With movie theaters charging $10 a person to see one movie, DVDs to watch at home are a frugal alternative. We are a family of five, so you can see how $50 plus all of those movie snacks would be kind of ridiculous for less than two hours of passive entertainment.
It is true, that we can rent movies for a few dollars from places such as Blockbuster and Netflix, but there are benefits to building a good DVD library of our own.
Many times, you can purchase movies for less than you would pay renting them. And of course, there are some free ways to watch DVDs.
Inspired by Nicole’s recent blog about organizing her extensive DVD collection, below are some of the ways my family enjoys a good frugal DVD.
Practically every mention of building a collection will include good old Freecycle, the best way of getting items for free. DVDs are no exception. It seems many people periodically clean out their DVD collections and offer their discards for free.
Best Buy Sale bins. This store sells so many hot DVDs that they must badly need their shelf space for current hits, moving many older or more obscure movies to the bargain bin. I picked up an obscure British movie with and actress that I admired for the frugal price of $2. It turned out that one viewing of this movie was plenty enough for me, but because the movie was so inexpensive, I could gift it to a friend who was thrilled to have it and watch it over and over.
This brings me to another great way to watch DVDs, and watch them for free…swap those DVDs with friends. You can both trade your movie or just lend them out for a week or two. I have one friend who has a boy Andrew’s age, and we always swap Rescue Hero, Jimmy Neutron and other “boy” movies. Another friend of mine loans me her foreign subtitled films, such as Like Water for Chocolate, and I loan her my British historical features, such as the Colin Firth version of “Pride and Prejudice.” Sometimes the same movies go back and forth so often that we joke about “our DVDs” and what should “we add to our collection?”
Other great places for frugal DVDS:
- Library sales
- The “previewed” bins at Blockbuster
- Ebay (buy them in large lots for the best deals)
- Overstock.com
- Goodwill
What are some of your favorite ways to save on DVDs?
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The Families.com Media Reviews Blog