Saving Money on Televisionby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 05 Apr 2008 03:47 AM Although unheard of a decade ago, it is not hard to spend thousands of dollars on a television set and hundreds of dollars a month on television programming. Watching television has gone from being luxury entertainment to being a luxury necessity. The average new television costs about $1500, and you can get television units that cost much more than that. Here are some ways to be frugal about your television viewing and have hundreds or even thousands of dollars left over at the end of the year. Forgo the HD everything and get a basic television set. Did you know that you can pick up a regular analog television set for just a couple of dollars at the thrift store? One store I know of regularly sells their television sets for 90 cents a piece! The televisions are all tested and nothing is wrong with them other than they had to make room for pricer sets. We have a large television set that was given to my husband many years ago. It is still sharp and works well. Are you worried about the analog-digital conversion scheduled to happen in February 2009? If you have cable, you won't have an interruption in service. Another way to save is to drop the cable all together and get your programs over the air. If you do this, you will need to purchase a digital converter box, but the good news is that the basic ones are free thanks to a rebate from the government. You can click here to learn more about digital conversion boxes. If you don't want to be without cable, downgrade your service to basic cable. You'll be able to get PBS and the regular network channels. Compare a $10 a month charge to $90 or $120 a month (for my area). Instead of broadcast television, consider using your television strictly for playing videos and DVDs. You can borrow DVDs for free at the library, or get them free when you use coupon codes with DVD rental machines. How much do you spend on television? Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here. Related Articles: 10 Ways Your Entertainment Center Can Drain Your Money (1) 10 Ways Your Entertainment Center Can Drain Your Money (2) Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments fugalbaby (35) 06 Apr 2008 08:01 AMwe spend 16 dollars a month to get reception.i'm trying to get my husband to accept that we don't need that anymore either.he is however reluctant.the " we can watch lost online" theory isn't good enough for him cause being a recovering alcoholic where would he go to watch sports besides the bar?our "new" t.v was a 32 inch we bought at costco for 200 dollars 4 years ago.it broke last year and now we are using the t.v from my single days.a 20 inch vcr built in that at the time was expensive for 220 dollars.  thequeenofthecastle (413) 27 Mar 2009 02:36 PMWe too have discovered watching the little tv we watch online. We don't have cable and don't miss it. It's amazing how much time we have in our lives because we DON'T watch TV. Most the people I know religiously watch at least one show every evening. That is about an hour a day at least that they can't accomplish much else. I guess some people mutlitask in front of the TV, but it's pretty limiting. I also find the longer we go without watching TV the more we are re-sensitised to just how TRASHY everything is. We turn on the TV now after a good 2 years of not watching and are SHOCKED at what is said, done and tolerated on Television and we don't even have CABLE.  Mary Ann Romans (26791) 30 Mar 2009 04:33 AMIt is scary to realize how much life we have wasted watching television! Community Tags cable, entertainment, frugal, television, thrifty Discuss this article
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