Cutting Back.

Image.

I determined early in 2012 that I wanted to cut back and simplify how I spend my money. I decided it was time to revisit where my money was going and determine what, if anything, was going to waste.

Late in 2011 I cut my Internet at home because I realized that by the time I get home from an entire day at the office, I rarely want to sit on my laptop or ipad anyway. After I did this, my neighbor said I could have the password to his wireless and use it whenever I like. He works night shift so we're rarely home at the same time and I wouldn't be using it enough to slow him down anyway. I felt bad at first but he assured me that he paid for it anyway, he'd like it to be used as much as possible. Score one for me.

The best part about that has been that one of my closest college guy friends, Eric, lets me use his Netflix account. E has always looked out for me and for that I'm grateful. He sent me his log in a while back and said 'use it and abuse it'. I have loved having it...watching TV shows that no longer air on my ipad in the bathroom while I'm doing my hair and makeup in the morning is the absolute best!

Ok time to reel myself back in here. This post is supposed to be about my decision to cut back. So in January I decided it was time to cut the cable. I know some of you are feeling very upset at this idea but before you think I've let my budget run away with me...I stopped to pay attention to how much TV I was watching and over the course of a month I averaged about an hour a week. That hardly seemed worth $85 a month (over 1K per year). I didn't want to watch MORE TV just to get my money's worth either.

I kept it through the end of March since at the time I still had a roommate and I wanted to give her fair warning about my epiphany. I turned in my cable box March 23rd and wanted to wait at least a month to report back how I'm feeling (since I found out through twitter several of you were thinking about making the same cutback). Number of times in the last 5+ weeks that I have missed having cable: 1. There was one Sunday afternoon where I had the urge to watch a Lifetime Movie but realized I don't have Lifetime anymore.

One time in 5 weeks! This makes me wish I had either never gotten cable to begin with or gotten rid of it way before now. I feel more productive than ever. I'm crushing my reading goal which I recently raised from 50 books for the year to 60. Honestly, I'll probably even beat that. I feel really good and not like I'm missing out on anything at all.

You can watch most current shows online, if you want. Netflix is brilliant. And I do get a TV fix here and there while babysitting (when I'm getting paid to watch TV, instead of paying to not watch it at home). It's worked out really well for me!

I realize this isn't a cutback many of you would be willing to make and I certainly wouldn't push my ideas on anyone. I have plenty of guilty pleasures from laying out to skittles so I'm in no place to tell you that you shouldn't watch TV if that's your thing. What I realized, for myself, is that I wasn't really gaining anything positive from it and I could list at least 20 things I'd rather spend a grand on.

If you've been mulling over this idea and think you're in the same boat as me - then go for it! There are plenty of worthwhile things to spend that time doing. Such as, you ask? Well...

1. Facetime with friends

2. Workout

3. Read

4. DIY projects

5. Cleaning

6. Get outside

And I find that if you really want to spend a couple hours on the couch, you can always get Redbox for $1. Even if I did this every single Sunday I would save over $80 a month. That's my kind of math.

Love,
B

Reality TV.

It was the end of an era for all of us loyal Hills followers. After years of watching the girls drama – they ended the show with a controversial final episode with a ‘hollywood ending’ (aka fake).

I considered quitting the show when Lauren Conrad did, since K Cav has never been my favorite (oh yeah, I go all the way back to the Laguna days with that grudge). After 4 Seasons I couldn’t just stop, so I loyally watched the Hills go down in flames in the absence of my beloved LC and at the claws of K Cav.

I will say this once and then try to get over it…that fake ‘hollywood ending’ was weak and lame.

Here’s what I really wanted to write about though. Have you ever considered if you would allow a television station to video your life? I mean, I know that most if not all of reality TV is staged anyway. I am always curious if someone could convince me with enough money to put my life and reputation out there for all to see and judge.

See, I don’t think MTV will be recruiting me any day soon as I’m really just not their type of girl. The typical MTV viewer would probably fall asleep sometime during the pilot for my show and wake up around the end of my finale of the one season it would actually air. My ‘night life’ is just not MTVesque if you catch my drift.

Let’s say for arguments sake that say, ABC family comes to me and says they want to do a show about 20-somethings in the ‘real world’ and they want me to be in it. So then you have to consider how much of your time would be devoted to redoing things to get a better camera angle or to adjust your facial expression, etc. You’d have to consider that despite what Speidi thinks – there IS such thing as bad publicity. No matter what you will be judged harshly if people know enough about you to recognize your face. That’s life in the spotlight.

The truth is if they offered me a pretty decent amount of money, it would be tempting. But life is hard and complicated, I’m not sure I would wish for anyone to watch me try’n grow up. It’s not a graceful process. I’m nerdy and quirky, in a way that only my closest friends even know about. I’m not sure I’d ever be prepared to expose my day-to-day life to a critical TV audience. But the idea still intrigues me.

What about you?

Love,
B