The Best Freebie Ever - And Why Reward Programs Rock!

I will not even lie and say I didn't squeal and jump up and down when my husband brought me this box yesterday. As soon as I saw who it was from, I got really excited :)

For those of you who don't know, I am a HUGE Disney fan. I grew up on Disney everything and I still hold everything up to their standards when it comes to animated films and whatnot. Don't believe me, play Disney Trivial Pursuit against me :) Since I had such a love of their movies growing up, I want my kids to have the same experience. Not that I have kids yet or anything, but since Disney likes to "release movies from the vault" for purchase for only specific amounts of time, I have been collecting them as they are released over many years. I think I started in college, actually. I've been buying up the DVDs (and later Blurays) the week they are released because that's when they are the cheapest - seriously, they don't go less than that if it's a big hit movie. Anyway, I mention this because through all my purchases, I have racked up quite a few Disney Movie Rewards points.

DMR is a great perk program. Every Disney movie you buy has a code inside that can be redeemed for points in the program. DVDs are worth 100 points, Blurays 150, movie tickets 50 and so on. Everything has a value. Also, as a DMR member, you get monthly emails that will give you a few points each and holidays and birthdays give you extras too. You can redeem your points for various Disney items. They have movies, toys, stickers, clothes, and much more. They even have free color page downloads (which I may or may not have taken advantage of). It's a good program if you like Disney stuff.

I had redeemed some points years ago - they had the Duck Tales movie when you couldn't buy it anymore! - but since then I have just let my points sit as there wasn't anything I really needed at the time. Probably about a year ago they started adding non-Disney-branded items. They were all still things that would "enhance your Disney experience" so to speak though, and one of them was a Panasonic Bluray Player. I never really thought much about it since we only had 1 TV and we used the PlayStation for our Bluray player. That was until we bought a house and had more rooms ... and I had my own room ... with a small HD tv ... and only a DVD/VHS player to use with it ... I suddenly had my eye on the prize of that Bluray player and I was only 14 points shy of getting it! So I did what any rational person would have done - I went to Target and found the least expensive/most point giving Disney movie I didn't have (yet wanted) and bought it, lol. Yes, I bought James and The Giant Peach on Bluray/DVD combo pack for $14.99 to get another 150 points, giving me enough to fulfill my dream and still have a little to grow on :)

I redeemed my points last week and was told it would arrive in 2 to 4 weeks, which explains my surprise and excitement when my husband gave me the box today with Disney Movie Rewards as the return address!!! And here it is:

Check out that invoice - $0.00! Woot woot!

This is the Panasonic BD755, which sells for over $100 through Amazon (seriously, when I cashed in the points the only price was the $110). It came with the HDMI cable and everything :) And look how well it fits in its new home:

It's the exact length of my DVD/VHS player - now I have all my bases covered (and yes, I do still have some VHS tapes, don't judge). The only slight bummer is that it isn't wireless and my router is downstairs, so I will have to get an adapter to use Netflix and all that - I seriously don't know why I didn't think about that before. But that's easily solved and it's something I would have had to deal with if I had bought a player anyway, so no foul.

If you had told me 6 years ago that I would eventually get a free bluray player through a rewards program, I would have tried to call your bluff, I'm sure. But here is the living proof - rewards programs do work out to your advantage if you keep up with them! This is one of the most valuable freebies I've gotten and I can't wait to use it. I recently got a Marilyn Monroe bluray pack too - no better way to break this baby in!

So, friends, don't just throw away your reward codes! I am here to tell you that they will pay off if you give it enough time. And I'm not just talking about Disney movies. I use Coke Rewards, Kelloggs, MyPoints, Lean Cuisine, and many more I can't think of right now. It's worth it, believe me :)