DVD/Movie cost-benefit analysis

Two movie tickets: $16.50
Medium (quite yucky) popcorn, bottle of water, box of Junior Mints: $11.25
Discounted parking: $2
Friend who offered to watch child at last minute so both of us could go to movie together: priceless.

DVDs are easy impulse buys, which my husband G. Grod and I have successfully managed to curtail in the last several months. Instead we’ve been watching movies from Tivo (too often not in widescreen format. Why? I think only Turner Classic Movies and the Independent Film Channel get this right.), watching DVDs previously bought on impulse, or renting them from the library, though it has a prohibitively long wait list for most good, new releases. But tallying up the costs of our night out means that most DVDs are less expensive than a night out for two, even without paying a sitter.

There are certain movies, like Batman Begins, which is what we saw, that benefit from being seen on the big screen. Yet there are many others that are fine viewed at home, where we usually have much better snacks. Yes, Netflix is still a better deal than buying, but only if you keep returning those movies. We had the same three movies for three months around the time Drake was born. I don’t even remember what they were. We returned them unwatched when we cancelled our subscription. But perhaps impulse-buy DVDs are not the worst budget wrecker in the world. Plus, I bet they’d bring good re-sale if sold quickly at either at Half-Price Books or on Ebay, lowering the cost even more.

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