Libraryflix - a better option?

I loved this witty sign - made by the librarians at my local library.

It makes a good point. If I want a choice of hundreds of movies or documentaries - the local library is a great option.

Great for the minimalist

Most movies we watch just once. In most cases owning movies is a waste of space. The great thing about the library is that there's a built-in deadline to return them and get them out of the house.

Great for the money-saver

At $0 per month movies don't come cheaper than that.

You have to carry it home

That doesn't sound like an advantage, but it is. An all-you-can-eat restaurant tempts us to over-eat. A $10/mth all-you-can-watch deal can turn into a binge-watching session that eats away our whole weekend.

Don't get me wrong. Value for money is great. Spending less money means we don't have to trade away so much of our time for dollars. We can use that time for other things. For a more meaningful life. But unless your life goal is movie-watching, an unlimited buffet of movies can steal your time.

The lure of freebies

My work colleague was coming to the end of a streaming service free trial. She said it wasn't worth the $9/mth and was going to cancel it. A month later she's talking about a new series. What? She'd won a 3-month extension to the free trial - so kept it.

I'm curious that for something not worth $9, we're still willing to give up 20 hours of our time to watch it. No offence to my workmate, it's probably much the same with me and televised sport.

In short

Try out your "Library-flix". You can get great value without using heaps of your space, your money or your time.

Comments

How to waste a year's wages

A friend recently asked me why it is that so many people (on good incomes) are struggling to save. Often the big three money areas are housing, transport and food. In one sense these are necessary items. But what we spend on them is often way more than necessary. I crunched some numbers on how much extra my wife and I could spend on these things - if for some reason we wanted to burn our money. 1. Housing Our apartment is fairly nice, but also cost-effective. I've mentioned how choosing it saves us $1,800 per year , compared to a similar one we saw. The high end of 2-bedroom apartments in our suburb is $305 per week more than our apartment. Not $305 per week. $305 per week more than ours is. I cannot get over that. Sure it's new and modern-looking, but that's a lot of money. It's an extra $15,860 per year above what we pay. 2. Transport The Australian Automobile Association lists the costs of owning and running a car. It includes many often-overlooked c...

Ethical Investing for Australians

I write about investing, because it's a key part of life. Spending less and investing means an automatic income. An automatic income means we can work less (if we choose) and definitely stress less. But where to invest? What to invest in? Many people expect their money to be invested responsibly and ethically - rather than making money through things like cigarettes, weapons, casinos, adult entertainment, environmental destruction, and pollution from fossil fuels. Those are all things we could probably do with less of. So how do we invest to get good returns - and to have a positive effect on the world? Here are some sources I've seen: Ethical Investing in Australia At Frugality and Freedom , Michelle has done a fair bit of research into Ethical Investing in Australia . For herself, she's chosen Bank Australia for banking, Australian Ethical for superannuation, and two exchange-traded funds ( FAIR and ETHI ) for her share investing outside of super. She also gives detail...

My mug shot

This is every mug I own. How many did I buy? Zero. They seem to just appear. I don't even drink tea or coffee. In winter I have might have a hot chocolate or cocoa. So 9 mugs seems like a lot. How does this happen? I reckon most mugs are gifts. There are two reasons for this. 1. It's a safe bet. People need to drink. It's kind of like buying your dad socks for father's day. But the difference is that socks wear out and need replacing. Cups don't. One of these mugs i received as a kid in the 90s. It still works fine. Now it has 8 friends. 2. It's often for what's on the mug. It might be a greeting card-style message, or a sports team logo, or something humorous. It's a good thing that something functional can also provide an inspiring message or pleasant memory as you use it. But the problem comes when we have too much. If I use the cup my sister gave me at Christmas, then I'm not using the 'awesome brother' one she already gave m...

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog