It was slow starting, but the last few episodes of Season One were good enough that I stayed in on Friday night to keep watching. I’ve been renting it from the Blockbuster, partly because it gives me an excuse to get a cup of coffee from Starbuckles on the way home.

But is Blockbuster the most rational way to watch all five seasons of The Wire? Well, let’s see…

From Blockbuster, each disk rental costs about $5. That’s $25 per season,  plus a $2 cup of coffee. Blockbuster is running a deal where you can have $14 unlimited rentals for seven days. That would give me time for about half a season. But the deal is risky. The Wire is pretty popular and the disk I need isn’t always in stock when I finish the previous one.

Blockbuster has an online service, but I’m too lazy to determine the cost of that option, as it comes without coffee.

If I signed up for Netflix instead, I could have two free weeks during the trial period. The cheapest plan is $8.99 a month for one DVD at a time and then next is two disks for $12.99 a month. I would have to wait a few days while the DVDs filter through the postal service. And if my luck with magazine subscriptions is any indication, I’m going to end up with more DVDs stolen by my mailman than I actually get to watch. Still, if I watch one season every two weeks, I could finish the series by the end of September. And if it’s available to be streamed online with Netflix, I wouldn’t have to wait for disks.

If I wanted to buy The Wire, it’s going for $138.99 on Amazon (with free shipping!) On iTunes the series would cost $119.40. However, I’d have to watch it on my lap-top, which usually results in my eating crackers in bed– a decision I inevitably regret by about 11:30 p.m.

The truest Freekend options? I could borrow the series from my friend Rob, but I would probably have to wait until I move to D.C. in September. I doubt he’ll want to mail it to me after he reads about the thieving mailman. I could steal it from the Internet, but it would take a lot of time and, well, I probably wouldn’t be boasting about it on my blog.

To recap:

Cost to watch all five seasons of The Wire

Traditional blockbuster: about $125 + $50 in coffee

Blockbuster online: Unclear

Netflix: $26.97-$38.97

Amazon: $138.99

iTunes: $119.40

Beg, Borrow, Steal: $0

…
It looks like Netflix is the most rational option if I want to watch the show immediately. Are there any other viewing venues I’m forgetting, Internet?

Creative Commons photo via www.flickr.com/people/nostri-imago/

When I was trying to come up with a name for this blog, one thing that leaped to mind was the story of the apocryphal magi from everybody’s favorite Christmas carol. They came with really fancy gifts that were probably well-received. But here in 2009, I’d just as soon have a big, fat check as some myrrh or frankincense.

That’s what’s so tricky about financial planning. We all have different ideas about what things are worth. While I’d certainly be grateful if somebody handed me a $65,000 Lexus, there’s also no way I could afford the insurance or consistently find a place to park on my crowded street. I’d probably rather have $90 to cover a wheel rebuild for my cranky, old bicycle. Then again, I’m racking up some Lexus-sized debt for a degree in journalism. I’m willing to take the risk because I believe my degree will increase my value as a potential employee. I feel like it’s worth the time and money not just for that, but because being really good at journalism is valuable to me as a person. But I know lots of people would take the wheels.

A couple of years ago, thousands of Americans in the market for new houses probably felt the same way. They were pinning their savings and credit ratings to something they valued more than other options, for the chance to have a better quality of life or to turn it over for a profit.

It’s a risk we all take, buying one thing instead of another. Our decisions might not always seem totally informed or rational, but most of us know what we want.

With Hankincents I’m trying not to peg my thoughts to what old dusty books from the past say we should value, because getting our monies worth from the choices we make really is pretty relative.