I get very easily distracted. Sometimes it’s hard for me to focus on anything for longer than 20 minutes. Unfortunately, the way I have trained myself to handle this it by keeping white noise around me: TV, radio, clanking dishes, filling my day with general distractions to keep my “Oooh, shiny!” complex to a minimum.

But without Mr. Modern Tightwad here (He’s already in Portland going through training.), it’s a little quiet and awfully lonely. Even FrugalPup is intermittently sighing and sulking without his daddy.

Enter my distraction trifecta: Hulu, Netflix, and Pandora. All three of these sites are completely free and offer quality mindless entertainment. I just set my laptop up in the shelf, turn on my favorite shows, and listen/watch while I roll glassware in newsprint.

Hulu is a widely known free internet TV site. Many of my favorite shows such as Fringe, Burn Notice, Chuck, and Dollhouse (three cheers for a season two) are available the day after airing. I’ve also found a new show called Kingdom that I adore. If I had to pay for cable to watch these, it would easily cost me almost $60 a month. Hulu saves me almost $720 a year, and it’s watch on demand.

Netflix everyone knows. But did you know I’ve been watching this season of NCIS for the past few nights? While Netflix is known best as the “no late fees” company, it’s “Watch Instantly” feature is easily my favorite. And it’s included in my $8.99 monthly fee. Many people in the blogosphere seem to prefer redbox, but for me, I know better. Nine dollars is far less than I would pay in late fees, I don’t have to go to a McDonald’s, and I find some pretty rare and/or expensive dvds. How else can you watch every episode of Murder, She Wrote without a raised eyebrow from anyone?

The real goldmine, however, is Pandora. Pandora is a music experiment of sorts. You do have to sign up, but so far it appears that handing them my e-mail address did not make a deal with the devil, telemarketers, internet spammers, viruses or other parasites of the universe. You plug in an artist, album, or similar, and they group together different songs, artists, and pieces you should like. If you don’t, you give it a thumbs down or you skip it. Right now, my playlist has Jimi Hendrix, Zero 7, Gotan Project, Matisyahu, and a wide variety of others. What I appreciate is it gives me free access to music I like, and exposes me to music that I generally love.

All of these options are completely legal and, as of this posting, free. I would love to chat more, but Agent Gibbs is calling me.

Andi B.

Andi B.