This weeks Monday Money tip is based on something we’ve been doing more of recently.

Free movie rentals from our public library.

1st let’s look at the alternatives.

Friday nights are when movies debut in most theaters.  Price for 2 tickets are going to range from $16 to $24 just to get in the door.  Add in snacks and you have another $10 to $30 on your credit card.

That’s just for 2.  Got kids?  You need a 2nd mortgage or 2nd job to take the family to the movies.

Even if you go to matinees, or the “Dollar Shows”, you still spend something on snacks I bet.

Blockbuster Video was a great alternative we thought about 10 years ago.  I was renting videos when they were still on VHS tape, not DVD’s.

Then we started renting from a smaller chain, closer to home, Family Video.

This was our habit for quite awhile.  Here’s the problem:

We were still spending $3 or more for movies.

Why more?  We would check out 2 or more at a time in case one of the movies either:

  1. Blowed
  2. Was one that we saw before.

The friendly folks at the video store would never tell us that we already saw a movie, they just happily took our money.

So a few other alternatives:

  1. Netflix.  Okay, but you’re still paying
  2. Redbox.  Again, okay, but you’re still paying.

My goal was to reduce the cost of viewing movies to even less.

Enter the old standby.  My public library.

If I truly want free movies, I need to factor in the travel cost.

In Fort Wayne, we have a county wide library system which means several branches which means easy access to at least a couple of locations nearly every day.

Now we can check out free movies with a three day or longer checkout.  We can even place a hold on a movie, reserve it ahead of time, or renew it online.

Free Movies from the library have been another way for us to reduce our monthly expenditures with very little sacrifice.