"American children and adolescents spend 22 to 28 hours per week viewing television, more than any other activity except sleeping. By the age of 70 they will have spent 7 to 10 years of their lives watching TV."
-- The Kaiser Family Foundation
Kurt and I have been slashing our budget since March. We have made HUGE changes in the way we live. We have sacrificed quite a bit to work on getting rid of our debt and save comfortably.
With the economy being absolutely loopy, we decided to look at the budget AGAIN and make more changes.
We are getting rid of our gym membership (Kurt will still get a free one because he is an instructor). We got rid of the DirecTV upstairs in the kids playroom. We are changing our Life Insurance to Term instead of Whole Life. We are pondering getting rid of the home phone land line. We aren't using the air conditioner or heating AT ALL and are just opening windows, using fans, etc... as needed.
So, there are lots of things that have been *relatively easy* for us to decide to cut out.
THAT BEING SAID... we are having a REAL HARD TIME deciding to get rid of television all together. We've been here before, in fact I think I even made a post about it. Yep, I did... on March 24th, here is the link if you want to read it but it says the exact same thing. So, here we are 7 months later still trying to decide!
We would still be able to watch DVDs, but would get rid of all feed coming into the house. That would save us $39.35 a month (we already have the lowest level with DirecTV, plus the TIVO). That would save us $472.20/year!
Kurt and I just aren't in agreement about it yet. On one hand, it would definitely force us to get things done around the house, get out and go DO STUFF instead of sitting around watching TV, give us time to read more books, do crafts and things with the kids to improve their imaginations. Oh, and I could rearrange the furniture so it isn't all focused on the big black box!
But, on the other hand, there are things that we enjoy together (like The Office and Heroes) that we would really miss (and I KNOW you can watch them online, it just isn't the same.)
So, here we are. Trying to figure this all out.
Let me know what you think... is it just Un-American to not have television? Will we feel cut off from the rest of the world? Would we be outcasts at social functions? Would we be seen as *weird* (not that we aren't already?!)
SO MUCH TO CONSIDER!
1 comment:
We discontinued our cable last March/April and it seriously is one of the best things we ever did. I get so much more done. And we have more conversations, my brain isn't full of useless drivel, and the noise level is only high because of my kids - not the TV being on all the time. I LOVE IT!!!
As far as The Office and Lost go we hook the laptop up to the TV to watch online with fewer commercials. I actually know 5 or 6 other families that don't have TV either. There are sill things to talk about and the internet can get you the news you might be interested in. I really think you can do it! It only takes a week to get used to it.
We also love Netflix. But frnakly I feel like I have many other things I'd rather do than even watch movies.
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