Americans spend an average of $3000 on entertainment each year, with movie tickets ranging from $6-15 per person, CNBC reports. If you’re a movie buff, you probably make a regular habit of using subscription services, buying the latest releases on DVD, and frequent trips to the cinema. Being smart with your spending habits means you can enjoy your hobby while keeping costs down.
Limit your subscriptions
Services like Netflix, Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu aren’t cheap — a Premium Netflix account alone costs $16 a month. A more cost-effective approach is to subscribe to just one service at a time for a few months and watch everything you want on that one platform.
When you’ve got all you can out of it, cancel your subscription and move to the next service. It’s simply not possible to watch everything offered on every platform all at once, which would give you true value for money. Plus, once you re-subscribe to a service, you’ll find plenty of new offerings.
Save money at the cinema
Going to the cinema is expensive, so save it for highly-anticipated, mind-blowing movies. Spending money on seeing average movies at the cinema is a waste, especially when you can rent them for free just a few months later. If you don’t want to cut down on your cinema trips, you can still save money by using credit cards offering deals and rewards.
Some cards allow you to buy cinema tickets in bundles, which is an affordable way of visiting the cinema multiple times a week. For example, the HSBC Revolution card allows you to buy ten tickets for $70 at a time — meaning you’re paying just $7 per ticket.
Utilize your local library
While collecting DVDs may be fun, it’s costly and potentially unnecessary. From now on, only buy movies you love and will watch more than once. For all other titles, visit your local library — they have a wide and varied media collection. If you don’t see what you want, request it. Since your library lets you watch any movie you want for free, you won’t have to buy as many DVDs. This allows you to build a DVD collection that showcases your absolute favorite movies.
Being a movie enthusiast doesn’t have to break the bank. Implementing these money-saving strategies means you can enjoy your hobby to the fullest without wasting money.