Monday Q&A-Breakfast, Lunch, and Cheap Entertainment
Every Monday, I answer a question or two from my readers. If you have a question you'd like me to answer(it doesn't have to be about frugality pe se....if you wonder something about homeschooling, or about me personally, for example, ask away!), leave a comment on this post, or email me(thefrugalgirl {at} gmail {dot} com) with the "Q&A" in the subject, and I'll answer it in a future Monday post.
_______________________________________________________
1. My fellow blogger Frugal Dreamer wrote in with a question this week.
What do you and your family do for entertainment?
I know a lot of families rely on TV for their source of entertainment, so I am curious to see what you guys do!
Before I answer the question, I should say that we do actually still have a TV...it's just not in our living room(and that is not my TV in the picture above! Ours is an older model that weighs about 5000 pounds.). We put it in the kids' playroom, where it's used for video games and DVDs(which are limited...the older two get 30 minutes of game time once their school is done, chores are done, and their rooms are clean). While we don't have cable, we do own an antenna, so if there's something we REALLY want to see on broadcast TV, we can set that up and get some main channels. It is true that TV does not make up a large portion of our entertainment, though, and that's just fine with me.
So, cheap entertainment! Umm...I don't really find that I spent a lot of time wondering how to entertain myself cheaply. My life is busy and full, and I never lack for something to do. Left to myself, I would probably work myself to death, but my husband is good about making me sit down and relax sometimes.
Incidentally, I think that part of the reason that I don't feel the need for a lot of typical entertainment devices is that I find joy in my work. Even when I'm doing a task I don't particularly enjoy, I still derive enjoyment from accomplishing something(cleaning a toilet isn't fun, but I like having a clean toilet). And I feel better if I've spent several hours actively doing something than if I've watched TV for several hours.
When we have some leisure time, here are some things we do.
1) When the weather is nice, we go for a walk in our neighborhood. The younger two ride in the stroller, and the older two walk or rollerblade along with us.
2) We play Wii games together. My 8 year old daughter and I like to play DDR together, and my husband enjoys playing Mario Kart and other games with the older two. Sonia and Zoe are very entertained just by watching us play the Wii, and Sonia can play some of the easier Wii games.
3) We watch DVDs. We're fairly conservative when it comes to what we'll let ourselves and our kids watch, so there's not a ton of movies out there that we feel comfortable watching. But, when a good, clean movie comes out, we often will rent it from Redbox($1 a night is a good deal in my book). We also check out DVDs from the library. The library is especially good for older movies, which are normally not available from Redbox.
4) We play outside. Joshua and Lisey both like to play catch with my husband, and Sonia and Zoe just like to run around.
5) My husband and I enjoy reading through books together. Most often we do this in the evening...my husband reads aloud to me while I iron or do some other mindless task(I pay attention better if my hands are busy).
6) We get together with friends. Instead of going out to a restaurant with friends, we invite friends over to our house, or sometimes we meet at a park and grill out.
There are plenty of things that we like to do individually as well. I like to read books(mostly nonfiction) and magazines(about photography, cooking, and scrapbooking), take pictures, scrapbook, blog, and read other blogs(I read photography blogs and some personal finance ones). My kids like to read(and be read to), they do puzzles, they color and draw, and they do all sorts of other imaginative stuff too. They have no problem entertaining themselves without the TV, that's for sure, and the things they like to do are not expensive either.
As a post script to this answer, I should add that I'm not at all trying to say that everyone should give up TV or even that everyone should give up their cable. That's just what we decided was right for us at this point in time(mostly for reasons that weren't financial, as we were only paying $15 a month for our cable).
_______________________________________________________
2. For a really short second Q&A, I wanted to mention that Mona asked a question I've answered before, about what we eat for breakfast and lunch. I don't typically plan those meals out, so I don't include them in my menu plans. I wrote a post a while back about what we do eat, though, and you can find that here.
Photo by Kansir
I don't think I could live without my TCM or Food Network. Those are the two things I feel I'd have trouble giving up when I move into my own place and would force me to get basic cable.
