# Does NetFlix pay off for you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 13, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-netflix-pay-off-for-you/419105 "2007-09-13T19:19:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-netflix-pay-off-for-you/419105/41 "2007-09-14T15:55:47Z")
I’m on the cheapest plan ($5/month, 1 disk at a time). There’s no way renting at Blockbuster could match that. And I’d have to have a list to lose, deal with people, and get it back on time. When I’m too busy I just hold on to the disk. Netflix is totally worth it to me. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-netflix-pay-off-for-you/419105/42 "2007-09-14T16:38:45Z")
If I was single, I would see the value of Netflix and would, in all likelihood, be a faithful subscriber. But being married, I want to spend all my free time at home with my wife (we both work a lot, so our shared time is limited). That means I’m not going to spend time at home watching movies she has no interest in (which probably represents 80% of the films I’d be likely to rent). We maybe rent one film a month–usually something she in particular wants to see, and very rarely something that’s hard to find. So although I’ve dabbled with looking into getting a membership, I’ve never bitten because I know it’d largely be a waste of money in my circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-netflix-pay-off-for-you/419105/43 "2007-09-14T17:39:49Z")
[QUOTE=Darth Vader’s Little Pal Even though I have a bad habit of holding onto movies for months at a time, I would bet I still save money with Netflix because I feel less of a desire to **buy** DVDs. If all I want to do is see that one scene with that guy about the thing, I can just pop it into my queue, get it in a few days, throw it back in the mail when I’m done and that’s one less thing cluttering up my tiny apartment.[/QUOTE] That’s another good reason. I bought (or rather got for Christmas) a few seasons of old TV shows. I watched them once, and now they sit in a closet. Subsequent seasons I got from Netflix. If I have a great urge to watch them again, I can either put them back on my queue or by them. That saves a couple of months payments right there. ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-netflix-pay-off-for-you/419105/44 "2007-09-14T17:50:52Z")
We have 4 at time. It works out well as I usually pick a movie for me, 1 for my husband (but usually 2 for me because he’s rarely in a movie watching mood) and then 1 for each of the kids. We watch them all over the course of a week and send them back and get 4 more for the next week. It turns out to be a lot cheaper than Blockbuster. It also works to our advantage when one of the kids gets hung up on a particular movie and wants to keep it longer than a week. The only disadvantage is that sometimes we get busy and go 3-4 weeks without watching movies, at which point I’m paying a monthly fee just to add 4 extra movies to my DVD shelf for a few weeks, but when we do hold up our end of the deal it’s a great and cost-effective system. We do scale back on the rental plan in the fall when the new TV season starts up again. I rarely have time for movies other than at night and if I have to pick Netflix movies or new episodes of, say, Project Runway, PR is gonna win every time. ---
**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-netflix-pay-off-for-you/419105/45 "2007-09-14T18:09:27Z")
I owned a video store for 7 years and I absolutely adore Netflix. The selection is amazing, having a queque to add obscure stuff to when reading Dope threads, etc. And I’ve got two boys three years old and younger. I wouldn’t bother to go to a rental store with them in tow. It is fantastic! -rainy [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-netflix-pay-off-for-you/419105.md?page=2)