But What Will I DO?

Yesterday Dr. Heskett and I had a lengthy discussion about our finances. We have always done OK on the money side of our lives. There has never been "enough" but there was always "enough"...if you know what I mean. However the move from Kansas was definitely a big test. Not only did it cost a lot to to make some repairs to the house before we sold it but the move itself cost quite a bit. Add that to me staying home for almost a year and whala...we have a bit more credit card debt that what we feel comfortable carrying. On the horizon we are hoping to have another baby sometime in the next year or two which means added daycare and the need for a bigger vehicle. So thus the want to try and get all of our debt paid off.

We are not elaborate spenders. Sometimes we indulge our children and sometimes we eat out a few times a week but when push comes to shove for the most part we are reasonable spenders. So when we took a long hard look at our budget there wasn't a lot of room to trim fat from. Besides the promise to cut our grocery bill a little and eat home more often that didn't leave much to add to our "pay off debt" campaign. Then Dr. Heskett said something I was totally unprepared for. His suggestion was to turn off our Comcast services. This mean no TV, Internet, or land line phone. The phone I could care less about and the Internet would stink a little but my palms started to sweat as I contemplated going without TV.

I have mentioned before that TV is my one vice. I love my DVR, On Demand, and Pay per View. The worst of it is that the timing couldn't be worse. Lost premiers this week as did a few other Showtime and HBO shows that I watch...not to mention May finales. I can't imagine not being able to tun the TV to the Sprout channel for those few much needed minutes to get dinner on the table not to mention our morning routine of the kids watching TV while we sleep for a few extra minutes on weekends. Who am I kidding I would really miss, Grey's, Desperate, Gossip Girl, 90210, Private Practice, Biggest Loser, Big Love, Entourage, Lost, Privileged, The L Word, and many many more.

Dr. Heskett's response was yeah it would suck. He would miss sports and the Internet. The problem is that Dr. Heskett watches TV not shows. He likes to see what is on and usually ends up with a movie that he hasn't seen a million times or something on the history/discover/war/etc channel. This is totally different. He could fill that gap with something else...like a book. I would miss the action of what is happening...what if one of the characters that I love would die? I would totally miss it until this summer sometime when I could maybe rent the season. I panic just thinking about it.

Then reality hit me. I am addicted and I am letting my kids get addicted. That is precious time that can be spent doing something else and the payoff is huge. I have to admit that our bill has gotten a little (maybe a lot) out of control. We pay $190 a month to Comcast. This includes our land line phone (unlimited long distance), Internet, and cable (DVR, big Cable package, sports tier, HD, etc, etc, etc). If we added $190 a month to one of our credit card bills we would make an impact. It would also solidify our commitment to pay it off for good. I think that debt is like weight in that the harder you work at paying it off the longer it will stay off....at least I hope.

So here were my terms of agreement. Dr. Heskett has to start running with me. It is something that he dreads/hates a much as it kills me to not watch TV. We also have to sign up for Netflix. I am crazy but not that crazy. We can't watch TV but we have to have something to kill quite afternoons at home on the weekends. We are going to talk about it again tonight because I want to know exactly when we can turn it back on and how exactly we are going to tackle this debt. I will keep you posted on how this goes and just so you know I may have to stop by for a quick fix sometime.