Battra, I edited my post to add that I don't think that everyone NEEDS to give up their TV. We gave ours up because of the time it ate up(time we'd rather spend doing other things) and because a large portion of the channels had material that we felt was inappropriate(this would not include the Food Network! lol).
A very short while before meeting my husband and I independently decided to cut out TV. We've been together 4 years and haven't had TV in our home in that time. Now we watch movies on our laptop. It's not as big a screen but it works for us.
Being a designer, I could spend hours watching design, cooking, creative shows. I did. That was part of the problem. Now, when we travel, the greatest splurge of a hotel room is the TV. My husband has 24/7 sports and if I get the remote it's HGTV and Discovery 'till I can't keep my eyes open.
We never feel deprived and I get such a chuckle from the aghast looks when we tell people we don't have a TV.
Over two years ago we got rid of cable. It was the best thing we ever did. Now there is no arguing over turning it off or worrying about what my kids are watching while I am busy doing housework. My husband misses his sports, but if he really wants to see a game, he goes to a friend's house. My kids can entertain themselves so much better now that we don't have cable. I have more free time to actually organize my house instead of wasting time watching other people organize their's on hgtv and tlc. We do splurge on xm radio and it is worth every penny!
I am really enjoying your blog! Thanks!
Thanks for answering!! 🙂
Ga nd I have decided that we are going to go without cable when we move back to the US. We don't have anything over here, we watch dvds or we watch our shows online. It's kinda like DVR, only we don't pay a dime for it! We will still have a cable for the internet, but on it's own it isn't too expensive.
Okay, Kristen, I wasn't going to ask this question, because I didn't want to be nosey, but you said go ahead and ask...so here it is. Do you have any "people" who help you in your day to day life? You homeschool, work with your piano and photography, bake your own bread, and shop at a couple of markets each week. That's a lot for one Mommy. Does anyone help you clean your house, babysit your kids, groom your dog (do you have a dog?), or mow your grass?? And one more thing...do you wash your own car? I know that it is "greener" to take it to the carwash, and our State encourages that for water conservation, but it is so expensive...and I like washing my own car. I hope I didn't ask too many questions...just curious...and kind of feel like I know you by now, since I've been reading your blog for such a long time!
Have a great night,
Dana
Dana, I'm not remotely offended. And your questions are officially on for next week's Q&A post. 😀
I wrote an article for a "simple living" type magazine about how my husband and I cut off our cable for a year and ended up not turning it back on. We wanted to save the $80 a month because we were only watching a few hours a week, and we wanted to have more time to spend together and to read and write and other things we love to do.
Our experiment was a great success and one of the things we did was read to each other and also play each other our favorite songs. We started taking a lot more walks together and things like that. We already talked quite a bit so that probably didn't change that much. We did still have our TV which we used as a monitor for movies- we're in the film industry and love to watch films, although mostly older ones. I'm not easily offended, but the amount of violence has increased drastically the past ten years and it's hard for me to watch (even though I know all the secrets of how they do it!)
We got our cable reinstalled last year for a couple of reasons, but we still only watch 3-4 hours a week at the most. I'm not judging people who watch it more, I'm just saying you'll be amazed at how much time you have to do other things you enjoy if you cut back on TV.
Kristen: No worries. Besides, I tend to watch more TV at the girlfriend's house than I do at home.
I also find myself recording a lot on my DVD Recorder for when I do eventually cut the cord. Then I'll have quite the DVD-R library.
Kristen! Your husband reads to you while you're ironing? Oh how Jane Austen!
Oh to have someone read to me. As an adult I have not had that pleasure in a long time. Maybe I should rent books on dvd eh?
Love the posts!
Tammy, yes, he does. lol I'm a very fast reader so I generally don't like to be read to, but I like it when I'm doing some boring task. 🙂
My husband and I love to play games together. We'll play Uno or Trivial Pursuit, drink coffee and laugh for hours. I think a lot of people have forgotten about family game night. We need to bring that back.