Before you throw stuff at me, just hear me out. The world media blogosphere was stunned when I announced our decision to turn off our cable. Surprisingly, life does goes on without it.
And I don’t just mean cable. We canceled TV service entirely. People look at me kinda funny when this comes up in conversation. No, I have not been following So You Think You Can Dance.
Dave Ramsey encourages “focused intensity” when it comes to paying off debt. Could we honestly say that we were focused on paying off debt when we had an $85 cable bill every month? That would be pretty hypocritical, in my book.
I desperately want to pay off our debt much more than I want to watch a little TV. Crystal talks about how her family is “living like no one else”. I find it inspiring. Not everyone understands or approves of this lifestyle, and that’s okay.
Extreme frugality is relative. I do not have a garden, or a clothesline. Nor do I grind my own wheat. But I do clean with vinegar and choose not to pay for cable. That works for our family.
Another perk of no TV. I used to be a total news junkie. If something “news worthy” was going on in the world, I knew about it. And I lived in constant fear of almost everything. I have much more peace in my life without the constant stream of negative media in my ear.
Perhaps you have been contemplating cutting the cable, but just can’t imagine life without it. I have been there, my frugal friend!
The good news is, there are some frugal alternatives to TV.
For example, if you have high-speed internet, hulu.com is a great resource for free entertainment.
Hulu offers both free TV shows and movies. There are even family-friendly movies!
If you have not discovered RedBox by now, you are missing out. Every Monday, Amy posts a free RedBox code valid for one rental. But even without a code, it’s only a buck.
What other frugal sources of entertainment do you enjoy?
Oh, and before you question why we still have high-speed internet… this actually is an absolute necessity. My hubby works entirely from home. How frugal is that?
Could you give up TV?
I was trying to remember who the Dave Ramsey fans were from our chat the other night. Now I know you were one of them! 😉
And we have even more in common. We also have no television feed into our home free or otherwise. Like you, people look at us with disbelieving blank stares when they find out.
We use Netflix for movies. It is delivered right to our door so no gas needed to get our movies. Plus, we get all the older sitcoms like I Love Lucy, Cosby Show, Hogan’s Heros, Andy Griffith show…. and the movie selection is limitless.
We also have quite a few of our own video’s/ DVD’s so that when the children are watching t.v. we know EXACTLY what they are viewing at any given moment.
Sorry to be so long winded but I found a comfort in knowing someone else out there is a Dave Ramsey fan and without television reception. Sometimes I think we’re the only ones. 🙂
I could definitely do without the TV, but my kids and hubby won’t. If it helps, I keep calling and get my rate lowered and I am down to basic cable now!!
I do want to get out of debt, but I’m not going “gazelle” just yet. My debt will be gone this year and I’m OK with that – my kids shouldn’t suffer for some of the financial mistakes we have made – even if they do watch the most annoying shows in the world 🙂
I have never had cable growing up and do not have it in my home now and we are doing just fine! We do have the free basic channels, but the lack of quality programming forces us to do other things when sitting in front of the tv may be tempting, good for you!
We do not have tv reception in our home either. Just can not justify the cost…thankfully hubby agrees. (I grew up w/o tv and movies so I would be the biggest couch potato ever!!! The internet is bad enough!!! 😉
We rent movies and buy the ones we want. Also watch hulu and some things on youtube.com.
We don’t have cable. I never did growing up and we don’t have it now. Thankfully hubby is ok w/out it. We mainly get movies from the library and netflix. And he watches japanese anime online. I do wish I could watch some cable shows on Discovery, TLC and HGTV but I’m ok.
We currently have cable, but only ’cause the cable company hooked it up for free due to an ongoing problem in our neighborhood. We only had the sub-basic cable before just to get reception and the main networks. And we will be back to that eventually.
But I would be just fine with internet and movies. But we do have high-speed internet and have to ’cause my hubby works from home sometimes!
I think I could do without it. I am sure I could find most of what I want to see online. But, my husband will not give up TV. He’s the only one working, and he he likes to relax and watch TV, so we have to keep it.
We gave it up about 3 years ago–to save money. However we ended up spending the money on other stuff. May 2008–enter Dave Ramsey–we are now on track with our TMMO, but are not as gazelle as we should be. We do watch a lot of movies, and I must confess I can still watch some TV–though not much, as my mom lives next door:-)
I actually called my cable company a few months ago to cancel my cable and was told it was more expensive to just have internet access than both. Yup, they penalize if you decide to cut back. So, although I’ve kept the cable for now I have cutback in other ways. I think we could do without the tv. It would be an adjustment and out of my four children the two middle ones would have a hard time understanding it, but they’d learn to live with it. We’ve actually only had cable a few years; I had to be convinced by my then husband (okay, currently divorcing) that it was a deal to do the package.
You got me to thinking, though, maybe I need to shop around for a different internet provider! 🙂
We still have cable; however, we have cut back on what we watch. I also use to watch a lot of news and I gave it up about a year ago and my life is so much more peaceful now. I believe Satan controls much of the news media and I do not need to fill my mind with all of those negative thoughts and paranoia.
This post is very timley- my dh and I just decided to cut out all cable and lower our internet connection. We too want to be out of debt more then keeping up with Project Runway (ok it was hard to choose the debt over Tim Gunn but I did it). Maybe in the process we will learn again about actual quality family time, reading books again and why we are a family without disractions of tv. Thank you for some support I was not expecting to see.
M wife and I cut off Direct TV over 7 months ago. No TV at all – we spend much more time together!
Mike
http://www.ReadyForChrist.com
I just found your blog and subscribed! 🙂
My husband and I also do not have cable. Even though we’re in the middle of town, we seem to be in a tower reception “hole” since we can’t get free local channels to come in, either.
I have really enjoyed not having tv. I spend so much more time going for walks and doing other, more productive things. (and not-so-productive internet!)
I actually have fun giving people blank looks and saying, “We don’t have tv” when I’m asked about the latest commercial or tv program. 🙂
We cut the cable 4 years ago and haven’t looked back – we don’t even miss it anymore (okay, occasionally my mom will record a food network show for me) We get so much more done after work and on weekends. My in-laws are almost constantly plugged in and of course, always complain that they don’t have time to do things!
TV for our family stands for TIME VACUUM! We got rid of TV over a year ago, and never turned back. We still have the actual TV and a DVD player. So, we will do redbox, we will borrow dvd’s from the library and we pay $10 a year for Blockbusters Movie Rewards ( which gives us one free $4.50 a month. I love when I hear more and more families are chosing this route!!! TV is a waste of money and of time. It’s not healthy and it’s not focused on Godly things! 🙂 Great Blog, thank you for sharing!
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