Why pay more than $1 to rent a DVD?

I’m sure many of you have already heard of this but just in case you haven’t Redbox is sweet.  It’s basically a vending machine for DVDs and they have them at most Wal-marts, McDonalds and other locations so they are all over the place.  You can rent a movie for $1 a day and you can return it to any machine.  So Amy and myself rent movies from them occasionally and we always return it the next day and never pay more than $1 to rent a DVD.  We only rent 2 – 3 a month which is only $2 – $3 a month for movies.

Check out there site for titles and you can even check inventory at any machine and reserve a movie: www.redbox.com

I will probably never rent from Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Netflix, etc again.

Hypermilers?

I read this pretty cool article about hypermilers which have some insteresting ways to improve the fuel efficiency of your car by changing your driving habits.  Some say they can get 40 mpg on a car that is rated at only 24 mpg by doing things like “pluse and glide” which even though it sounds impossible apprently works.  An overview of pulse and glide is the following:

“Pulse and glide works like this: let’s say you’re on a road where you want to go 60 km/h. Instead of driving along at a steady 60, you instead accelerate to 70 (that’s the pulse), and then coast in neutral with the engine off down to 50 (that’s the glide). That’s it. Rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat…

By doing this, you’re still averaging 60 km/h, but it turns out that pulse and glide is significantly more efficient than driving along maintaining a steady 60 km/h.”

They go on to explain and prove how it works.  I’ve actually been trying it but I’m not sure how effective it has been so far.  But at this point I’ll do just about anything to try to save some money at the pump.