Going out to watch movies can be expensive, especially if it’s something you do regularly. IT doesn’t always have to be that way, however. Below, I’ve listed some places where you can watch films for free (or cheaply). While these venues might not be playing the latest blockbusters, they screen out of the ordinary films that you aren’t likely to see elsewhere.

Click the names of each venue to learn more about them.

UP Film Institute (Diliman, Quezon City) There are two public screening rooms in the UPFI – Cine Adarna (the large theater) and the Videotheque room (at the back, second floor). Usually, the screenings at the Videotheque room are free, but the rates for the paid theater are much lower than those from regular cinemas.

Mogwai Cinematheque (Cubao Expo, Quezon City) The first floor of Mogwaiis a restaurant/bar, but the second floor is a screening room. It’s the most comfortable screening room I’ve ever been in, since there are no seats – only large fluffy pillows.

Cinekatipunan @ Mag:net Cafe (Katipunan Ave, Quezon City) Mag:net Cafe is beside Rustan’s Supermarket in Katipunan. The first floor is an art gallery, while the second floor is a screening room and cafe.They also have a Multiply page here.

Pelikula@Titus Brandsma  (New Manila, Quezon City) They have free monthly screenings of art films. Click on the link to view theirYahooGroups page.

If you want to find other free or cheap film screenings in Metro Manila, check out these sites:

• PinoyFilm.com
• Philippine Art Scene

Do you have other recommendations? Please let us know in the comments
Image by Cancia from sxc.hu

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

Almost the entire world is facing a financial crisis.  During times like these, it’s important to cut back on our spending and save for the future.  But is it possible to do that without sacrificing your enjoyment of life?

Leo Babauta’s new free ebook, “Thriving on Less: Simplifying in a Tough Economy” addresses the steps we have to take to lead more enriching lives – and save money in the process. A much needed message in tough economic times.

Here’s what you’ll learn from the ebook:

• How to create a simple lifestyle
• How to focus on “enough” instead of “more”
• How to beat the effects of advertising
• Steps on how to make small financial changes
• How to look at large, long term expenses
• Tips on how to change spending habits
• How to get out of debt

If you want to download a free copy of this ebook, simply click here.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all the readers Thank you for supporting Frugal Pinoy.  May you all have a wealthy year ahead.

To get you started with that, here’s a list of excellent free resources on personal finance:

Making Money Online

Internet Business Mastery (podcasts)

Entrepreneur’s Journey Podcasts

Blogging for Six Figures? Writers Take Note!  (audio interview)

Rockstar Personal Branding (eBook)

How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites on WordPress (eBook)

General Personal Finance

Money Saving Tips for the Holidays (eBook)

Taking Control of Your Finances: A Guide for Young Adults (eBook)

Pathways to Getting Ahead (eBook for young adults)

Money Matters for All Ages (eBook, I wrote about it here)

Thanks again for supporting Frugal Pinoy.  I hope you enjoy the holidays.

- Celine

What are the chances of the average Pinoy to get into Harvard or Yale?  Unless you have the grades or the money, or both, your chances are pretty slim.  But don’t worry, there’s good news ahead.  Thanks to the internet, we can access free lectures from these high-profile universities.

And we’re not limited to Ivy League schools either – we can access lectures from most major colleges and universities around the globe.

iTunesU

Apple’s venture into free online learning starts with iTunesU.  Basically, it’s where major universities and colleges upload video and audio lectures which anybody can download for free.  Participating universities include Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and many others.

First of all, you need to have iTunes installed in your computer to access iTunesU. If you don’t have iTunes yet, click here to download it.

Once iTunes is open, click on the “iTunes Store” link on the left sidebar, and when you get to the store, find the link that takes you to iTunesU.  You can then browse lectures by subject or by school.

iTunesU also has a separate section that collects lectures discussing the economic downturn we’re experiencing right now.  You can see this section when you scroll down the iTunesU section of the iTunes Store.

Open Yale

Yale University also recently launched Open Yale, where you can access full lectures on different subjects including Astronomy, BioChemical Engineering, Economics, Physics, History, Philosophy, English, and Political Science.

What I like about the Open Yale courses is that the material is available to you in a variety of ways.  For each lecture, you can download a transcript, an MP3 file, or a video.   Also, you don’t need anything except your internet browser to view the courses.

I haven’t explored Open Yale as much as iTunesU, but here are the courses I’m curious about:

• ENGL 291: The American Novel since 1945
  
• ENGL 310: Modern Poetry (I have unanswered questions about William Carlos Williams)
• PHIL 176: Death

The only downside to Open Yale is that it only has a few courses available right now.  In time,  I hope they add more courses.

Harvard@Home

Harvard University also publishes video lectures, but unlike the Yale lectures, the aren’t really college courses.  The content comprises mostly of panel discussions and guest lectures.  The lectures aren’t organized, so you have to scroll down the entire list to see what they offer.

Princeton University WebMedia

Like the Harvard@Home program, Princeton’s online lectures are panel discussions and special guest lectures. The number of lectures available is also very impressive. The date of the lectures also go as far back as 1998.  The bad news is that the long list of lectures is organized chronologically, rather than by subject – which means you have to scan the entire list to find something you’ll like.

Other Programs:

• MIT World, from MIT
• UChannel, from Princeton.  Mostly lectures on public affairs.
• Oxford Internet Institute, from Oxford University.  Like the name says, the lectures are about internet technology.

Although these free lectures  are great for college students, even working professionals can benefit from them.  After all, a little intellectual growth, no matter how old you are,  never hurts.

