Family Movie Night

Friday night in our house is family movie night.  There was a time when we would attempt an occasional movie and pizza out of the house.  But, with the cost of a movie being around $8.00/adult and $6.00/child in addition to the cost of around $25.00 for us to get a pizza, we determined that it was time to have movie night at home.  It soon became a Friday tradition that we rarely skip.

Until recently, we would buy frozen pizzas for our movie night.  Homemade pizza is great, but I make home cooked meals every night and had decided that I deserved a break one day a week.  But, with the cost of frozen pizza being about $12.00 for 3 pizzas, it seemed like it was time to search for a way to make Fridays easy for me, while remaining cheap.  Luckily, I am married to a great cook, who is not afraid to try anything.  Eric makes a batch of frozen pizzas (generally 8 at a time) and freezes them for future use.  As you can see by the photos, these pizzas are made to our liking, with organic ingredients and no preservatives.  He makes the crust from scratch, par bakes it and then adds the ingredients.  They go into a freezer bag, ready to go on Friday.  He feels that he needs to work on the recipe, but they taste fine to us.  He is his own worst critic.

The movies that we watch come from Netflix.  What a GREAT concept!  I wish I would have thought of it.  We choose family friendly movies that we all enjoy.  The kids curl up on the couch with a blanket and pillows and we watch the show in the comfort of our own home.  I have not forgotten the ever important movie theatre candy.  You know, the candy that is $4.00 a box at the theatre.  The candy that somehow tastes better because it is in that movie theatre candy box.  I stock up on that candy at Wal-Mart for $1.00 a box.  My kids love it.  They look forward to me pulling out those boxes every Friday.  I swear, that candy makes the night for them.

When I do the math for movie night I come up with these numbers.  Going out: movie=$34.00, candy=$12.00, pizza=$25.00 for a grand total of $73.00.  Staying home: movie=$1.00, candy=$3.00, pizza=$6.00 for a grand total of $10.00.  With these numbers, it is pretty clear to see why we do movie night at home, almost always.  That is not to say that we do not do the occasional matinee for a kid movie, we do.  But, after seeing these numbers, I think we will start bringing that movie candy from Wal-Mart.