Give Up TiVo? Are You Serious?
Posted on September 13, 2007 by Melissa
Filed Under Budgeting, Frugality
I may be looking to eliminate unneeded spending and keep out of debt but that doesn’t mean I’m giving up all luxuries in favor of going “bare bones”. Not yet at least. I have removed most of the fluff from my budget but after reviewing my expenses I decided to keep some items that others would probably consider completely unnecessary.
Yes, I must concede that they are unnecessary expenditures and I might be better off just saving that money. But aren’t many of the little pleasures and comforts we enjoy in life considered extraneous?
Living on a budget doesn’t necessarily mean you have to give up everything non-essential. It just means you need to carefully decide which items add the most value to your daily life, budget for them, and then cut from all the areas that don’t.
What I consider to be unimportant (e.g. going out to lunch with co-workers daily) others might view as a perfectly reasonable expense that they want to budget for. There is no one-budget-fits-all solution.
And just because I’m keeping a few luxuries in my budget doesn’t mean I shouldn’t work to trim the fat off those areas, too. Here are 5 items we decided to keep in the budget and how we managed to cut costs to make it better.
1. Cable
We used to have premium cable. I’m talking the maxed out deal with all the movie channels and music and multiple cable boxes. We would watch a lot of TV, and sure it was fun to have, but really we only watched a few core channels consistently. We were paying premium prices but only using standard services.
I know many people feel cable is an unnecessary luxury, and you know, they are probably right. But I’m just not ready to drop the cable out all together. I don’t know that I ever will be unless I’m in a situation that absolutely demands it or my priorities change. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be smart about my choice and get the best deal that I can.
How we made it better: We decided to drop down to “standard” cable. We couldn’t rationalize spending the money for all those channels just for the off chance we might want to watch one someday. However, we made the decision not to strip down to “basic” because I would lose all my favorite channels and therefore my favorite show. Going to basic might have saved us an additional $10 a month but at that point we might as well ditch the TV altogether. Savings: ~$40 a month
2. TiVo
Ahhhh, my precious TiVo. This one goes hand in hand with TV. If you don’t value TV you won’t care about TiVo. TiVo is even more useful to us now that we started watching less TV and only at certain times. We find that a service which allows us to watch exactly what we want, when we want, with the ability to zip through the commercials is very handy and time efficient. Still, it was hard to justify keeping this non-essential item in our budget. We didn’t want to give it up completely so we found ways to save money.
How we made it better: We started with three TiVos (yes, three - we love multi-room viewing) then we dropped back to two. Now we are discussing dropping to just one TiVo because we watch fewer shows and don’t need the recording capacity anymore. When I bring up the subject my husband says he isn’t ready to discuss it just yet. I guess the weaning process takes longer for some. Savings: $6.95 a month
3. Netflix
We are not movie buffs but we do like to watch a movie every now and again. The movies might be more impressive on the big screen but I prefer the comforts of home over surround sound any day. For that reason we rent movies.
We loved the idea of Netflix. No late fees and unlimited movies? We will watch a new movie every night! We signed up for the 3 at a time unlimited plan for $16.99 and filled up our queue. The problem was we didn’t watch a new movie every night and it was getting hard to feel like we were getting our money’s worth.
How we made it better: We still use (and love) Netflix but we switched to the cheapest unlimited plan. We still want to watch our movies but we didn’t watch enough of them to make paying for the additional volume reasonable. We feel we can justify keeping it in our budget (for now at least) as long as we have the desire to watch and actually watch enough movies to beat the cost of renting from the store. So far it’s been cheaper but we revisit this item often to make sure it’s worth the expense for us. Savings: $8.00 a month
4. Cell Phone
I rarely use my cell phone but like many people I feel I need one. Maybe it’s an irrational feeling. I don’t want to be caught in a situation where I can’t reach my loved ones.
Cell phone plans are fairly expensive, especially if you barely make a dent in your minutes. My husband uses his all the time but I’m a sparse user. Many would say drop the coverage and just keep the cell phone charged up in the car for emergency purposes (modern cell phones can still contact 911 even with no minutes plan). That’s a valid option but I’m just not ready to do that yet. I still find substantial value in the ability to reach people and be reached myself when I’m out and about.
