Dollars make sense: entertainment budget / myLot

United States

January 8, 2017 11:16pm CST

I know that a lot of my extra money tends to go on entertainment. A long time ago I found that it was far more cost effective to rent a movie and see if I enjoyed it before purchasing promising sounding dvds. However I have found that even renting can get expensive, so I thought I would like to tell a little trick I've been using - which is my public library. Library cards can be had for free in most areas and a lot of libraries have a wide selection of dvds, as well as cds and books. While I began this tip mentioning dvds and movies - I have also used the library for books, audio books, and music (cds). It has saved me many a time from buying something I wouldn't like and showing me things that I enjoyed well enough to purchase and add to my collection. So, if you don't mind a bit of a wait at times, your local library may be able to provide you with what turns out to be a free rental service. Photo: Mine

10 people like this

11 responses

Lenore Plassman

@sallypup (69185)

• Centralia, Washington

9 Jan 17

Yes!! Exactly. Our library has a mobile service. I order DVDs through the library website and in a week or so, here comes movies and its free. Some is vintage movies stuff and some is more up to date. Its all free so I'm not griping.

2 people like this

Faye

@FayeHazel (40230)

• United States

9 Jan 17

That mobile service is pretty cool. I love using my library's website too

1 person likes this

Kokil agarwal

@amitkokiladitya (171988)

• Agra, India

9 Jan 17

Is library card free in your area?

1 person likes this

Yuki

@yukimori (10192)

• United States

9 Jan 17

They are here. I've never been to a library that charged patrons to open an account. You just have to be able to provide information showing your identity and that you live within the area the library serves. Once you have the card you can borrow pretty much whatever you want from their collections.

2 people like this

Yuki

@yukimori (10192)

• United States

9 Jan 17

@amitkokiladitya That's so sad! Our libraries are funded by tax dollars, so there are no upfront costs to use them.

2 people like this

Kokil agarwal

@amitkokiladitya (171988)

• Agra, India

9 Jan 17

@yukimori wow.. That is good. Here we have to pay a membership fees which is pretty high.

1 person likes this

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rebel_woman06

@SIMPLYD (90717)

• Philippines

9 Jan 17

How nice that your local library also lends DVS and CDs . Borrowing them would really save you . However , do they have the more recent ones ?

1 person likes this

Faye

@FayeHazel (40230)

• United States

9 Jan 17

It's pretty cool - They seem to have all the recent releases - however those are more in demand so often I have to wait to get the newest ones

1 person likes this

rebel_woman06

@SIMPLYD (90717)

• Philippines

10 Jan 17

@FayeHazel wow , that's cool indeed !

Yuki

@yukimori (10192)

• United States

9 Jan 17

It's a great resource! I wish our library had more of a selection, but it's a relatively small system compared to the ones I grew up near. I like to take advantage of their magazines, though... sure beats buying them! Speaking of magazines, I get free subscriptions through a few different sites. Mercury Magazines sends me tons of offers, sometimes for free issues and sometimes for an entire year. There's also Reward Survey, which gives you $20 in their currency for doing a weekly survey that you can redeem for a decent selection of titles. I think I got one of my subscriptions free through Value Mags, too. And there's Blue Dolphin, which offers up to 5 subscriptions for $2 all the time. Amazon Prime members can get a few different titles free each month through Prime Reading, too.