Cutting back on cable/phone/internet?? -Added budget

[zersha]

I would really love to cut back on all of this, but my dh & kids will be very resistant. Sometimes when dh looks at the budget on the computer after a collector has called, he will say to go ahead and do it, but really he doesn't mean it. We currently pay about $104 for all 3, this includes a small credit for low income phone service. We just have the basic cable, but we could go even smaller. The would let use get limited cable, slower cable modem, and basic phone with no caller id for $51.90 plus taxes, but when you include our low income phone credit it would probably cover the taxes. This would mean absolutely no cartoon channels for the kids, and dh's big problem would be no HGTV or SciFi. But really, he doesn't have time for more TV anyway since he works FT and takes 2 night classes. He often spends time he should be studying sitting in front of the TV like a zombie and then falls behind on his homework. My kids seem to be meaner & more spoiled when they watch too much tv.

So...should I cut it back? We could definitely apply the money better elsewhere, but I don't want to deal with a crabby dh who is completely TV dependent and has basically grown up in front of a tv, and now our middle child has gotten dependent on using it to go to sleep because dh gets really crabby at night, and since I'm usually really busy with our high maintenance toddler he has used it to get him to sleep.

I don't know. I don't want to add more stress to our lives to save $50, but I would like my children to not be so dependent on TV. I think it makes them snotty.

And, I guess I should admit I usually like to go to sleep to Nick at Nite or TVland, but I think I could adapt. And I'd miss Food Network, but that's really it. I was hoping we could find more valuable things to do.

[zersha]

Just thought I would add in our budget, and that we live in North Dakota, so we are going to be cooped up indoors with only a little bit of outdoor time for the next several months. So maybe this isn't a good time for that??? We are also a family of 5 in a 2 br/1bath home for now (we really have 3 br's & another 1/2 bath, but they are being remodeled and are not in use now).

Monthly net income: varies, but approx. $1700 (this already includes health insurance taken out)

Expenses:
Lot rent: $240
Gas (heat): $52 (balanced billing)
Electricity: $65 (balanced billing)
Cable/Internet/Phone: $103.98
Dd's Violin (rental for orchestra at school): $26.15
Student Loan: $118.75
Car Insurance: $74.40
Gas: $200
Food: $400
Total: $1280.28

Not included is household, extra medical, misc. etc. I haven't quite figured out what those amounts are yet, but have started keeping track to get a budget amount.

Amt left over: 419.72
Yes, there is no savings yet. We are just trying to get caught up on current bills right now. That would be my student loan and some medical bills.

[SugarAndSun]

Wow! You guys live really frugally!

I deal with the same issue. I could easily cancel the TV cable since I never watch it, but DH loves it. I love the Internet and wouln't want to cancel that. I feel guilty cancelling DH's TV and keeping my Internet so I keep it all. :

Sorry, I don't have advice. I would LOVE to be TV free though. (My ds only watches videos though so it wouldn't affect him much though.)

[katheek77]

How about a happy medium?

Cut back to the lowest, and sign up for a blockbuster or netflix subscription. We have basic (ie...14 channels), and a blockbuster sub (16 dollars/month) . which gets us just about everything we watch...a LOT of television shows are on DVDs through the mail DVD services...if nothing else, check out what's available on the sub. services.

[DisplacedYooper]

Originally Posted by katheek77

How about a happy medium?

Cut back to the lowest, and sign up for a blockbuster or netflix subscription. .

: We have no cable (but we do get 5 channels over the air) and use the 2 at a time Netflix. It works out great for us...

[mum4boys]

The very worst thing I did to my family is cancel cable. Guess what? Turned out to be the very best thing we could have done. We spend more time as a family together. First week was painful. Now we get movies and tv shows from the library or watch them online. We play games together in the evening when I am not working. Dh and I spend more quality time together also instead of mindlessly watching tv.

