TV Detox

It's now been one year since Jane and I arrived at our big decision to turn off satellite TV.

We decided instead to direct the $50/mo that we would have sent to DirecTV into a 529 college savings plan for the kids. This has allowed us to set aside an additional $600 for the kids college education. True, the amount we've saved is not nearly enough to send 3 kids to college, but its still better than setting aside an extra $0 for college.

The big decision to pull the plug on TV came after our control box failed, and DirecTV wanted to charge us big bucks for a new one.

Living sans satellite/cable TV has been good for our family. It has given us more control over what our kids see. Jane and I also watch less TV ourselves, and we have taken to recording those few shows on over-the-air TV that we are interested in. Because its a pain in the rear to program our VCR, we've had to become selective about what we watch. There's always a decent program on the tape that we can watch, should we need a TV fix and there be nothing good on.

Except for a couple of football games on ESPN, I do not feel that I've missed out on much. And kids at ages 5, 4 and 1, simply find something else to do.

If you've been considering TV detox, I would encourage you and tell you that, so far it has worked well for our family. At the very worst, we're $600 richer. Why pay upwards of $50 per month for a 150 channels of "nothing to watch," when you can pay nothing for about ten channels of "nothing to watch."

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Diet update: Presently at 195. Lost nearly 8 lbs in less than 7 days. Eating as much as I want. Goal is 185.