Last January, when our financial turnaround was just getting underway, we decided as a family to scale back our cable service to the basic package.  We cut out some sixty channels of programming and were reduced to local programming only.  But we did save about $35 a month in the process (the difference between expanded and basic cable).

Photo courtesy of tuexperto com3

We survived that year without expanded cable service, and only missed the channels a few times.  In fact, as the year wore on we hardly missed those channels at all. We all made sacrifices.  My wife gave up TLC and some of her favorite shows (Jon and Kate Plus 8, Little People, Big World, etc.).  My kids gave up the Disney Channel, the Cartoon Network, etc. I survived (barely) an entire college football season without ESPN, and a highly-charged presidential election without cable news.

Before long we were enjoying more quality family time, and all of us were more appreciative of the programming we did have available.  I began to watch PBS for the first time since I was a kid, discovering shows on things that interest me like gardening, travel and money management.

The original deal was to go without expanded cable for one year, which we completed in January of 2009.  After giving it some thought, we decided to sign back up for expanded cable service through our cable company.  It would increase our television entertainment bill from $12 a month to $46 a month - certainly not a trivial increase, but one we could make some room for in the budget by scaling back on our Netflix membership, and cutting a couple other categories.

Before I made the move I polled my Twitter followers (who continue to be a great source for this type of information), and found that $46/month was relatively cheap, but far from the most economical packages like the basic plan we were currently on. 

Here’s a summary of the Twitter poll statistics:

• $57.50. Average cost reported by Twitter followers who currently pay for television programming.

• $90.00. The most expensive package reported (satellite).

• $14.00. The cheapest cable package reported, probably for basic cable channels.

• $0.00. Two individuals reported that they pay nothing for television.  They have no cable or satellite service.  They both mentioned watching programs via Hulu or network websites, and one mentioned he was considering watching only the shows he liked via iTunes.com.  I liked this a-la-cart option, myself!

In the end, we decided to turn the expanded programming back on. After a couple days of catching up with older shows, and watching a few new ones, it occurred to all of us that we were not missing much. Funny how you learn to live without something that you used to think you never could, especially when you have to.

I do not believe television is necessarily bad.  I do think the vast majority of programming is a giant time-suck, in that there are more productive things you could be doing with your limited waking hours.

But there are a few quality programs out there, and we use our cherished TiVo to record the few shows we watch regularly. This helps us watch TV shows faster while skipping past most of the commercials.  Now I just wonder how long we’ll keep the cable connected this time. With us watching fewer and fewer shows, it will be hard to justify this new, higher bill.

Attention couponers out there! I received an email from Gaby Wilson, casting producer for the television show, Wife Swap. She is looking for families who know how to save a buck. I told her I knew several hundred people who may be interested and asked if I could post the information here. If you are interested in being part of the show, read on.

Email from Gaby:

The premise of Wife Swap is that one parent from each household swaps places for a week to experience how another family lives. It is an incredible family experience and opportunity to both learn and teach different family values.

Wife Swap is a fascinating story of what happens when two couples see themselves and their partners in a whole new light. The New York Post says, “It should be called ‘Life Swap’ because it’s not just the wives who learn something here. It’s the families.”

Potential families can live anywhere in the United States, but we ask that families applying for the show consist of two parents and have at least one child, age 7 or older, living at home. Specifically, I’m looking for families who know how to save a buck by clipping coupons! If you’re serious about your coupon regime, I want to hear from you! To submit for the show please email a family photo and description to Gaby.

Families featured on the show will receive a $20,000 honorarium. If you refer a family that is selected you receive $1,000.

If you are a family unit (two parents and children between the ages of 7 and 17 who love an adventure, I would love to hear from you today! Also, please feel free to send this casting along to any families you feel would be appropriate!

More information is available at: http://abc.go.com/primetime/wifeswap

If you apply for the show, be sure to tell Gaby that FrugalDad.com sent you!

In celebration of reaching the four-month mark without expanded cable service I’ve put together a list of reasons to turn off the television. With only local channels available our family has greatly reduced our television time and see several improvements in other areas of our lives. My family, who initially provided serious resistance to the idea, has come around and now agrees this was one of the best decisions we have made. I hope I still fill that way when college football season starts!

Reasons to Turn Off the Television

Weight gain. There is a real correlation between the amount of television someone watches and their weight. It is bad enough most of us sit in an office all day, but then we come home and sit on a sofa the rest of the night parked in front of a television. If you are like I was back in the day of channel surfing I usually had a snack and/or a cold soft drink in my hand the whole time. I personally discovered I don’t have the food cravings I used to have while writing or reading a book. By breaking one bad habit I really broke two.

More family time. We’ve been living without expanded cable now for over four months and it has been one of the best decisions we have ever made. My wife and I frequently remark after putting the kids to bed that “this is the first time the television has been on today.” My youngest still enjoys a few DVDs, and my daughter also watches an occasional movie, but for the most part the television is off when we are all together as a family.

