We all need a little entertainment sometimes, so why not a movie. Movies are great, because they run for a fixed length of time, they help to get our minds off of things that may be bothering us in our lives, and sometimes they are just plain fun to watch. So why not watch them cheaply.

Watch the matinee or early shows

Many movie theaters offer a discounted ticket price for matinee or early shows. This is a great way to save money because, you get to watch the same movie for cheaper, and sometimes there are additional benefits you may not expect.

The movie theater may be less crowded. The main reason why movie theaters offer these cheaper rates is to get more people in the theater than they normal would get if they had they offered the same tickets at full price. It encourages more people to go during their less packed hours. Look around, and you will see the difference. The benefit is less people in the theater, and less distractions.

You can expect a savings around 25-30%.

You will also find better parking, and there’s still light outside which allows you to do more things for the day, like possibly make up for that bad movie you just saw because you got tricked by the snazzy marketing.

Skip the snacks and drinks

Some of you like going to the theater and munching on popcorn and having that nice ice cold soda. The problem with this is the price. Theaters help to make up their margins by charging you higher than normal prices on the snacks and drinks. Think about it, if you were at the supermarket or store, you would pay about $1.00 for a 20 oz soda, and about $1.00 for the candy. But at the theater, you’re spending a heck of a lot more than that. Food at ballgames are cheaper than the food at the theater. I call this the “captive audience” effect.

By simply skipping this, you can save anywhere from $3.00 – $8.00 per person. You might seem like a cheap date, but you can always reminding them that you are saving for “our future”. They will either appreciate your frugalness or run away after the movie. In either case, you will be saving money.

You also get three additional benefits by skipping the snacks and drinks.

The first benefit, you save time by not waiting in another line. You never know how long it will really take. Maybe the popcorn is not ready, or they just put a fresh batch of hotdogs to cook (I know, the hotdogs aren’t really fresh, but you understand what I mean), or they just ran out of soda.

The second benefit, you’re helping to save the environment. You’re not creating additional waste from the packaging of the snacks and drinks. Plus you’re also minizing the chance of spillage, that may contribute to that stick floor.

The third benefit, you’re not putting empty calories into your body. I call them empty calories because the snacks and drinks aren’t really helping to fuel your body, they are just there to pass the time for your mouth. Take a look at some sample items in this article at Quality Health, that lists the amount of calories some snacks have. You might be surprised to hear that the soda and popcorn combined can total 1,500 or more calories if you go large.

If you’re worried about going hungry at the theaters, have a snack at home before you go to the theater. It’s simple, easy, and cheaper.

When you can’t find a movie to watch in the theaters, watch one at home

I have found that the movie theater expereince is just not what it used to be. I find that the quality of todays movies are just becoming more and more marketing ploys to get our money. So for me, if I’m going to watch a movie that will cost me money, that I feel may not be that good, I’ll rent it and watch it at home.

You have plenty of options for this.

Local Video Rental Stores

You can go to your local video rental store and get movies. You may find limited availability for some of the more recent releases, but it’s a good way to handle the instant gratifcation.

Pay-Per-View

Another option is use your cable or satellite providers pay-per-view service. You get on demand availability for mostly new releases. The cost will vary, but it’ll range about $2.00 – $5.00 per movie. You may even have the option to have the movie available to you all day as well.

Home Delivery

Another option, which is by far the cheapest of all, is to sign up for home delivery services like Netflix or Blockbuster that deliver directly to your door. It may take a few days to cycle through the movies, but I find that if you have a busy schedule, it’s a great thing. I tend to go through a rotation cycle of watch one movie a night if I can on the 3-dvd plan, this way I have one movie at home, one in transit to netflix, and one in transit to my house. The convenience of dealing with just my mail box and a website is great for me. I can adjust my wishlist any time I want. Plus for an added bonus, Netflix offers their own on-demand service if you have a computer. Just go to their website, using Internet Explorer, and you have access to some of the movies in their collection, that you can stream right to your computer. If you’re willing to shell out $100, you can get an internet device from Roku, that allows you to it to your tv. LG recently released a blu-ray dvd player that also offers the same option of on-demand movies for $400. And coming this late fall, Netflix is offering their service to Xbox 360 users with an Xbox live account.

Another great thing about so that I have one If you own an Xbox 360.

The cost for the service will vary depending on the number of dvds you want access to at any given time. For example, if you go with the 3 DVDs options, it’ll run about $19.00 a month. If you able to watch alot of movies, you can possibly get as many as 24 or more movies to watch every month. That works out to about to as low as $0.80 per movie. Your mileage will very.

Happy Saving!