We are always looking for ways to save money here at the Mommy Brain household, and family entertainment is no exception. We love to go out to the movies, but that costs nearly $70 each time we do that. We enjoy renting movies, making popcorn, closing off the curtains and pretending we’re at the theater here at home.. but that involves driving to the store, hoping that the movie we really wanted to watch is in stock, and if it isn’t coming up with something really fast to get that we all could watch.

We tried Blockbuster’s mail rental service, and loved it, while we were in CA. We chose the movies that we wanted to see online, and they were sent to us the next day. PLUS, we were 5 minutes from the nearest Blockbuster, so turning them in and trading them for a new rental was super easy. When we moved to NC, and the nearest Blockbuster is nearly 20 minutes away we knew we wouldn’t be using them as much as we used to and had to find a different solution.

Under the suggestion of a few friends, we ended up choosing Netflix. We liked their “Watch instantly” option, and had heard there were several ways to be able to watch it on our TV rather than having to watch on only the computer. We tried hooking up a laptop and streaming it. It worked ok, but it just didn’t have the quality we were hoping for. There were also some alternatives like a Blu-Ray player that also streamed Netflix. That was just a little outside of our price range. Then we found the Roku.

I contacted Roku, and was so excited when they sent one to us to review. The Roku is just a tiny little box that sits on our entertainment stand, almost unnoticeable. Hubby jumped at setting it up on the TV and I worked on getting the information from Netflix for him. It took us about 5 minutes to set it up and get to where we could watch our movies. It’s changed how we watch TV… The fact that I can add so many of the girls’ favorite tv shows and movies to the “watch instantly” queue and just call them up on the Roku any time they want to watch them is truly awesome.

The movies for Mommy and Daddy are pretty plentiful as well. We’ve added some 40 something movies to our queue, and have loved not having to drive anywhere to watch them. Granted, the movies available in the instant queue aren’t always the latest new releases, but there are some awesome favorites. We’ve watched some great movies from our childhood like Short Circuit, The Neverending Story, and many more.

There are a few options for bringing a netflix account to your tv, but the Roku is probably the easiest and most affordable option that I’ve seen so far. At only $99.99, it more than pays for itself in a short time! I love that we only need one, and can take it to any TV in the house and use it! I’m working on trying to hook it up to our projector now!

If you have Netflix, or Amazon Video, and are looking for a way to connect it to your TV rather than having to huddle around your computer screen, check out the Roku!

Thanks again to Roku for sending me a unit for this review!