More time outdoors. With the increased family time we spend much more time outdoors than we used to. our backyard is our refuge. I tend to my square foot garden while my kids jump on their trampoline. My son has even developed a pretty good fastball from tossing the ball with his Dad. I wonder how much of this time we would have missed while sitting inside glued to The Disney Channel right up until bedtime.

Commercials. When we see commercials we tend to want to rush out and buy things. Advertisers are a savvy bunch, and they know just which strings to pull to relate to your emotions. Keep temptation out of your life by turning off the television, or at a minimum do what we did - purchase a TiVo and skip the commercials.

Soap operas make us feel financially insecure. This applies to both day time and prime time soap operas (is there really much difference?). Any time I catch parts of these shows I am always amused at the number of people living lavish lifestyles, but don’t have to work. Those who do work seem to earn far beyond the normal salaries of their real-world equivalents. For instance, most police detectives don’t drive a Mercedes and live in multi-million dollar homes. These shows have a way of skewing reality, making us less secure about our own lives.

Too racy. I had the unfortunate experience of passing the television the other night while my wife watched an episode of a new show, Lipstick Jungle. The scene I happened to see depicted a married woman engaged in inappropriate behavior with someone in her office. Now, I know I am old-fashioned, but I don’t believe this kind of trash should be on regular television. And we wonder what’s wrong with our youth’s morals these days? I am pleased to report my wife gave up on the show because it was just too over-the-top.

Save Money. Besides the reduction of energy costs, by canceling the expanded portion of our cable service we were able to reduce our bill from $47 to $12. We immediately took that $35 and added it to the amount we were already contributing each month to to build our emergency fund at ING Direct.  If you just can’t live without watching your favorite series, many can be found on Netflix where you can watch them on your own schedule and mail them back when you are ready.

Noise pollution. Ever know one of those people who just liked to have the television on, even if they weren’t watching it? To me, this is just noise pollution. There is nothing wrong with silence, or maybe even some soft background music.

Television interferes with sleep. I’m guilty here. I frequently fall asleep to the flickering lights and nearly inaudible sounds of late night talk shows. It is how I unwind at the end of a long day. For some reason, I crave some form of mindless entertainment and this is it. The problem is, I am knowingly contributing to my insomnia, and restless sleep cycles. Light from the television interrupts my body’s circadian rhythm and the constant flickering keeps my brain stimulated when it should be gearing down for the night. I know I should power off and just go to sleep, but not before Dave’s Top Ten List.

American Idle (no typo). Need I say more? This show has corrupted our idea of what makes a good entertainer. If Springstein, Tom Petty or Bob Segar ever appeared here they would not have made it through the first round of auditions. Perfect pitch and tonation don’t make someone a star. Can you tell I’m not a big fan of the show?

Read more. My 52 Books in 2008 series has been well-discussed throughout Frugal Dad. I’m a little behind the pace to reach my total, but I anticipate more reading time this summer if we take any mini-vacations so I’m hoping to catch up. I enjoyed reading in school, but after graduating college I didn’t reach much outside of a couple magazines. My attention span seemed to grow shorter and shorter, and I fed it with mindless television shows. When I did try to read I would find myself re-reading the same paragraphs over and over because my mind was usually on something else. With the television off, and limited choices available, we are all able to focus more on reading some great books. I am currently reading The 4-Hour Workweek and my wife just finished up the Steve Irwin biography, Steve and Me written by his widow, Terri Irwin. She read several passages outloud to me and said it was a great book about a great conservationist, husband and devoted father. The world misses Steve Irwin.

Shortens kid’s attention span. It is hard to keep a five year-old’s attention longer than five minutes, and television isn’t helping. Several studies have shown that heavy television viewing by children contributes to the development of attention-deficit and other behavioral disorders. The constant shifting of graphics, speakers, and audio contribute to a providing a constant distraction to toddlers. Instead of watching a mindless children’s show or violent cartoon, consider going outside or working on an engaging puzzle.

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I finally caught up on my TiVo recordings over the weekend. I watch exactly two television shows now, Lost and CSI. With Lost now going on an extended break, and CSI still gearing up for new episodes, I decided to record some new shows and give them a try. Oprah’s Big Give seemed to be a show I would like based on its premise of giving away money for good causes. It looked to me to be sort of a reality show for Secret Santas.

The first two episodes were about what I expected, but as the stakes were raised and the dollar amounts increased, I became more disappointed with each new show. In the March 23 airing contestants were asked to give away $100,000 in twenty-four hours. The stipulations were you could not give away more than $500 to any one person, or $10,000 at any one location, and you could not simply give away cash.

I was surprised when none of the contestants visited local churches, hospitals or social services offices. These seemed like obvious places to look for people who are hurting, emotionally, physically and/or financially. Most churches have a long list for their benevolence funds, and not all of them are requests for cash money. Many families need help making a car payment, or getting their mortgage caught up just to get back on track. Others may be recovering from a serious illness and are buried in medical bills, or have experienced a disaster such as a house fire or flood and have lost all of their belongings.

