When my husband and I moved out of our last home we had decided that we were not going to get cable in our next. It just seems like you can't just do "basic" any more. At least not us. We would start with the best of intentions to just get basic, but than we get sucked into "DVR Mode" and "Oh I wish we had that extra channel!" If we have the cable box we know what we're missing, but I'm thinking we should go for the out of sight out of mind approach.
It's gonna be a tough one I tell ya. Because I wont sit here and lie to you saying my girls never watch tv. Micaila, my 3 year old loves tv. She also loves to read, and color, and paint, and play outside. But when she isn't doing those things, she loves tv. She loves her morning cartoon fest, (and I do too). It gives us all a chance to wake up because neither one of us like talking to much in the morning. Not to mention tv has allowed me to get many things done that I otherwise wouldn't be cabable of doing with a 2 and 3 year old tugging at my legs.
Okay so now that I've confessed that I use tv as a sitter sometimes, ;) let me say that our decision to not get cable wasn't strictly from a money saving perspective. There are draw backs to tv that especially in the future I can see as more of a problem. Like you can't always monitor everything that comes on the tv. The commercials alone these days make me sick at points. Fortunately Nick Jr. doesn't broadcast Victoria Secret, geez louisse!
We've come up with a great solution. Because we recognize that we probably won't like having just 4 channels that our rabbit ears pick up. (Does that method even still exist?) You can purchase Netflix for 9 dollars a month. It's probably more beneficial if you have the internet because you can instantly watch stuff on your computer as much as you want. And if you have the Wii you can have it hooked up to your tv and watch stuff that way. You dont even have to deal with returning anything. But there are things that you would have to check out to watch, like for example, I think I'm most excited that Netflix carries EVERY SINGLE season of Beverly Hills 90210!!! Yes, it's my guilty pleasure. Note: I recognize there is absolutely nothing redeeming about this show. But I'm hooked, since I couldn't be when it was out back in the day.
So here I am promoting Netflix to you all. I think it's a pretty great deal. Especially if you too are looking for an alternative to spending 60, 80, 100, dollars a month on cable.
