Any parent living on a budget surely appreciates entertainment that won’t burn a hole in the pockets. I don’t need to run down the list of how much a day at Chuck-E-Cheese, extra-curricular fees, a day trip to the fair for the family can cost. I mean, to go to the Texas Fair for just me and my little brother quickly ate away at what I thought was a lofty budget of $60. Simply put, entertaining kids are expensive.

Recently, I’ve just discovered the DVD rental system sent from heaven, or RedBox. This is a type of vending machine where you can rent your movie DVDs for, drumroll please, $1 a DVD ! You get charged an additional $1 per night, but even if you took 3 nights to finish 3 DVDs, that would only total $9 (plus tax). Compare to Blockbuster which charges me $3.42 per DVD. I consider that a steal.

We have a box in our local Albertson’s, and on a busy Saturday night where the local Blockbuster was out of a particular new release I wanted, RedBox had it. You can visit the website for more info as well as for locations. They have many kid-friendly movies in stock including ones I recommend Stardust, Ratatouille.

Are there any cons? Yes, there is no search function in the touch-screen interface, so you have to scroll through the movie lists, page by page, which can get cumbersome. Sometimes, you need to give that screen all the thumb-power you can give it when making the selection, which can get irritating. But at $1, I’ll take all that inconvenience.

Tags: DVD, Entertainment, family fun, RedBox