That's right boys and girls, Cole and I booted cable right out da house! We've talked about doing it for a while now. We have family and friends that go without it and don't seem to miss it too often. When we really sat down and thought about what we were watching, none of it was good for us. Most all of it was garbage. Cole did say she missed Fox News this morning while she got ready for work and I know I'll miss NASCAR in HD (way to go Trevor Bayne!!) but, we must remember the phrase, "Live like no one else so later, you can I live like no one else."
In all honesty this is not going to be easy for us. It may not be permanent but, we really want to get our 3-6 months of living expenses put away. Then we'll see how much we still miss it. We are about half way to our goal. We will be there by the end of this year. I'd like to get there quicker which is why we are going to this "extreme". But, here is the payoff . . . $100 per month. Add to this a couple of other things we cut out and now we have an extra $135 per month. That's an extra $135 to go into the emergency fund every month.
Okay, now I am going to get really honest. When we sat down and looked at our printed out monthly budget, we were looking for $100 more per month. That was our goal. The first thing my mind went to was the giving categories. We were giving more that 10% to our church and we actually talked about cutting back to 10% and getting the money from there. We slept on it. I sought council from a good friend who doubles as a budget coach. We mulled it over for about 24 hours. Here is what we decided. We enjoy giving to God and He has blessed Nicole and I so much that we want to give him more. In the end, we had to remind ourselves that it is all His money. We are just managers or stewards of it. We decided to drop cable instead.
It was my goal when I started writing this blog, to always be honest throughout the journey about our struggles. This is one of those that I am not proud to admit we contemplated but, we made the right call. We may have had to think about it too long but, we got it right. And you know what. . . I sleep good at night! At least when Shelby isn't trying to sneak up on our pillows! Hey, you try sharing a bed with 70lbs of German Shepherd that has night terrors!
Missing Fox News is about the last thing that cable offers that I would miss. lol... Ah, I'm getting awfully liberal in my old age. Did you know that I am an egalitarian by nature and theology? Just an aside. Maybe we could talk about that in another setting.
ReplyDeleteI think that dropping of cable is more counter cultural than extreme. When you consider the following that cable has and the fact that you won't be going there with them, that is "counter."
Dave Ramsey calls it being weird. If our culture is normal it is good to be weird. You'll have to define egalitarian for me. All I could find out was that it has to do with the equality of all people. I suspect there is more to it than that.
ReplyDelete