I'm trying to decide what to do about my Netflix membership. On the one hand, it's only $18/month. On the other hand, we haven't watched a movie in nearly two months. When the kids were little and going to bed early, we were sometimes running out of movies, because we watched one every single night. These days? Not so much. We have one movie that's been here since August—of 2008! Yes, really!
I've considered dropping out of Netflix entirely, but then we'd certainly never watch anything (and I'd lose my awesome 400+ item queue). I think what I'll do is try to arrange it so that we always have (1) a DVD of a TV show (like "The Office"), with two or more shortish segments that are watchable after the kids go to bed but before we do, (2) a movie that we might watch if, say, Steph is sleeping at a friend's house and we can begin watching at the stroke of 8:30, when Pete usually goes to bed, and (3) a kids' movie, so I don't have to go to Blockbuster ever again and spend additional money on their movies.
So, I will probably remove the "In From Netflix" list from my sidebar; if I do end up watching anything, you'll be the first to know (via my review).
I dropped down to only one DVD at a time. It's about $10 per month, and I still have the DVD sitting here for months and months. We never seem to be able to find the time to watch a movie.
Posted by: Elena | October 03, 2009 at 08:51 PM
I rent stuff i can watch on the treadmill or watch with the kids. Now that they're older we watch young-adult stuff together. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is popular with them right now.
Posted by: JP | October 03, 2009 at 10:27 PM
I keep my $5 a month Netflix membership. For $5 I get 2 DVDs a month and that's really all I have time to watch. BTW if you cancel your membership and then re-up even months later they still have your queue.
Posted by: Dona | October 04, 2009 at 07:41 AM
Have you tried Redbox? If you have one that's convenient, it's only $1 per movie and they have a decent selection. We recently gave up Netflix because we're so busy and the kids don't go to bed at 7:30 anymore. I also like that i can run out and get the kids a movie at the last minute.
Posted by: Sharon | October 04, 2009 at 09:22 AM
You might want to drop to the lowest plan that will allow you to do a Roku (that will cost you $100, but it's a one-time purchase); that way you still have lots of access to stuff when you have the time/inclination to watch, but overall it will cost you less. It's something we're toying with doing, because we seem to go in fits and spurts. Sometimes we won't watch a movie for months, then others we'll want to watch stuff and not have anything available.
Posted by: Mir | October 04, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Hmmm. Now I'm wondering why Netflix is charging me $9.53 per month for 1 DVD at a time if Dona is paying $5 for two! Is that 2 DVDs out at any given time, or only 2 for the entire month?
Posted by: Elena | October 04, 2009 at 03:40 PM
You can always "suspend" your account with Netflix and then reinstate it at a later date.
Posted by: Stephanie | October 04, 2009 at 04:22 PM
Elena it's 2 DVDs per month but only one at a time.
Posted by: Dona | October 05, 2009 at 07:16 AM