How we made it better: Instead of having a separate cell phone plan I piggyback off my husband’s plan. I have my own number and phone for a fraction of the cost and we share the minutes. It allows us to have piece of mind and that is worth a lot. We also lowered the bill by dropping off extra services I didn’t realize I even had, like insurance. I got this phone for free - I don’t need to spend $7 a month to insure a freebie phone. Savings: $20.50 a month
5. Soda
I am a diet soda junkie. 
I realize that water is the ultimate frugal drink but I just can’t stomach straight up water all the time. People tell me if I just start drinking water I’ll learn to love it and I’ll lose my taste for the fizzy stuff. Not so for me.
I relish my soda. I would have never considered it a luxury. I always viewed it as a staple. That was before I started looking at how much my habit was costing us. And knowing that I don’t need soda to survive means it is non-essential, no matter how much I love it.
How we made it better: I dropped my consumption rate and abandoned brand/flavor loyalty entirely. My favorite soda is Diet Sprite but I rarely seem to get that now. I feel that in order to justify getting this totally unnecessary item there must be a good deal. I only buy the sales and if there is no sale I ration or go without until there is one. And they have to be great sales, not just regular specials, to alleviate my guilt. This weekend there was such a good sale on Pepsi we stocked and bought 10 12-packs. I guess I’ll have to get used to Diet Mountain Dew and Diet Pepsi Max for a while. Savings: ~$25.00 a month
Some might see keeping these items in our budget as frivolous, or maybe as “unfrugal”. The changes we made were substantial for us, and result in our saving about $100 a month. That ain’t chump change. We are streamlining the “luxuries” we really value by scaling back on them, saving a substantial sum along the way. To me, that way of thinking is frugal.
Frugality is a journey, one that starts with simple changes and may lead to significant changes. Our idea of frugality is evolving. We might look back at this article in the future and say to ourselves “How could we have been so wasteful with our money!” But for now, this suits us. I’ll be curious to see how our priorities change and what non-essential “splurges” are still worth the money to us 6 months from now.
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Good list. I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times, but what you said IS true - if you give up soda for water eventually you won’t miss it. I didn’t go a single day without diet Coke for about 20 years, and I usually drank AT LEAST 3-4 a day during that time. I finally gave it up, and all soda up, about 2 years ago and now I don’t miss it even vaguely. I drink seltzer at meal time, water the rest of the time, green tea on and off through the day, and a cup of coffee in the morning.
The main thing that surprised me about quitting soda was how easy it got to resist wanting it. Especially with the diet stuff, you don’t realize how unnatural it tastes until you have stayed away from it for a while.
Except for the TiVo (we have a DVD recorder) I’m right there with you on the rest of it, though!
You know I have heard it a million times but I need to keep hearing it. I thought I could quit the soda habit by weaning myself off on Crystal Light but that didn’t work either. One of these days it will happen though.
What’s sad is that even though I didn’t like the taste of the off brand diet soda I kept drinking it anyways. Now I don’t mind it. Go figure.
Try seltzer. Mix it with a bit of juice if you have to. You’ll be surprised, having a fizzy glass of seltzer is enough to remind you of what you really enjoy about soda.
It’s tough to quit. I had headaches for several days. But honestly I felt sharper, more energetic and better rested after I gave it up - no negative side effects at all. Plus my teeth got whiter. Not to toot my own horn too much, but I wrote about it (click on Brip Blap, above).
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I like your list. After all, we’re living frugally but that doesn’t mean living miserably. Mr. Micah and I got basic cable, because we only watch CBS and Fox shows…but we chose to actually have cable, and I know some people haven’t.
My little luxury is Nestle Semi-Sweet chocolate chips. I really shouldn’t be spending $5-7 a week on them…but like your soda, I miss them if I don’t.
Mrs. Micah -
What is life if we don’t give ourselves some luxuries? Being frugal doesn’t mean we have to give up everything. These little indulgences are perfectly natural and, in my opinion, help keep us frugal. If we went too far over the edge with regards to frugality, we’d probably fail. By saving money on our indulgences, we can still feel OK about having them.
It sounds like you have already done that with the chocolate. That is great! My husband also likes chocolate and whenever I find a coupon I get him the darkdst I can find.
Thanks for commenting!
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