WFMW - Red Box and Free Movie

Is it Wednesday already?  Man, the kids are out of school for one day and I lose all sense of time.  I feel like it should be Thursday or something...

Anyway,  I have to share with you my movie rental places.  These are my top four places to get movies.

Library - because they're free and I'm cheap frugal.  I've been able to get pretty new releases from there and they're not just for the kids.

Friends - We're blessed to have lots of friends who buy movies.  We're even more blessed that they share.

Netflix - If I had my way, I'd be back on Netflix in a flash.  (But since we said we would cut down in areas and it's an extra, it had to go.)  I love the whole idea of having the movie delivered to your door and then you return it when you feel like returning it.  We were on the four at a time plan and my lands, we had so many choices.  And I would get in my que and rearrange the selections all the time.  It's the first thing coming back when we're back in the "I can spend that" mode.  

Red Box - You know those red boxes that take up lots of space at McDonalds (and some Wal-Marts, too).  They are movie rental boxes and it only costs $1 (plus tax) to rent from them.  For the LONGEST time I wanted to rent from it, but I was too chicken to go up to it and figure it out in front of anybody.  But one day, some mother was up there and I grabbed my card, ran up to her, gulped and said (really fast, I should add), "I'vewantedtorentfromit,butI'veneverdoneit. CanIwatchyoudoitsothatIknowwhattodo?"  

She looked at me for one second and then busted out laughing.  "Honey, I know how you feel.  Let me show you how easy this is and you'll be here all the time."  So she walked me through step by step (which are very few) and within five minutes I had a new movie for $1.  Now I can whiz through the process in a two minutes and walk out the door.

There are a couple of things that you need to know about Red Box, though.

1. You must use your credit card to rent the movie.  It's how they keep track of movies and late payment.  After a certain amount of time, if the movie hasn't been returned, your credit card is charged for the movie.  If you're just late, the card is charged $1/day.
2. You have the movie until 9 PM the following day.  
3. Once I went in for Ratatouille and I couldn't find it on the listing, even though the advertisement on the box showed it was due out the day before.  To prevent the rental of movies that are not available, the Red Box system removes them from the touch screen.  So the movie may be out for the public, but that particular box is out of them.
4. Red Box has on-line rentals too.  If you want to know if a Red Box has a movie available, you select your movie and find the available boxes that have them.  You can PRE-PAY for your movie and the Red Box at the place you select will RESERVE the movie for you.  Woo hoo!  No more driving to a box to find out that a movie is unavailable!
5. When you sign up on-line, Red Box will email you a free movie rental code to be used at any Red Box.  You will checkout with your credit card as usual, but when you finish your process, you put in the special code and it will give you a free rental.  

For some other great ideas, head to Shannon's place.

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