Spring Break! 10 Movies For Ten Bucks
SPRING BREAK!!!
Here in South Dakota the State Universities go on Spring Break in March. It usually doesn’t feel like spring quite yet, in fact we had a winter storm in the middle of it (should’ve used the Pearl Jam money on a snowblower). But it was nice to have some free time.
I had grand plans before the break as to what I’d accomplish. Organize the basement, work on my taxes, and finish up a couple of video projects that I’ve been putting off. But really the only thing I got done was taking ten movies off of my queue.
Back when we cancelled Netflix, I mentioned that one of the things I’d miss most was my queue. I was right. Even though we didn’t watch very many films via Netflix, I assembled quite a list. I don’t know when I thought we’d watch them, but I added them none-the-less.
So imagine my delight when my wife decided to join me in watching a movie every night of Spring Break.
One of the local video stores has a 5 movies for 5 days for $5 deal, and we’ve been anxiously eyeballing the calendar for a couple of weeks in anticipation for the occasion. During classes I would overhear my fellow classmates talk about what adventure they’d be soon undertaking, and I’d get all giddy thinking about what movies I’d get.
The only catch with the deal is that new releases are off limits. But who cares, we’ve only been watching a handful of movies for the past couple of years, so they were all new to us.
I know you’re all dying to know what we ended up with, well here’s the list.
DD’s Spring Break 2009 :
- Fast Food Nation
- The Prestige **wife’s favorite**
- Zodiac
- Lars & the Real Girl
- Sicko
- Stranger than Fiction
- American Gangster
- Children of Men ** my favorite **
- Atonement **both of our least favorite **
- A Death at a Funeral
How it worked was we’d stick to our normal routine until we put the kids to bed. But then instead of going our separate ways to surf the net, pick up the house, walk the dog, or chat on the phone, we met on the couch for SHOWTIME. The only problem this house of “fuddy duddies” had was that we were constantly dragging in the morning. I think the kids were late to daycare every day.
But it was a blast!
It was fun to have some measured irresponsiblity in our lives. The best part was that it only cost $10.60(including taxes). When compared to the $100 I spent on our last 10 films from Netflix, not only did we have a lot of fun(well a couple of films were downers) but it turned out to be a good deal too.
SPRING BREAK!!!
Until next time,
-DD
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Awesome! Love the “measured irresponsibility” quote, although I think it was very responsible on your part. Calculating fun as a part of your budget plan and getting it for a bargain makes the whole experience sweeter, don’t you think?
I also noticed that I was learning to enjoy the actual process of planning a fun activity and making it fit into the budget because it was something nice to look forward to (even something as small as movie night at home takes significance). There was an added benefit as well: during the fun activity, I had peace of mind and lack of stress knowing that it was fully accounted for and wouldn’t derail my budget efforts. As a result, I’ve found that I’m enjoying my few, but precious, fun experiences a lot more now than before (pre-budget plan), especially when they’re not accompanied by lingering guilt and stress that I was digging myself into a deeper credit hole.
You’re doing great! Keep up the good work!
No “Old School”? boy….that’s a classic 🙂
I wish you’d rated them! My faves on your list above were Lars and the Real Girl, and Stranger than Fiction. I’ve got Death at a Funeral on my to-see list!
@ Helen – I couldn’t agree more with budgeting for fun. Sticking to the budget will be the tough part.
@ Budgets are Sexy – Old School is a classic (of sorts), but we were trying to catch up with the films we’ve missed in the last couple of years.
@ bethh – They all were pretty good but I just made a quick edit showing which were our favorites (The Prestige & Children of Men) and which one was our least favorite (Atonement).
Woo hoo to a nice frugal, spending time together spring break. Nice Spring Break! 🙂
I really did not like Atonement either, I thought looks wise- it was nice- but the story and dialogue were awful in my opinion.
I did love Stranger Than Fiction though as well as Children of Men. Zodiac was decent as well but a bit too long.
I was considering signing up for Netflix again , just like everyone else ” this time i’m really going to use it”, but I may just do it like you did and save a bit of extra money 🙂
I love watching movies! I still have Netflix and I know what you mean about the queue! I love it! I think I have about 136 movies in queue. My biggest challenge with Netflix is getting to the mailbox. I check my mail once a week, if that, so I’m terrible about putting the movies in the outgoing mail. I have been able to make more progress on my queue, though, since I purchased the Blu-ray DVD player that streams Netflix. I’ve gotta say, that’s been amazing!
Anyway, good for you for scheduling a little fun in your routine. Sometimes we all just have to do that!