Sunday column: TV-free living

Someone once described television as "the menace that everyone loves to hate but can't seem to live without."
For the past year, though, I've done the seemingly impossible — I've lived without TV.
Why would a person do such a thing, you may ask? The answer is simple: To save money.
Now, I realize that the $30 or $40 or $50 a month savings may not seem significant enough to sacrifice cable TV, but I beg to differ. When your financial situation is as tenuous as ours is (thanks to my husband being a full-time student and my choosing an industry not known for its millionaires), every little bit counts.
Forgoing cable TV is not a big deal in larger markets where you can still pick up a few local channels with the trusty rabbit ears. Believe me, I've gotten my money's worth from the pair I purchased years ago.
Here, though, we're too far away from any of the regional channels' satellites to reliably catch the major networks on any kind of consistent basis.
Believe me, I've tried.
Even with the help of a "signal booster" compliments of my dad, our TV channel reception has been spotty at best.
Believe it or not, this is not the first time I've lived life without television. When I was in high school, I did it for more than a year. My friends all thought I was crazy. After all, by not watching TV how could I keep up with the latest music videos on MTV (back when MTV still showed music videos … occasionally) or the newest twist on My So-Called Life, Dawson's Creek, Party of Five and any number of other high school nighttime soap operas?
Somehow, I managed. In fact, my no-TV project of the '90s started out as only a two-month undertaking, and I voluntarily extended it. Why? Because I was using all that time I otherwise would have spent in front of the TV in a much more productive way.
And that's the same thing that's happening now. Instead of watching back-to-back episodes of Law and Order — which I would if I could — I've come up with lots of other ways to fill my time.
I take Casey the dog on long walks, I cook, I read, I even do a little cleaning. Thanks to this no-TV lifestyle, I've already got Christmas gifts for all my friends and family. And, I didn't go out to the store and buy them. Nope, I made them all by hand. The lack of TV availability forced me to finally clear off a spot for my sewing machine and viola! Christmas gifts. Not only are they handmade with love, making them gave me a rewarding feeling that you just don't get when you buy a gift, no matter how perfect it is.
The homemade Christmas gifts also have contributed to my efforts to save money, because I spent the same amount on supplies to make a bundle of gifts that I otherwise would have spent on one gift for one person. Now I'm no math genius (clearly, I'm a writer), but even I know that adds up to some savings.
Before I get too carried away, though, I must admit that this no-TV picture isn't 100 percent rosy. Take my disgruntled husband, for example. Without his minimum daily allowance of sports, COPS and the occasional SpongeBob SquarePants episode, he's understandably grouchy. But even he has flexed a little to accommodate TV-free life. Early on, he discovered 97.7 FM ESPN sports radio, and he hasn't looked back since. He's also visited the public library more times in the past year than he probably did in the first 20 years of his life. While he does grab a book now and then, his primary motivation is the library's collection of movies and TV shows on DVD. So although he hasn't completely surrendered his TV-watching, the frequency has diminished significantly.
I've written before about his total inability to eat a meal without watching something on TV. Thanks to DVDs, I'm happy to report he has not gone hungry yet.
I'm sure the TV-free days at my house won't last forever. It did bug me that during the presidential campaign and on Election Day I had to resort to radio and the Internet for up-to-the minute voting reports. But even that wasn't too bad.
On that glorious day when cable TV turns on at my house once again, the key will be to remember all the things I've been filling my time with. Although it will take some willpower not to succumb to marathons of Project Runway and Grey's Anatomy, I think I can stay strong. At least until it's time for Law and Order to come on.