How YouTube can save you money
There’s a lot to be said for YouTube. The dull hours of yesteryear are long gone, now filled with videos of other people’s children crying on screen. But can YouTube be more than a passing moment’s entertainment? Can it in fact save you money?
I’m going to hazard a yes. As I come to rely more and more on YouTube, I fear for my abilities to read instruction manuals that extend over 50 pages and I think with amusement of the days when I couldn’t watch my latest favourite video clip on demand.
Here’s how YouTube can work for you:
Free music
In a similar vein to Myspace, YouTube offers a multitude of great live videos or pre-recorded clips, often of artists you’d feared long gone and only available in America. I finally realized what a wonder YouTube was when I found I could watch Big Star over and over again, even though they had disbanded before I was born and, as far as I knew, there were no DVDs out of their music. In that spirit, here’s one of my favourite songs of 2009, all for free:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLJf9qJHR3E
Free lessons
Feel like learning to play guitar, but don’t have the spare thirty dollars a week to get a teacher? YouTube is inundated with a variety of lessons in the most random collection of skills, from guitar through to embroidery. It’s self-paced, and if you get good, you can load up your own videos of your shredding.
Parents, try and keep your kids away from the free drum lessons unless you really like the sound of saucepans being hit at random for hours on end.
Instruct thyself
YouTube offers instructions on everything, from how to do your hair in a 1930s wave http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVjSeCZlm1A , through to how to construct IKEA goods http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkO3q9x7f8M . You’ll save yourself the pain of trying to read the ridiculously unclear instructions and avoid the need to get someone in to help you out with the project.
DIY
YouTube is a DIY fanatic’s mecca. There’s even an official channel, the DIY Network. Some tips work, some don’t, but if you like the weird and wild, then YouTube DIY is for you. For this article, I tried some of the DIY beauty tips, and can now save the dimes I would spend on teeth whitening products (an alternative is to wipe a strawberry across your teeth and then wash out your mouth) and makeup cleanser (use full cream milk instead). So I’ve saved some money from YouTube already.
Will YouTube save you enough money to fund your retirement? The short answer is no. YouTube is a dressed up old wives tale, complete with embedding characteristics and loading time. But as a fan of old wives tale, I think YouTube has a lot of potential to save you a bit of money every time, and we all know that every little bit helps.
The other online TV station to check out if you want a bit of brain food is TED and Slow TV – it’s all good and it’s all free.
At the very least, it’s free entertainment.
How do you use YouTube to save money or pass the time?
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