Movies on a Budget
We love to watch movies as a family, particularly on our fun family nights each Friday. Since we don't own a movie collection, I wanted to share some fun and cheap ways to watch movies without paying a lot for them.
- Always check your local library to see if they offer movies. Most libraries offer free movie rentals while others charge a small fee to rent them, but offer a larger selection to their patrons. At our library, for example, we can rent a move for one quarter a day versus the fees at the big video store chains.
- Redbox can be a great choice for frugal families because they offer new releases for $1 per day. Sign up for their email list and they will send you a code for a free movie. If you have text messaging on your cell phone plan, they offer a weekly code that you can use to get your movies free once a week for one month.
- If you have TiVo, use the TiVo Wish List function for finding movies for your family that you can tape from the channels you already are paying for. You can search for programs by type (Family Movies, Anyone?) or you can search by actor (Sponge Bob only please!) We use this on our DVR a lot particularly around the holidays because it can search for and find all of the holiday movies that I love to watch each year or it can hunt for ones that I haven't even heard of! We pay $4.99 for our DVR box each month, we might as well use these special functions that we pay for!
- If you rent movies from the chain video stores ask about signing up for their email list. Blockbuster, for example, will periodically send coupons to the folks on their email list for buy one get one free on movies or $.99 rental coupons. Using these coupons to get your movies can save you lots of money.
- Check to see if there are any second-run theaters in your neck of the woods. We are able to see movies on the big screen (just before they go to DVD) for $1 per person. Second-run theaters often participate in discount days during the week and some theaters offer family nights where entire families can get admission discounts if they come together. Just avoid that snack booth at all possible costs!
- There are tons of movie clubs that you can purchase and this is a great option for frugal families who like to rent movies often. I know that many families pay for these types of memberships and then forgo the cable bill and use their membership to rent seasons of shows instead. Asking for one of these might be a great Christmas gift ("Our family would love money to put towards our Netflix membership this year!") for the entire family.
- If you have a large movie collection and like to swap movies, Peerflix might be a great resource for your family. You can post your collections online and trade movies from your collection with movies out of someone else's collection. The cost on these is $.99 plus postage per trade and there are no membership fees.
What are some of your tricks for seeing movies on a budget?
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4 Responses to “Movies on a Budget”
October 30th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
I think a Netflix gift certificate is a GREAT gift idea, Amy! You can purchase one month’s worth for only a few dollars–and no shipping.
We use the library plus an occasional Redbox rental. We sorely miss the $1.50 movie theatres that left our area.
October 31st, 2007 at 10:14 am
We like to borrow movies from the library. We usually put the ‘new releases’ on hold, and then it’s a nice surprise when a few months later they just appear for us at the library! This is definitely not your fastest method, but it is free (!) and if you put enough movies on hold, they start coming in pretty regularly.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:15 am
[...] the details here Filed under: video [...]
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:23 pm
You should check out Swaptree.com They allow you to trade books, cds, dvds and video games for free. The coolest site on the internet.
Heres a quick video on how it works. Amazing.
Swaptree Demo
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