. Eighteen holes for as little as $8, a bucket of balls for as little as $3, and cart rental is just $10. If you need them, clubs are $9.
15th Ave. and Maryland

Silver Cinemas Bell Road
Yeah, the movies shown here aren’t the newest releases, but at $2 a ticket, can you really complain?
I-17 and Bell Road

Laser Quest
Just $7.50 gets you 20 minutes in this black light jungle of mayhem, and trust us, that’s plenty – you’ll be exhausted when you’re finished.
33rd Ave. and Peoria