Now, in the interest of saving a little money (which is an admirable goal, dare I say an achievable goal) I cut back a bit on some extraneous expenses. No, not the beer. That's the second line item of my budget, actually, right after rent. And yes, that comes before food. If you think it's a problem, well, I disagree, and we have to agree to disagree on this point, folks. (I'm not starving. It's more of a budgeted entertainment expense, really: $ budgeted for a bar tab ends up being spent on beer + food + money for the jukebox, and smoke, and tip, etc.)

Anyway, In the interest of saving a bit of money (for retirement, or Friday's bar tab-- whichever comes first) I switched my Netflix membership from the 8-at-a-time plan to the better-in-comparison-but-still-sounds-ridiculous 5-at-a-time plan.

I can feel my readership slipping, and that's just from my overuse of hyphenate compounds... let me try and bottom-line it. Actually, I'm not sure if I can bottom-line it without being equally confusing. And we're not really all about explaining things here at (p.a.), if obfuscation and circumlocution end up being more entertaining.

Bottom line: We're talking about $20 a month. This is the difference between the two plans. Twenty dollars is a non-trivial chunk of change (I can eat for a week and a half on $20 worth of groceries) so you can see why I might be tempted to make this particular move, renting fewer DVDs and finding better uses for my entertainment dollar. Well, let me just say that actually, renting DVDs is an excellent use of the money, and netflix is a great value, especially in bulk, and at first blush you might think the more expensive plan is a waste, but in practice it doesn't work that way.

extended aside: my life with netflix.
You go online, you pick the next 4 or 400 or so movies that you want to see, and you're done. At this point it's just a matter of watching them and mailing them back. One reason I first switched to their top program was that the only sticking point in the whole process is the USPS. It takes about 6 days total to turn around a disc, from me sending it to netflix and them processing it and mailing out the new title. Actually, ideally, it only takes 3 days (1 out, 1 to process, 1 back) but it seldom works out that way, with the inconvenient weekends inserting themselves into an otherwise perfectly working system, and the occasional disc that ships not from the county next door but from Oregon or Massachusetts or wherever. So, the point: you can roll the discs over 5 or maybe 6 times each month, which means the only real limit on how many DVDs you can get is how many you subscribe to at a time. (assuming you don't sit on 'em for a week before mailing them back-- which is likely how netflix makes a fair chunk of change: inefficiencies on our end of the process.)

If your eyes glazed over and you skimmed the last three paragraphs, let me put it this way: Each title takes a week. Ignore everything I said about mail and numbers and all that. If you subscribe to the standard $20, 3-at-a-time program, then you're going to end up watching 3 DVDs a week. With the 8 at a time, considering delays for weekend mail and whatnot, that's just one disc a day.

This is why cutting back on my netflix plan doesn't really work out well. I asked myself if I really watched 40 DVDs a month. I thought the answer was no. It turns out that I had gotten used to having the option of watching a DVD instead of crap TV every night of the week. Now with a cheaper plan, I feel cheated, because at least twice a week I find myself waiting for netflix to check their mail and get back to me. And it was more than just one each night: 8-at-a-time works really well with the mail being what it is: a couple here at the house, a couple in transit there, a couple of new ones making their way to me... I always had something to watch. Every now and then I'd get caught up, and then a bit later get 8 discs all at once; I'd check the mailbox and know exactly how I could spend one of my days off: oh yeah, the whole damn season of something on DVD, no waiting.

Doing the math, it worked out to something like $1.30 for each rental. Cheap.

With only 5-at-a-time (which I thought was saving me money) the average price is still the same, but (important point) I don't have anything to watch. Twice a week all the discs are in the mail, nothing is actually here. I'm not really saving money; strike that: I am saving money but I'm also depriving myself. And if it's only a matter of an extra five bucks each week... I might as well go back to the more-costly-but-also-cost-effective plan. And considering the cost of movie tickets, or even Blockbuster rentals, the extra 5 bucks is one hell of a deal.

Oh, and Netflix rocks, btw. If you watch anything on DVD (movies, documentaries, TV, or even bad Japanese anime) (and the anime isn't always good...) then it is certainly worth looking into.