Happy Friday: How One Reader Never Pays for Movie Rentals
Sent from reader, Char:
Instead of paying for Redbox movies, I have been making a huge list of movies I would like to rent, including new releases and old movies. Then, I login to my library card online and I put a hold on all of the movies I would like to rent. My library lets me have 25 holds at a time. Then when they email me about my holds being ready to pick up, I head into the library, pick up my holds off the shelf and do the self checkout. Once I have checked them out, I go back online and put holds on more movies on my list. I have been watching a ton of movies lately that I’ve never seen before, and all for free!
HAPPY FRIDAY!
Do you have a funny, “Hip”, or unique photo to share?! Email us at happyfriday@hip2save.com. Every Friday, we post one photo, submitted by a Hip2Save reader, that gives us a glimpse into their frugal lifestyle or simply makes us smile. If your photo is published on Hip2Save, we’ll email you a $10 Amazon e-card!
Awesome idea!! Thanks for sharing!!
You’re so welcome!
We do this too! Hello library, goodbye Netflix 🙂
You can also rent video games from the library and they have free video game nights for kids at the libraries near me.
I did this for years until I had a baby and got so behind on watching movies. I still owe the library fines from that time period.
Haha me too
My library used to have dvds to checkout for free, but now they charge 🙁
Mine too
You can try going to a different library in the area and asking if they fine according to another library.
Also, you can give them recommendations of what movies you would like to have in the library. They would email me when they came in! 🙂
I have been doing this for years. I do it for the adults and for the kid movies. It works out great.
We do this for lots of children’s movies. There are lots of classics and even disney movies at our library. Many aren’t available to rent at redbox so we would have to buy them if we wanted to see them.
My local library offers movies and they have video games too. It has saved us a lot of money! You can keep the games for a week so my son has actually finished a game in that time or realized he didn’t like it at all. Sure beats buying a game that can’t be returned or not played with much after it’s been completed. We do enjoy the movies too!
Do they just go to the library?
Yes 🙂
Lol I didn’t even have to read it! Who doesn’t know this?
🙂 Sarcasm is lost online for me 😉 enjoy the weekend!
Yea, if you don’t already have a card get one when you stop by. Then You can use the card through the online library catalogue and reserve what interests you. Some holds are longer than other. Supply and demand.
And remember, when you go to the online catalog you can search the whole network your local libraries cover, NOT only your local library! I get movies and books in Spanish from towns I didnt even know exist!
We do that too!
I do this too—–my library doesn’t have a limit on holds. Right now I’m approaching 100!
Genius!
Really? Who doesn’t know you can rent from the library for free?
People who don’t normally go to the library most likely.
My library’s Dvds don’t work fine and are scratched moat of the time …but I get advantage of borrowing digital books , on mine I can even borrow Kinsale books for free for 3 weeks a time for free
Check out hoopla to see if your library participates 🙂 you stream it 🙂
What is hoopla? I went to hoopla.com, but don’t quite understand it lol
It’s a streaming service your library pays for. Mine has a limit of 10 per month. To sign up you need to see if you library is participating ( scroll through the list of libraries), you’ll need your library card # and the pin if your library uses one. Try your last four of your phone number if you didn’t set one up but your library uses a pin
My library doesn’t do Hoopla, but they do Freegalmusic for music downloads / streaming. Each library pays for different amounts, but I get 5 free song downloads & 3 hrs of streaming a week. It’s not as current as iTunes, but you can find some real gems like the newest Adele album, Megan Trainor, etc! If you sign up with them (you’ll need yr library card number), they’ll even email you each week reminding you to get your songs! 🙂 I download them to my computer. Pro tip: you can add the songs to your iTunes library by opening iTunes on the computer you downloaded the songs & then pressing Ctrl & O (the letter, not zero)! ENJOY!!!
Yes I was going to mention Hoopla. They’re not new movie releases ( 2yrs old) but the music is new. You have to be on wifi though. It’s not downloaded to the device
I love Hoopla. They have some awesome old Disney movies like Cat from Outerspace and Candleshoe and Apple Dumpling Gang
Thanks Kate did not now my library offered Hoopla.
Up until recently my library only carried vhs tapes. 🙁 Haven’t checked lately though… Maybe I’ll do that soon.
Wow! Mine carried them but about 2 yrs ago got rid of them since new movies aren’t coming out in vhs
We do this every week and it works perfectly because they have toddler time for my son once a week and the movies are out for a week at a time, so when we go for toddler time I pick up new ones and return or renew the old ones! We don’t have Netflix or cable or the Internet (except for on our phones) so between the library and free redbox codes we see everything for free! We love the library!!
I do the same thing too. Then buy popcorn and nachos and eat at home instead of going to the movies !!
I rent movies through the library too. They have a lot of older movies that I haven’t seen or want to rewatch. I put some movies for summer on hold for the childrn yesterday: High School Musical, Freaky Friday and some of the old Herbie movies. I got Badlands to watch with my husband. We stream through Hoopla, especially audio books on long car trips.
I have been doing this for years!😊
I always have a running list of bestseller books I want to read as well as all new music albums…..
I am always amazed at how many people do not use their local library!!! The library rocks!!!📚📚📖
The library is a gem! I’ve also heard of being able to check out other odd items to try like knitting needles. Probably varies a lot by location.
“Just me” is either drunk or just immature. Either way you’re annoying and not funny.
I was thinking the same thing…lol definitely not funny- just rude 😕
I was / am neither drunk nor immature. And I wasn’t trying to be funny. Just surprised ppl don’t value/ know what they’re library have to offer especially since this is a frugal crowd app.
