TV Addict Without the Cable Bill

This is a guest post by Heather Sokol, a married mother of three beautiful, active girls. In between teaching carpool, Scout meetings and other miscellaneous mom things, she shares advice on living the life you want on a budget you can afford at Inexpensively.

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Hello, my name is Heather, and I’m addicted to television.

I grew up on sitcoms, game shows and America’s Funniest Videos.  I longed for a place where everybody knows my name. I wanted to be Alice Keyton. I alternately crushed on Brandon & Dylan in high school, and cheered for Ross & Rachel through college. I cried with Rory & Lorelai more times than I can count. Now? I’m lost through Lost, solving murder mysteries with Castle and I’m not a doctor, but I drool over a few on t.v.

I also don’t have a cable bill.

We have two options when we want to watch our favorite shows—live television through our HDTV antenna or recorded shows online. Our antenna is something else. It sits flat and receives over-the-airwaves channels, including all our local HD stations. We purchased ours  for around $30, and we get several free channels.

My favorite shows are all on network television anyway, so I’m not missing anything. If you have favorites on other networks, or prefer to watch sans commercials, there are options. The internet has made television readily available. Many networks live stream their hit shows or upload videos the next day. Hulu, AppleTV and Fancast offer numerous television shows & entire series downloads.

The library, Redbox and our own DVD library offer multiple options for the kids’ favorite shows. Nick Jr., PBS and Disney Channel each have fantastic websites. You can watch videos, print coloring pages and play online games. Of course, without the television, children will find other ways to entertain themselves. My girls are coloring, crafting and playing together more than ever before—they aren’t quite as addicted as I.

Image by apdk