Literally. Today, I called AT&T and had the tv portion of our U-Verse service shut off. I’ve never been a big tv-watcher, and between Doug and Emily, the only channels in our house that were ever on were the Food Network and Boomerang.

The only reason we had it in the first place is because when we moved back from Colorado, AT&T wouldn’t sell us just the internet piece. They said that because we had U-Verse service before in the house, that we HAD to install the whole package.

Since we didn’t have a choice, I went with the absolute bare-bones tv service. However, the sales rep at the time, also mentioned that we could have the tv service terminated later down the road.

He probably wasn’t supposed to tell me that.

I am not into reality tv. There’s enough reality in my own life, so I don’t need to be paying to watch somebody else’s on television. There really isn’t anything else that I need from tv, i.e. local news, weather, Food Network recipes, etc. that I can’t get online.

I suppose I won’t get to watch our GMA appearance, if or when it airs, but they’re sending us the DVD, so I’ll have that.

So, why spend the extra $44+ per month when I can do something else and more fun with that money? With some basic math, not including the taxes and other charges, it’s nearly $530 a year.

I remember when television was free and only advertiser supported. So much for the good old days.

By not watching television for the next 5 years, it’s nearly $2700 in savings. Now, this post isn’t about frugality, but think about it.

$2700 to go on a nice vacation for the 3 of us, or spend $2700 on mindless drivel that turns the brain into mush. It’s a no-brainer.

What about movies? Well, there’s always the public library, it’s free and we’ve bought quite a few videos and DVD’s over the years, too. Yes, we still have a VCR although we also have a DVD player, too.

So, what did Emily think? Well, first we had a family talk about it last night at dinner. I explained it this way.

“Emily, by turning off the t.v., after one year, we’ll have saved enough money that could buy us each a plane ticket to Walt Disney World.”

And yes, of course, I explained that we still had to pay to get into Disney.

Do you think she was on board with that one? Of course, she was! She didn’t hesitate for a minute. Watch t.v. or possibly go back to Disney? Disney wins, hands down.

It’s not just about the money, though. It’s about all the really fun and more important things that can be done by not watching television.

Emily just bought a Scholastic set of 5 books about puppies. After dinner, the first thing she did was to go get one of her new books. Warmer weather will be here soon and we’ll be outside as much as possible.

How many times have you said over the years, “all these channels and there’s still nothing on?”

I would guess probably more times than you think. I know I did. Generally speaking, television programming lost quality when it starting aiming for quantity. It’s not worth the money or time spent.

What about you? What do you think? Have you given up tv in your house yet?

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