Ten Ways to Save Money on Movies

Entertainment on a Budget

Big screen, small screen – no matter where you view them, we love movies! They inspire us, entertain us, and offer us momentary escape from our day to day stressors. But, now-a-days with new DVD’s ranging from $13 to $25 a pop, and a trip to the movie theatre averaging $8 per ticket, this form of media may be daunting to our inner frugal diva.

Don’t throw up your remote control in despair just yet. Use the following ideas to save money on movies, and you’ll be able to indulge your cinematic passions even on the most stringent of budgets.

Visit your local library. More and more libraries are stocking up on children, family, and popular movie titles. You’ll be able to check them out for free and while they may have a shorter check out period than books, the savings and your family enjoyment will be long lasting!

Try swapping your DVD’s. Involve your friends and family in a movie exchange pool. Get together once a week or once per month to swap titles. Just be sure to develop some type of tracking system so that everyone gets their original titles back to avoid problems.

To expand your resources, you may also wish to consider online movie trading sites like Title Trader http://www.titletrader.com
Consider movie mailing services. If you are an avid movie watcher, services like Netflix http://www.netflix.com or BlockBuster Online http://www.blockbuster.com may have the program for you. You’ll save gas and drive time by having movie rentals delivered to your door (via the postal service.) You may also save money depending upon how many movies you rent each month.

Shop at your local thrift store. Thrift stores are a great place to find new and gently used DVD and VHS titles at extremely low prices. While many of the titles may be older ones, chances are you’ll find some great choices available to suit your taste.