A number of friends and coworkers have been renting DVD sets recently from Netflix and Blockbuster online in order to catch up on early seasons of shows like 24 or CSI (pick on of the 15 out there).
This leads me to my newest scheme to get rid of cable. All we seem to watch, other than local news, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, are shows that eventually end up on DVD. For instance, here is our “Approved” show list this season:
House, 24, Gilmore Girls, 7th Heaven, ER, Scrubs, One Tree Hill, Lost, and Heroes.
We belong to Blockbuster Online. We could simply rent the DVDs after the season and watch the whole show in a week. Oh, and we could just cancel cable and buy a decent antenna to receive the signal in case we want to see awesome shows like Deal or No Deal or The Price is Right.
Savings: $240 per year (we just have basic cable).
But, do we have the discipline to not flip on the TV when we want to see Hugh Laurie, who seems to be the sexiest man on TV in my wife’s eyes. We’ll have to mull this idea over some more. Maybe Hugh will tell us what we should do. *grumble*
That’s exactly what I do, but instead of renting them from Netflix or Blockbuster I rent them for free from my library. I go online to the library site, enter in my account, and reserve the DVDs I want to rent. Then, I get an email when they are ready for me to pick up. I sometimes have to wait a few months for the really hot new releases, but anything else just takes a few days until it’s ready for me to pick up.
The best part? It’s free and I have a 2 week rental 🙂
I always forget about the library! It’s only a mile from my house, and I walk close to it from the metro each day, but Blockbuster has been so easy and available that it’s hard not to stay with it.
I don’t think I can do without basic cable. I have a formed a close bond with the Lifetime channel. I’m a 23 year old ‘Golden Girls’ fanatic. If it comes on a basic channel, then maybe. But unti then I have to pay the ridiculous price for cable. I use to subscribe to Blockbuster online. I read and surf the net a lot so even watch a lot of movies so I subscribed to the basic for $5.99. But I got 4 movies a month which was good for me. I ended up canceling it because my best friend just has to go to the theater. I guess he enjoys the experience and I don’t believe in paying to go to the theater and for Blockbuster online and cable. Whenever there’s a movie I want to see I go to the grocery store and rent it for $1.
I may start checking out movies from the library. I have to see what they have available. I’m trying to cut back on my entertainment spending as much as I can.
I’m glad someone else already metioned the library. As a librarian and PF blogger, I am like a broken record commenting on various blogs that instead of thinking used bookstore or video rental think LIBRARY! In most cases you’re already paying for your library through taxes, so the more that circulates the more supporting stas for the library to continue collect these materials.