Many municipalities are closing city pools and recreational facilities because of a lack of funding and dilapidated equipment. I can just imagine a local Boys or Girls Clubs in Miami would have loved to have received a new basketball goal, or other updated recreational equipment for their facilities. Orphanages are frequently in need of linens and meal supplies to care for young people in their charge. Soup kitchens and shelters struggle to keep staples such as flour, bread, meats and rice in stock. There is no shortage of stories of victims of Hurricane Andrew still living in homes in need of repair, fifteen years after the hurricane blew through Miami. $10,000 would have gone a long way at each of these places.

Instead, some contestants bought groceries for random shoppers, gave away flowers at an intersection ($2,000 worth), and donated pet food and supplies to an animal shelter. These were all noble deeds, but I thought the name of this game was Big Give! These contestants were guilty of thinking small.

I was once part of a corporate initiative to implement a process improvement plan throughout the company. Our trainer had us perform an exercise in the very beginning of the 6-week training course called “think BIG.” Basically, each team was given an idea and told to expound on it as many times as we could in ten minutes. My group received the task, “Start a youth sports program - your existing budget is $0.00.” We started frantically throwing out ideas and capturing them on a worksheet. Separating each line on the worksheet were the words, “think BIGGER!”

After completing ten or eleven lines we had a strategy to start a youth football league sponsored by area businesses and local sports teams. A new stadium would be built using a combination of public and private, corporate-sponsored funds. Concession sales and banner advertisements lining the playing fields would pay for ongoing maintenance. Not bad for ten minutes of brainstorming. However, if the words “think BIGGER” had not appeared under each idea we might have stopped with “sell Krispy Kreme donuts to raise some money.”

Most people stop thinking big somewhere along the way. We all settle into our lives and outgrow those big dreams we had as a kid. I’d encourage anyone reading this to “think BIGGER” when imagining what we could do collectively to help other people. It’s easy to sit in my living room and play armchair quarterback, but I would like to think if I had a chance to give away $100,000 to people in need I could find more worthy recipients.

Image Credit: Daily News

As I mentioned a few posts ago my wife and I agreed to take the cable service down to basic programming only. This means for $12 a month we’ll get to keep the major broadcast networks, PBS and CSPAN, but we lose the remaining 50-plus channels available with expanded cable service.

I have to admit it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. We have become so programmed (pardon the pun) to revolve our daily schedules around the television. When you finally cut the cord it makes you a little anxious because you wonder how you will fill an evening without all those programming options. Instead of being my usually strong-willed, frugal-minded self I thought I would take a minute to actually confess what I’ll miss most, balanced with a couple things I definitely won’t miss.

I’ll miss these favorites:

• CNBC. This is the finance enthusiasts equivalent to ESPN for sports guys. Programming starts early in the morning with overseas market coverage and leads up to the NYSE opening. I enjoyed watching nightly programming such as Jim Cramer’s Mad Money to get a wrap of the day’s market activity. The Big Idea, hosted by Donny Deutche, was another program I frequently watched because I have always been interested in learning from successful entrepreneurs.

• ESPN. Speaking of sports guys, I am a huge football fan. In fact, I usually start suffering from withdrawals immediately after the Super Bowl. I guess it is only fitting that we lose ESPN the day after the big game. Fortunately, we still have internet access so I can get to ESPN.com for my football fix.

• TLC. I became a fan of The Learning Channel back when Flip this House aired on it (not the shorter program with random people fixing up houses, but the group from Charleston, SC, Trademark Properties). That group moved to A&E, so I still won’t be able to see their show. That guy Armando Montelongo that took Trademark’s place on Flip this House was always entertaining as well. My wife and I started watching John and Kate Plus 8 reruns during the Hollywood writers strike, and will miss their new episodes from this season.

• Discover Channel. I’ve always been a fan of the Discover Channel. I’m a closet survival junkie and was a big fan of Man vs. Wild, Everest, and even that Ice Road Truckers show. Maybe I can catch the DVDs on Netflix.

What I Definitely Won’t Miss:

• MTV. I’m old enough to remember back when MTV used to actually stand for Music Television. They played music videos, broke news about bands, etc. Now the channel is an endless string of mindless shows such as Real World, Sweet 16 and other ilk depicting bratty youth at their worst. Good riddance, MTV.

• Bravo. This is one I didn’t even like having access to in our home. I’ve seen some highly objectionable material on at all times of the day, and was always afraid the kids would stumble on something that would generate questions I wasn’t ready to answer. When I was a kid these kinds of shows were on pay-per-view, but now they are featured prime time programming.

• E. I think the name of the channel was either “E” or “Entertainment Television.” I’m not sure because I never left the TV there long enough to find out! I’m pretty sure the objective of the entire network was to waste American lives in thirty-minute increments by filling their brains with useless celebrity information. No wonder they were so popular.

So I say goodbye to channels 14-70. It’s been fun while it lasted. Now I’m off to read a book, get out of debt and enjoy some quality time with my family.