Struggling to make ends meet? Avoid working at your local public toilet’s glory hole by following ZOO’s handy hints...

TODAY: ENTERTAINMENT & "RANDOM"

Become a TV star
A kind of silent, non-participating, behind-the-scenes one, anyway. TV channels always need bums to fill seats in studio audiences on programs like The Footy Show and Australia’s Funniest Home Videos. Investigate ninemsn.com.au to bag one.

Look past iTunes
Stop paying for Steve Jobs’ turtlenecks, and start downloading cheap MP3s. Download sites such as www.iomoio.com charge around $2-3 for an album, and 16 cents for a single — legally! Also, the Spotify site is a good way to listen to music for free and share it with mates.

Watch movies online
Order an extra-large bag of popcorn. Actually, buy the factory where they make popcorn, because YouTube is about to start streaming on-demand, feature-length movies for around $2 a pop. Movies on sites like BigPond are a bit dearer, but they don’t eat up your download limit if you’re on a plan.

Swap big-name festivals for doof parties
Dance music wasn't born in glorified circus tents sponsored by some trendy drink company. The scene began with impromptu raves in the middle of the bush, with no heavy-handed bouncers, nosame-same tunes and no entry fee. Keep ears to the ground at www.inthemix.com.au for details. Be warned: since the coppers aren't invited, times and dates are unsually annoucned just a few hours prior.


Buy last-minute concert tickets
Unless it’s an Elvis comeback gig, cut-price goodness will be up for grabs at some of Australia’s top concerts, with lasttix.com.au being the place to plunder.

Become a member of a street team
Street teams use guerrilla marketing tactics to spread the word on upcoming gigs, and in return for their efforts, are lavished with free/cheap tickets, records and merchandise. Plus, it’s a cool way to hook up with like-minded dudes and dudettes.

Trade in your old games
Conquered Call of Duty: Blacks Ops for the third time this week with one hand tied behind your back? EB Games and JB Hi-Fi have awesome trade-in deals, sometimes offering a free game for every three same-format ones exchanged, so part with your oldies, not your cash.

Buy cheap movie tix
Cinema Savers is a website where you can buy movie tickets about 45 per cent cheaper than normal ticket price, for most independent movie cinemas in the country. Check it out at www.cinemasavers.com.au

RANDOM

Take lunch to work
Eat out every day at work and there won’t be any change from $10. But a little forward planning can slash weekly food bills by $25 a week — that’s $1250 a year! Don’t go too mad, though — rationing every day
feels like WWII is still on.

Recycle
Understandably, you’ll never want to drive a Prius or wear clothes made from reconstituted elephant dung, but thinking about other uses for boxes and jars before chucking them will probably save a few koala bears, as well as saving you some dough.

Join the milk war at Coles
It’s already happened to our American and English brothers: milk wars lead to beer wars, which lead to meat pie wars, which eventually leads to all-out price wars on everything, with only one winner — you, the consumer. The revolution starts here!

Car boot sales
Often they have more junk in their trunk than Kim Kardashian, but sift among the crap and it’s possible to find some real treasures. Arrive early to bag the best bargains and decide what you’re looking for before arrival, otherwise hours will be lost rooting through mountains of nanna-trinkets.

Support lower-league footy codes
They might lack the razzamatazz of the professional footy players, but it’s hard to go past a grassroots league or Aussie rules game for raw passion, community spirit and tiny entrance fees. And without the cameras and expensive punishments, there’s bound to be some entertaining biffo. Even “amateur” parks still see their fair share of talent — Israel Folau is currently playing in the North East Australian Football League for the Greater Western Sydney Giants. More importantly, the queues for the half-time hot dogs are shorter.


Swap stuff
A few years back, ZOO ran the amazing story of Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian blogger who bartered his way from a paperclip to a house in just 14 online trades. Emulating that feat could be tricky, but lower-level swappery is rife at sites such as www.swapaustralia.com.

Live at home ’til you’re 30
With 100 per cent mortgages now rarer than airborne pigs, living with your parents and saving for a deposit has become fashionable again, much to the relief of Italian men everywhere.

Become a student
Already one of the million or so full-time Australian tax-dodgers? Then give yourself a pat on the back for securing three years of cheap beer, cut-price travel and easy sex. For everyone else, don’t hate ’em, join ’em.

Downsize nuptials
About to pop the question? The good news is that sparklers the size of house bricks are rapidly falling out of fashion. The current trend in proposal jewellery is towards stainless steel bands — they look like silver, don’t tarnish, last forever and Prince William’s missus has one. (That last bit is a lie, but she’ll never know.)

Get smart with smartphones
There’s more power in that rectangular piece of tech than there was in the first Apollo Moon-landing craft, so take advantage when useful apps appear. Why buy a road map when there’s already an app for that? Why buy a reference book for $50 when it’s $1.99 in electronic form?

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