It’s no secret that I love books. I try to read at least 20 books a year (my former creative writing profs would argue that this isn’t enough). However, books are generally expensive. In fact, you’re very lucky if you find a brand new book from a major bookstore at only P 150.00. In fact, browsing through National Bookstore’s online catalog, the cheapest fiction book I could find was A Pocket Book of Short Stories from Simon and Schuster for 85 pesos. And guess what? You can actually download all those short stories from the internet for free.

If you’re an avid reader who doesn’t want to burn a hole in both your pockets just because you happen to love books, here are some frugal ways you can acquire them:

Where to find CHEAP books:

Used books stores. One of my favorite used books stores is Diplomat Bookstore in P.Tuazon, in the Daily Supermarket Complex. Scout and I acquired Robin Morgan’s The Demon Lover for a mere P149. When we went there this weekend, they even had a sale – some shelves were P99/book, and buy 1 take 1 to boot! That means P49.50 per book. We took advantage of this deal and added 2 new interesting books to our collection. Apart from the great price, many of Diplomat’s used books look good as new.

I also like the used book stalls in Riverbanks Mall in Marikina. There’s 2 of them there, and other stalls have a used books/magazine section as well. I found Michael Cunningham’s The Hours for P100 (it looked brand new) and a Woody Allen collection that was already out of publication (it looked new too, and cost me only P200).

The gigantic National Bookstore in Cubao (the one near Gateway) also has a huge used book collection at the top floor. Most of the books aren’t arranged correctly, but the collection is so vast that it’s unlikely you’ll walk away from there empty handed. They also have some great foreign language and art books that are at least half the price of their brand new counterparts.

If your local mall has a used book store, going through the shelves and grabbing a great find feels a lot like successful treasure hunting.

UP Diliman. There are several tiangge‘s within the UP Diliman campus, and I found most of my memorable purchases there, such as: A Small Killing (an Alan Moore graphic novel) for a mere P180, The Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams for P200 (it’s even hard bound!), and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway for P10. Just take a stroll around the campus and you’re sure to find a used book stall with UP student prices.

Online book sales. I just stumbled upon Book City, and although I haven’t tried the service, it looks promising. The prices range from P20 to P80, and I already have my eye on some of their books.

MyBooks.ph is also an option, but the price depends on the seller and most of the prices I’ve seen are higher compared to the prices of the same books in used book stores. However, some of the books available in MyBooks are very hard to find in stores, so if there’s something you haven’t had luck in finding in an actual store, you might want to try MyBooks (personally I’m eyeing some of the Roger Zelazny books on sale).

Another online used book store is Avalon.ph, where you can buy books based on their listed price or bid for it. This seems like such a great find for me, since someone seems to be getting rid of her Jeanette Winterson collection. The prices are generally higher for this site, so if you’re going to buy from here, you should opt for the books that are very hard to find (even in major bookstores) for the price that it’s being sold for.

If there’s an affordable bookstore I missed out on, please share it via the comments section and share it with other Frugal Pinoy readers.

Where to find FREE books:

Although there’s many ways to get books cheaply, you can also manage to get them for free.

Library. If you’ve got access to a public or school library, maximize it. Who says you have to own a book to enjoy it? Besides, if you borrow a book, the less you’ll fall into the trap of “buyer’s remorse”. If you absolutely want a copy of a book after borrowing it, then you can buy a copy of the book without guilt.

Swap with friends. If you’re friends with other bookworms, odds are they’ll have something in their collection that you don’t have. If they’re looking for new books and so are you, you can agree to swap books. You can take books from your friend’s collection in exchange for your own books that you’re willing to give away.

If your friends aren’t looking to swap, you can always borrow. I’ve discovered so many books I wouldn’t have read if my friends didn’t offer to lend them to me. Just make sure that you take care of your friends’ books while you have them (I even had a friend who’d wrap my books in plastic cover as ‘payment’ for the book loan).

Online. Websites such as Project Gutenberg, Wowio, and 2020ok have vast collections of free ebooks. You can download them and read them in your computer, PDA, or even your cellphone.

There’s also LibriVox, if audio books are more of your thing (a good way to spend your commuting time).

Other tips for frugal bookworms:

The following are general book-buying tips that don’t fall in the above categories.

Buy books from local authors/publishers. Generally, Philippine-published books are cheaper than imported counter parts. Not only are you supporting local writers and publishers, you’re getting books for a much cheaper price too.

Use the ‘balikbayan’ system. If you have relatives or friends abroad, you can ask them to buy used books for you (you’ll pay for them, of course). This is only cost effective if the book is really hard to find in the Philippines. Sometimes, you’ll find these ‘rare’ used books on sale for less than a dollar on Amazon.com (so that’s roughly P40 or less, plus shipping). Just wait for them to return to the Philippines (or wait for one of their friends) and you can get your books then. It’s amazing how many balikbayans return each year, so it’ll be relatively easy to find someone willing to carry these books home to you.

Being a bookworm can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. If you can enjoy books without breaking the bank, it’s likely to make for a better, guilt-free reading experience.

Do you know other ways to get free books? What’s your favorite used books store?

There’s a free personal finance ebook available at Mytwodollars.com . “Money Matters for All Ages: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Finances from Birth to Retirement” is a comprehensive collection of personal finance and frugality tips that may prove to be useful, no matter how old you are. This includes infants and young children, teenagers, college-aged people, and people in their twenties up to the sixties. This ebook also covers advice for retirees. This series was even featured on MSN Money.

Here’s a description from the website:

This e-book is the culmination of sixteen different personal finance bloggers who got together and decided to write a financial guidebook that spans an entire lifetime. From the innocent little infant to the older retiree, all the different stages of life are covered here. Whether you are in your 20’s or 30’s or any other age — you can benefit from reading this book.

I’ll be taking a quick look myself, and I might even post a review. So far, it looks like we can all learn a thing or two from this handy resource.

Click here to download the ebook. Once you’ve read it, feel free to share your comments with us.