The ultimate entertainment budget hack: Your local library

Bereft after finishing Heated Rivalry? Hoping for more Sinners-like thrills? Your local library has what you need—and it’s free!

[Photo: Maksym Yemelyanov/Adobe Stock]

Entertainment in 2026 is a bit of a double-edged sword. Excellent films and television shows are widely available in ways that would have sounded like science fiction just 20 years ago—but at a steep price. A single movie ticket costs an average of $16, while the average American household spends over $42 per month on streaming services, which adds up to $504 per year.

And if you’re anything like me, you may not even be getting your money’s worth on those streaming services. Often when I sit down to watch something, I scroll through the options on Netflix, only to go to bed an hour later without having watched anything.

In many cases, that decision paralysis reflects my desire to recreate the feeling of watching something I loved, which is impossible. (What do you mean there’s no show or movie that will give me the same emotions I felt watching Outlander for the first time?)

However, there is an easy and free solution to this entertainment conundrum: your local library.

Your library card will help you access books, ebooks, DVDs, audiobooks, and other media that can help you get your entertainment on for free—and can offer you similar stories to the movies and television shows that have captured your imagination.

If you’re looking to lower your entertainment costs, here are some recommendations for what to pick up at your local library.

With sixteen Oscar nominations–the most in Academy Award history—Ryan Coogler’s Jim Crow-era horror film offers some insightful allegories of racism and cultural appropriation within a tense and emotional vampire flick.

Claire's went from tween mall icon to bankrupt — twice?

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