When you have a tight budget, cultural products and multimedia content can sometimes be expenses that you cannot afford. Fortunately, there are tricks to know in order to access culture without breaking the bank. We have listed for you 5 good plans to enjoy culture for less.
You would like to go see a movie with family or friends but you find that the cinema ticket at over €14 is really too expensive? The first of our 5 good plans to enjoy culture for less is to track discounts.
If you are not eligible for youth, student or senior discounts, you can subscribe for €20 per month, provided you are a true cinephile.
If you do not use the monthly subscription enough because you do not go to the cinema often enough, the middle ground is to buy a 5-ticket card, valid for 60 days.
The advantage of this formula is that you can use up to 3 tickets per screening and enjoy a reduced rate to watch a movie with two other people. Thanks to this good plan, you save about €5 per screening!
Another trick is to take advantage of occasional events such as the Spring of Cinema and the Cinema Festival which allow you to benefit from a unique rate of €5 per screening on all films and all sessions. Note the dates on your calendar: the next edition of the Cinema Festival will be held from July 2 to July 5, 2023!
Today, most people subscribe to streaming platforms to benefit from a catalog of TV series and movies. But this represents an expense ranging from €6 to €14 per month on average.
If you can't afford to spend this amount every month, know that there are free alternatives. The second of our 5 good plans to enjoy culture for less is simply to sign up for the library or public media library in your town.
There are 16,000 public libraries and media libraries in France and it would be a shame not to take advantage of them! These local libraries offer not only books but also magazines, Blu-ray and DVD movies and series. You can find great classics of literature and cinema as well as more recent works.
The big advantage of signing up for the library is that it doesn't cost anything at all. To get a membership card, all you need to do is go there with proof of address, an ID, and a recent photo. This card will then allow you to borrow a certain number of books, magazines or DVDs for an average of 3 weeks.
For adults who do not benefit from the Pass Culture reserved for those under 18, buying books can quickly become expensive... If you are looking for a specific book that your local library does not have or that you wish to keep or offer, the solution to pay less lies in buying second-hand.
Buying second-hand cultural products is no longer taboo and it is the third of our 5 tips to enjoy culture for less! According to a Kantar study for eBay dating from December 2021, 53% of French people have already offered a second-hand gift for Christmas...
To find the perfect book or gift among works of comic books, manga or children's literature, you can go to Amazon and Rakuten websites, as well as the label-emmaus.co website (see link below). Sometimes, you can find books that have never been opened at half price and discounts of up to -90%.
For audiobook enthusiasts who can't afford to subscribe to a listening service like Audible, there is a free alternative available. The website litteratureaudio.com offers over 8000 titles to listen to for free. You'll find masterpieces of French literature by authors such as Marcel Proust or Jules Verne.
The equivalent also exists for children on the Soundcloud website: over 100 audiobooks have been made available for free listening by the École des loisirs. It's unnecessary to create an account to access these podcast-style contents on the website https://soundcloud.com/ecole-des-loisirs.
Finally, if you enjoy educating yourself by reading the press and subscribing to magazines, know that you can make substantial savings by subscribing to Cafeyn. This platform allows you to access 2000 digital press titles to read or listen to for less than €10 per month.
Simply register on the website https://www.cafeyn.co/fr by providing your personal and banking information. After a free trial month, the Cafeyn subscription costs €9.99 per month.
If you are subscribed to multiple magazines, switching to the digital equivalent will allow you to save several hundred euros in the first year. This is the last of our 5 good deals to enjoy culture for less, but not the least!
Author Audrey on 13 December 2023
Art and Culture : Music
Author Audrey on 13 June 2023
Art and Culture : Cinema