Free Family-Friendly Movie Night Ideas!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser Walmart Family Mobile. All opinions are mine alone. #DataAndAMovie  #CollectiveBias

 

Debt is a serious problem for most Americans. We live in a society where everyone wants the coolest gadgets, a nice car, and an even nicer home. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, the good life is hard to achieve, nor does it come cheap. 

While nearly everyone has debt, that doesn’t make it any easier to live with. And it was this reason my family set out four years ago to rid ourselves of all of our unnecessary consumer debt. We knew that the best way to live the good life was to simply spend less and earn more. But what was not so obvious to us initially is that we also needed to be able to live well while spending less.

Going into our debt-free journey we knew that redefining our new budgeted lifestyle would entail limiting our overall budget, way back! We started with a weekly allotted food budget of just $60.00. We no longer eat out. We packed lunches. We downsized our furnishings. We went from being a two-car household to a shared vehicle family. I even started working from my home office to cut my work-related overhead business costs.

While we intentionally scaled back nearly every aspect of our lives, one area my family decided not to compromise on was on our family movie nights. You see, we are a very close-knit family. We love seeing the latest and greatest of what Hollywood has to offer from the comfort of our homes. We are also a very tech-savvy, gadget-loving clan. We just couldn’t continue to pay a premium price to do so. A complete revamp of our family home entertainment was in order. 

 

 

 

The day we returned our cable boxes was a very dark, gloomy day for us. This was our fun stuff, our daily entertainment. We knew we had to come up with a plan to revamp our entertainment fix. Our saving grace during this time? By cutting cable and home phone service we would save us $4,200.00 annually!

We quickly found out there are a lot of at-home streaming options available, and many of our favorite shows could be viewed online with only basic internet service. I mean, how awesome is that? We contacted several different internet providers, and were able to negotiate an affordable monthly package. We had their highest internet package installed the same week for half the price we were previously paying!

Also, since we had already owned a gaming system, viewing popular streaming services was a breeze. We subscribed to several affordable subscription streaming services and were able to pick right back up with many of our families favorite cable programs the same week. An added bonus? We allocate grocery apps rebate savings to pay for our services, making our family streaming free!

 

As a family, we also switched our cellular provider. We no longer wanted to be tethered to a cellular contract. We opted for pre-paid service because while working from home I can speak to my husband online, leaving us in need of only one single family line for my husband who works outside our home. The question remained, which service would we choose? After checking out several local options, we chose the Walmart Family Mobile Services. 

So, why this plan? The Walmart Family Mobile provided us the option of affordable cell phone plan without being locked into a long-term contract. Plus, there’s no credit check required and no annual contract to sign. 

 

 

Switching to Family Mobile was an easy process for us. First, we picked up a Starter Kit in-store. As a side note, Walmart also helps families with the cost of activation. The Starter Kits are cheaper than before and now on rollback for just $19.88 (regularly $25.00)! This offer lasts until July 7th. 

 

 

My favorite part of our Walmart Family Mobile plan is that this quality cellular service comes with unlimited talk, text, data (10GB 4G LTE), plus a free new release movie feature (a $7.00 value) on VUDU every month for only $49.88. Keep in mind, you will be required to purchase one month of the plan to lock-in these features. 

Disclaimer: All prices for phones and plans included in this post are accurate as of the date of posting; however, these prices are subject to change. Please refer to here or your local Walmart for current pricing

 

 

Another great budget-savvy reason to join Walmart Family Mobile? Walmart Family Mobile offers great selection of budget-friendly phone options. We opted for the Cool Pad Rogue, currently priced at $19.88 (on Rollback from $39.83). Keep in mind that Walmart Family Mobile does not have contracts so you have to pay full price for their phones, this initial price is totally worth the up-front cost from what we will save each and every month!

 

 

And do you know who was most excited about this new Walmart Family Mobile Plan? My husband! He chose the Android Cool Pad Rogue, which is currently priced at only $19.88 (on Rollback from $39.83). As a gamer, my husband goes through quite a bit of data, so a limited plan would not work for our family. Thankfully with the larger data bucket of 10GB of 4G LTE data my husband can checkout his favorite free game Harthstone to his content!

As for me, I also use the bucket of data to look up recipes on Pinterest, listen to my favorite Pandora stations, check out families movies with the littles online, and even to help save money while grocery shopping in-store at Walmart with several grocery rebate apps! 

The Walmart Family Mobile is perfect for families like ours that need affordable cell phone service without long-term contracts. And with unlimited talk, text, and data for up to 5 lines on each account my family will always be able to affordably stay in touch. I’m glad my family switched to this solid service at such an affordable price. Being able to stay tech-savvy on a budget rocks in my book! 

 

 

 

As a family we think it’s important to get involved in our families media lives. But helping our family become both savvy savers and critical media consumers can be easier said than done. Our sure-fire way to stay involved with our families media picks by hosting a family movie night each week.  Luckily, our Walmart Family Mobile Plan comes with one free new Vudu release each month, and so we build this into our monthly family movie schedule! What’s really nice is that we can watch our free Vudu movie not just on our phones, but on our Playstation 4 and Smart TV. 

Here are a few tips for affordable family movie nights :

• Schedule it. Make it a regular date and time and don’t break it. Make it a family-only time to unwind and spend quality time together. 
• Take turns choosing the movie. If you’ve got little kids, pre-select a group of films for them to choose from. Enforce a “no complaining” rule for whatever film is chosen.
• Prep for your movie. My family knows that family movies in our home means one thing, crock pot freezer meals! But what’s really fun? I match themes to movies, such as making Crockpot Tagine Chicken the night we watched Casablanca! 
• Location, location, location. We host film nights in our den. We put away all toys, bring out the bean bag chairs for Moroccan-style lounging. 
• Snacks please. In our den you will find a theater candy machine full of gluten-free treats including cereal, trail mix, dried fruits, and acai berry candies! No need to go to head the lobby around here! 
• Talk about it. After the credits roll on our Vudu movies, we always make time to chat about what what we watched. We discuss everything from book-to-film adaptations, animation variations, and Hollywood history.
• Make it educational. Often after movie nights we visiting our local public library to follow up on interests piqued by the movie.
• Make it a life lesson. Talking with kids about how movie characters handled fictional situations can be a subtle way to reinforce your family’s values or get kids to open up about their lives. Lessons learned, friends!

Last evening we had a fun watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Mind you, I had to go back and watch some parts again due to giggles and laughing from my family during the movie. Luckily, with Vudu you get 2-day rentals with each code redemption so I was able to re-watch my movie while curled up in bed. Luxury at it’s finest, my friends!

It goes without saying that the Vudu credit is just one more awesome reason that our family loves the Walmart Family Mobile. I encourage you all to check the Walmart Family Mobile at your local Walmart Supercenter to see if this mobile plan could save your family hundreds of dollars a month too! 

So, friends have you ever considered giving Walmart Family Mobile a shot? If you’re a current subscriber, what do you think about it? I’d love to hear about it!

Here’s to saving!