According to this article, cable generally costs at least $500 to almost $1300 per year and I know that a lot of consumers have a bunch of extras in their cable packages that raise the monthly bill. The article also gives a few ideas for alternatives if you can’t go cold turkey, but most rely upon an internet connection so depending on how much internet costs for you, these alternatives may not end up saving you much. Most of the alternatives I looked into at the time involved my computer, and since I work and go to school, my computer is pretty much tied up. My daughter wouldn’t be able to watch it anyway. So, we opted for straight out DVDs and since she watched television way more than I did, I thought I’d give you some idea where to find inexpensive (cheap) DVDs for kids.

Walmart and Target

Seems like a no brainer, but you have to look in the cheap areas otherwise, both Walmart and Target have some pretty expensive DVDs. Yes, I ended up buying a lot of DVDs out of the $5 bin at Walmart. Luckily, my daughter is young enough to appreciate most of the cartoons and kid’s shows that are in those bins, although she thought the cover for Lassie looked way better than the movie actually was.

DVD Rentals Are Not Dead

There aren’t many places that still rent DVDs but I live in a small town that has a discount store almost literally down the street. We can rent movies from there for $2 a day. If I rented a DVD from the discount store every day, I still would not be spending as much as I did on Dish Network.

Borrow and Beg for DVDs

I am lucky to have people in my family that pretty much hoard DVDs and allow me to borrow a movie for free from them on occasion. I am also lucky enough to have someone in my family that owns quite a few new releases. If I ever needed a movie that was not animated or made by Disney, I could borrow one from them (as well as the kid’s movies too).

Garage Sales and Discount Stores

Not only can you find really, insanely cheap DVDs at garage sales and discount stores, but you can also find VHS movies as well. Yeah, that’s right. I said VHS. I don’t have a VCR but I was always amazed at the movies you can still buy on VHS for less than a dollar and sometimes just pocket change.  If you have one, hook that thing up and watch some cheap movies. Kids don’t know the difference. In fact, they may think they have found something new when you pull out the rusty, dusty VCR.

Don’t Go for New Releases

My daughter has become a huge fan of I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show (for some unexplainable reason) and I can find really cheap DVDs with entire seasons of these shows in most stores. We never ever bought new release movies and I can save that for a special treat to the movie theater. I know it’s cheaper to actually buy the DVD, but sometimes it’s nice to get out and do something. Plus, it’s a lot of fun for kids.

I’m glad that I disconnected the satellite TV when I did. I hated the idea of wasting so much money on channels and television shows that we never watched and I think it made a big difference in getting caught up on a lot of bills. If you are considering cutting cable, I would definitely say go for it. You don’t have to go all Amish and actually sell your TV, although I did but that’s another story, there are tons of alternatives available that make living without cable a lot easier.

What do you think. Could you live without cable or satellite television?

I switched from cable because I thought the satellite offer was much cheaper. And it was, except the channels I needed (ie, Nickelodeon, Disney etc.) weren’t included in the cheap package and I either upgraded or had them added. I don’t remember. My bill is almost $70 a month. Maybe that doesn’t seem like much.

Except my television isn’t pulling its weight around here (neither of the two are, actually). I don’t watch TV except for the occasional “end of the world” or “Bigfoot” story on the History channel before I go to sleep. The rest of the time, the TV is on Nick Jr. or Disney-which makes it worth even less because my daugther isn’t getting anything useful out of it either.

So, like everything else in my life, I’m debating whether I even need cable or satellite TV. Anything else that I feel is useless gets axed without a second thought. I get the news from the internet and honestly I can live without the History channel. I think my daughter could live on DVDs. It’s not like television is good for her either. Why can’t I just pay for the 4 or 5 channels we use? If I calculate my bill according to the channels that are available, it comes to at the most .15 cents a channel. I’d be okay with paying .75 cents a month for my satellite service.

My question is, am I being moronically cheap? Will not having a television turn my daughter into some kind of deprived weirdo?

I don’t know. I’ve kicked people out of my life that cost less than 70 bucks a month and although I don’t really remember, I’m pretty sure they were far more useful (most of the time).

Maybe I need to have a heart to heart with the television.