Manic Moneyday

19 Oct

A big THANK YOU to Verizon for not giving me access to the internet for the past 4 days!

Going with the theme of not wanting to give the cable company money for substandard service, I’m giving you a quick tip to save money on your cable bills. I’m sure a lot of you have heard this one before, but it’s worth sharing again.

Drop your movie package! If you’re anything like me you’re paying for the premium movie channels and hardly ever watching them, partly because they never seem to have anything worth watching. I like to watch movies just as much as the next Mommy, but like many mommies out there I don’t always have a lot of time to watch them. Spending the extra money on my Verizon bill just wasn’t worth it anymore.

Personally, we went with Blockbuster Total Access. But there’s also Netflix and Redbox. What we liked about Blockbuster was that we had the option to trade movies at our local store if we wanted to. Netflix does have a really cool set top box that you can get (for no extra charge) to stream movies right to your TV. I don’t think that was available when we signed up or we would have gone with Netflix.

If you’re not a huge movie watcher, then Redbox is probably great for you. For $1 (a night) you can rent a movie from one of those red kiosks you see at the front of most grocery stores. As long as you have your movie returned by 9pm, you will not be charged for another night. You can reserve your movie right from your computer at home and pick it up at the Redbox of your choice (based on availability). Another great feature of Redbox is that you can return your movie to ANY Redbox kiosk. Pick a movie up at GIANT and return it the next day at Wegman’s across town. Cool!

Let’s break down the prices:

Blockbuster:  With 5 in store exchanges per month.
1 DVD (at a time) $11.99
2 DVDs $16.99
3 DVDs $19.99
Subtract $3 off those prices if you DON’T want to be able to exchange at the store.

Netflix:
1 DVD $8.99
2 DVDs $13.99
3 DVDs $16.99
And you can watch movies on your computer or through your TV using the set top box.

Redbox:
Probably best for the occasional movie watcher. $1 a night, every once and a while you’ll find codes for FREE rentals.

The savings really do add up. Just to have HBO and Cinamax you’re going to pay around $22 a month (based on Verizon FiOS). By going with Blockbuster or Netflix you can save up to $156 a year. That’s more than 3 tanks of gas in my Jeep, almost 5 super jumbo boxes of diapers, a Coach bag (from the outlet store), or maybe a new outfit or two. Go with Redbox and I’m sure your savings will be even greater.

Got an iPhone or iPod Touch? There’s a Redbox app. This app is not affiliated with Redbox, but you can search movies, find a kiosk using GPS, reserve a movie and much more. Check it out before you spend the $.99 since it’s only got a 2 star rating. It’s called Inside Redbox Mobile. I have not tried it yet, but would love to hear from anyone who has. There are also a few apps for Netflix ranging from free to $2.99, like the Redbox app, I have not tried any of them.

Happy Saving!

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