[Purple*Lotus]

DH and I cut out phone, internet and cable when we were going through the toughest times financially a while back. We found that we really did not need cable. We do have dial up internet now, but only because my Father pays for it because I was taking an online class and he did not want me driving in the snow. Even now that we have more money I wont upgrade, I don't need a faster connection for anything that I personally use the computer for.

I agree with the others, why not try netflix or something similar? That way your kids and DH can still watch something, and it is less expensive? I agree also that you live very frugally, which is awesome! You are doing really well

[chinaKat]

Here's the thing.

People that are hooked on watching TV will often just watch what is on. Especially if viewers identify with "channels" rather than specific "shows" -- do you say "I like to watch Amazing Race" or do you say "I like to watch Food Network"? Because Amazing Race is on once a week, but Food Network is on ALL THE TIME. It's hard to tear yourself away from channel watching, because it's never "over", there's always something else similar on next, rather than the ten o'clock news or whatever.

Once we dropped down to super basic cable, we didn't have the "channels" we used to watch, like HGTV or Cartoon Network, and it was much MUCH easier to say "oh, there's nothing good on after Amazing Race, so let's do something else".

Dropping cable has been almost a non-issue here, it turns out.

The only negative was that DD didn't understand that we gave up on-demand TV and couldn't watch a PBS show whenever she wanted to, that a show had to be "on" for her to watch it. But we solved that issue by getting DVDs from the library and netflix.

[DiannaK]

Originally Posted by mum4boys

The very worst thing I did to my family is cancel cable. Guess what? Turned out to be the very best thing we could have done. We spend more time as a family together. First week was painful. Now we get movies and tv shows from the library or watch them online. We play games together in the evening when I am not working. Dh and I spend more quality time together also instead of mindlessly watching tv.

I agree .. we dumped cable in Sept? (I think), and we've done just fine. I watch CSI online, and we rent movies from RedBox. We'll ask for DVDs for Christmas. We're doing a LOT more reading.
We may still watch TV, but at least I feel like I'm an active participant, instead of just mindlessly flipping through the channels.

[SugarAndSun]

Another idea... we have friends who just cancel it in the summer months.

[gentlemango]

Huge pet peeve. We spend an obscene amount of our tiny budget on a directv sports package. I hate sports and don't get why my dh likes it. I wish we could cancel but he would throw a fit. It's his only entertainment expense but I still resent it like crazy. Sports are so stupid! :

[MJ13]

When we moved we turned off our cable and have never looked back! It was costing us $110 a month for the package we had and it just wasn't worth it anymore.

We get 5 or 6 channels that we just pick up and we have the blockbuster subscription.

I found that I had a lot more time because I wasn't "cleaning out the DVR" and I don't even miss the shows!

[Kontessa]

My husband is coming back from Iraq in a few weeks and we have talked about shutting the satalite off. Our children watch too much TV and I seem to only watch a little online at night. (Most networks have the shows online the day after for free!) We hav netflix and are horrible about turn around time so I would focus on that and the kids would get TV time that way.

When ever attitudes are negative around here, even for the adults, we turn the TVs off for a week or two and it helps sooooo much.

I wish you luck.

Have you desided?

[violet]

We took a tv "break" 2 summers ago. DH was ticked that I'd watch whatever while nursing the babe to sleep, then get caught up in the show and we were missing out on couple time. So he physically moved the tv out of the house so we could see what it would be like without it. Practice. Dry run. Family didn't mutiny because it seemed temporary.

1 week later he tells me the tv actually broke while it was in the back of his truck (the only place he could think to put it) and we both laughed and laughed because there was no way it was coming back in the house. We were so thrilled with the change.

kids watch dvd movies on the computer once a week or when sick and there's enough free episodes online now that when I have insomnia I don't go nuts. But not having any black box to stare at during family time has changed everythign for the better.
We do have DSL, but got that 1 yr for 14.95 or something really cheap.
goood luck