Rude is definitely calling someone drunk/immature. I myself am surprised that more people don’t know about the public libraries and what they have to offer. No need for name calling, I thought this was supposed to be a friendly environment.
The library is my greatest resource. I recently treated myself to buying a new book, but it had been at least a year since I had! I love my library.
That’s exactly what I do. My local library has an App so I just go on my app and search for the newest releases and waiting when it’s ready to pick up:)
Wow my library doesn’t let me put more than four items on hold!!! That is awesome. Slowly but surely my family was able to watch the original star wars trilogy this way 🙂
In Wyoming and the earliest movie our library has is from 1999!! 😂
My father is best friends with many of the librarians. They automatically put him on all the waitlists for the newest releases. He is retired and has seen more of the new movies than I have. It’s the best.
Another fun tip: if I go to the library on Tuesday, I very often can get the newest released dvd’s. The ones that were released that day!
Ha! You’re lucky, that would never work around me. Everything always has 100+ holds on it by the time the DVD is released.
My library gets new release movies the day they come out. We also have Hoopla, Overdrive and new release video games. Not to mention all of the awesome free programs.
I can’t be the only one who ends up paying more in late fees than the cost of the movie, can I? 😂😂 I only stream through Amazon so it’s automatically returned the next day. 😉
My library charges $1 a day for movies. Kids movies are 15 cents. Having moved here two years ago, and being accustomed to a library who didn’t charge for DVDs, games, inter library loans…I sure do miss that luxury
I should start borrowing movies from library. Used to, but stopped. I got carried away with all the Redbox free rental deals and usually end up paying at the end. Say if there’s a free Redbox code I almost forget to use, I hurry and reserve one movie from each of our two accounts right before midnight, at that moment it counts as the first/free night. And the next day we might pick it up late in the day, and if we don’t get to watch and finish them by 9pm, then I get charged rental on both movies. If on the following day we finally get to watch the 2nd movie but it ends right after 9pm, then that’s paying 2 days on both movies, so easily $6 + tax. Yes it’s dumb, that’s why I need to stop renting from Redbox, just doesn’t work well with our lifestyle since we always start a movie late at night.
That’s exactly what redbox is banking on when they release those free codes. That people forget or don’t return on time and they get money in their pocket in the end.
As a librarian it fills my heart to know that so many use and value thier library 🙂
I Didn’t know libraries had movies (ones for entertainment) I thought only educational. Also never heard of putting a “hold” on a library item. This sounds like a good idea but for me, way too inconvenient to drive out of the way to the local library and do this when redbox is down the street and everywhere
USE your local library! You are probably paying for your local library though your property taxes…..you can call your local tax office and find out how much you’re paying to the library each year. I pay $80 (through property taxes through my rent), my sister is paying $140!
So to be a truly frugal person…..USE what you pay for!
I dont know other libraries, but mine brings the items to my local library and they notify when it is ready to pick up.
I get soooo many free Redbox movie rental codes here on Hip2Save so I’m always current on the latest movies (without spending a fortune at the box office!)
Thank you Collin and team 🙂
You’re so welcome! 😉
This is going to make me sound SO lazy but our library even has a drive thru so that you don’t even need to get out of the car to pick up the items you have put on hold!!! I totally love it!!!
Netflix is reasonable. For me it isn’t worth the time to reserve and run back and forth.
Also, many times dvds from the library are so scratched up that they don’t play well.
My kids and I spend 3-4 days a week at the library. We’ve been blessed to live by libraries with incredible resources for families. Our current one offers a free educational Web service for kids ( it’s like ABCmouse, but free). Plus all the story times and Summer activities, it’s helped us make friends in new cities. I would suggest to anyone who uses the library to get to know the Librarian and ask about what services they offer. Every library is different, but for example, mine let’s your kids have a library card too. So instead of having only 10 holds and 50 checkouts, I could have 40 holds and 200 checkouts ( not that I would need that!)
I check out e books from my library online and read them on my Kindle. Love it since i don’t have to actually go to the library
I moved to a city with more than 17,000 some populations . It’s surround by 4 different much bigger cities , wired right! There is no local library . I owned 4 different library cards at one time. Kept my 2 old ones from where I used to live and 2 new ones where I live now. Because I am not a resident of any of those cities , they are all nice enough to let me have a library cards but I can’t hold on any of those DVDs . I used to take my chance drive 5-10 miles one way and found nothing I want to watch and I finally gave up completely.
I am so sorry to hear that. The last 2 places I lived, the libraries formed partners with all the surrounding counties, so you could have 1 card and request holds from any library in any of the counties. They would deliver them to the library of your choice and you could return anything to any library. Hopefully, yours will get up to date soon.
I used to do this when our children were little. Haven’t been to the theater for a long time or rent any movie ever since Block Buster went out of business. Recently, I borrowed 5 seasons of Dowton Abbey to watch from the beginning because I missed so many episodes. When Mathew died, I stop watching it.
I do the same thing but unfortunately I’m terrible at getting then returned on time and then I can’t put a new one on hold until I pay the fine. Ugg. Lol. It does save money though even with fines. 😉
Our library is awesome..we get movies, music, games, all kinds, and they even started this new program where you can check out park passes. You get it for a week and it’s available in almost all parka in Indiana 🙂
Thank you for the information. I’m going to look this up.
Perfect! You’re welcome Misty!
This is smart and I also like the library print ..