Turn the lights out...

Ok, not really, but that got your attention, right :)

For the second night in a row, the television has pretty much been OFF since 6. I am rather certain I myself could live without it. Sure, I enjoy the Food Network and TLC (minus a certain PA couple of course), as much as the next person, but I don't *NEED* these things.

We pay just under $100/month for cable and Internet. We do need Internet and to get it without the cable attachment would be ridiculously expensive. So we get cable. I called last year to cancel and they threw in a free DVR to keep us, as well as lowered our rates, so until next month at least we can DVR our favorite shows...not that we ever have time to watch them.

The point of this being, we don't have to use the power for our cable and to light up our living room every night. By "we" I mean not just us but anyone. Instead, try turning off the tv one night and read a book (we all have tons in our personal libraries we never read) or a newspaper, that is of course if your town still has one.

Our local power company has been running radio ads lately about turning off our power strips when the multiple appliances aren't in use, so I have started doing that as well when we go to bed.

I am not naive. I don't think these things in and of themselves are so huge that our bills will go down, especially not when you consider I had to turn the heat on today since the temps never got out of the 40s...its October 15, not January 15, right? But I do think every little bit helps. And if we can keep our bills low and steady we can budget accordingly.