Alt-Weeklies: A Boon to the Thrifty?
By AAN Staff
january 29, 2008 08:56 am
"These free periodicals are causing me to fill more time with reading (which has no cost) and less time with watching television or playing a computer game (which costs electricity, cable, internet, etc.)," writes the penny-pinching proprietor of the Are You Rich? blog. (S)he totals the amount of money saved per year by doing so at $5. "It doesn't seem like much, but consider another factor: the local alternative newspaper often has passionate writers and detailed community event listings. I've discovered several free events that I've attended that, without the alternative papers, I would have never been aware of them." That point was echoed in this weekend's
New York Times, which had a piece looking at ways that New Yorkers are scaling back spending as they prepare for an economic downturn. One 29-year-old teacher "has reduced her spending ... [by] only buying paper goods on sale, tempering her hair product demands and scouring the
Village Voice for local artists playing free concerts."
