Boycott TV, Web, and Games for $15,600 Per Year?

How to make $15,600 or more per year, every year, for life by NOT watching television, surfing the internet, or playing video games.

Part One: Are you addicted to the screen and how did you get that way?

How many people reading this article are bleeding $140, $160, or more per month for cable TV and Internet? You got hooked into it for a new customer special of around $78 a month for 6 months and they start jacking up the price within 3 months, then after 6 months you are paying almost twice the discount price. Customer service keeps giving you the run around on the phone by transferring you from department to department to department to department then cutting you off between transfers. You can no longer afford date nights or taking the kids to the zoo nor weekly night out with the girls or guys because your cable, internet, and phone bundle is wiping out every last bit of cash you have.  Sound familiar? But you are so used to your routine of cozying up on the sofa with your favorite reality show, news and late night hosts, vintage and indie movies, and social networking on Facebook that you feel you need to keep paying the $140, $160 or more per month, plus the frequent extra charges, plus occasional an on demand video for another $20 to $50 per month so you feel informed and connected. Also sound familiar?

It’s not that you are addicted to the shopping channel or on-demand porn or downloading movies or video games, you a normal watcher, 3 or 4 TV shows and a movie a night to wind down and a couple of hours a day catching up with email and Facebook, and on rainy weekends you might watch SciFi or Chic Flick marathon. Quite normal and average really, no harm in that is there? Well actually yes it is doing you harm.  The costs to you financially are more than just the Internet and cable bill, your eyesight, plus spending an average of 4 to 8 hours per day staring at a screen on top of 8 or 12 hours per day at work is stressing you hour and confusing your judgment without you realizing it. In a nutshell to spend 4 to 8 hours a day on the screen, deny quality time with real people and to deny doing things in real life, plus paying out the expensive costs, under the rules of addiction that makes you an addict.

Concentrated light is the strongest form of mass hypnosis known to human kind; it’s an actual hallucinogenic drug, like LSD, only stronger. Studies have shown that what people see on the screen they copy in real life without realizing it.  It makes you want and buy things you don’t want and don’t need and behave in ways you wouldn’t if you knew better.  For example the TV reality show “16 and Pregnant” has encouraged tens of thousands teenage girls to get pregnant and many are succeeding.  Medical studies have shown that teen pregnancy results in higher rates of birth defects, learning disabilities, and impoverished upbringing for the child, so in fact it is child abuse. Hundreds of thousands of people are addicted to television shopping, online shopping, and online gambling and their lives and families, children, and credit ratings are suffering and creating new homeless hoards. It’s not fiction, do your own research.

There is no conspiracy cover-up; you can look up the studies and their published results for yourself. It is well documented and taught in colleges that the birth of Television and 1950s TV shows changed how America dressed, acted, and shopped.  Hundreds if not thousands of independent studies have been done on the effects of light based communications mediums by multiple universities and organizations and the same studies are used to teach and sell television advertising and marketing. Nobody is trying to hide the fact that television and Internet is addictive and harmful except yourself, because even if you don’t realize it you are an addict.  Your addiction is putting your life and your family’s lives and quality of life and future in harms way.

Part 2: The mechanics of making cash by boycotting TV, Internet, and Video Games

Giving up anything you are addicted to is difficult, but admitting you have a problem is the first step. If you are watching a screen for more than 2 hours per day for entertainment you are an addict. I’ve been addicted to a few things in my life, such as television, alcohol, drugs, shopping, bad relationships, food, and the like. The addiction leaves a big hole that needs to be filled.  The best way to fill that hole is with something positive that requires your intent focus. You want something that brings you back down to earth and reality and gives you a sense of fulfillment. Not an idle hobby, but a vocation or field of research, building, small business or artistic endeavor that inspires you to do more of it and is not Internet based.  Instead of crafting or making model air planes you could make something you like that you can sell at local markets, gift shops, ma and pa grocers and boutiques.  For example, get some lessons in sewing or woodshop, bicycle repair, cooking, gardening, welding to give yourself a tangible life skill to make your own stuff to save money, to sell, and to the skill teach to others. 

Saving cash and making pastimes pay in the long run is the key to survival in this new and crazy age. If it takes a few hours to make your own, it’s a bit more cash you can put in the bank.  For example: If you have a sunny garden grow your own organic herbs, medicines, salads and veggies, which saves cash and shopping time and gas on food, allergy meds, vitamins, illness down time, and future medical costs for general health.  An hour a day nurturing Mother Nature’s pantry, instead of mowing lawns, can save an average household up to several thousand dollars per year. Plus it tastes better, you know where it’s been, and kids will eat almost anything they grow themselves.  In fact by doing all your own yard work and using push mower and rake you can fire your illegal immigrant gardener to save another $40 to $100 per month plus one less workout class per week saving another $15 per week, and no traveling to the gas station for mower fuel $10 per fortnight. FYI: Mower fuel has lead additive that leaves deposits outside and inside your home. You only need trace amounts of lead in the air and on surfaces for it to affect your memory and health.)

Example savings for a mid to low income household:
Cable and Internet $160 per month
Organic veggies, allergy meds and vitamins, and general health $166+ per month
Gardener $ 80 per month
Weekly gym class $60 per month
Mower fuel and travel $20 per month
Shopping travel costs, parking, vehicle maintenance and insurance $40 per month
Total savings so far = $526+ per month

$526 per month can pay for a solar power system, energy efficient appliances, hybrid car, college funds, retirement savings, or a small mortgage. Plus because you and your family aren‘t watching as much TV there is less desire to shop, which saves another $200 or more per month. Total cash in the bank so far $726 per month and a healthier more grounded home and family. And these are not the only possible savings.

An hour a day doing gardening is not going to fill the entire hole that not watching TV nor playing video games will leave. So also add an hour a day cooking your own whole food from scratch, tidying and dusting the house, and add another hour sewing a garment or making a piece of furniture, doing touchups around the house, reupholstering a chair, fixing or detailing your car, or renovating an old lamp. Listen to the radio for news and new music while you work to keep up with the outside world. Either one or a combination of those pastimes could save and earn $300 or more per month and you are sill informed of world events. You could kill another hour or two here and there chatting with a neighbor over coffee and your own home baked cookies to catch up with neighborhood news.  You could kill another 2 hours playing a board game with your kids or your spouse. Total savings and earnings $1,026 and keeping hand made products and skills and your neighborhood alive.

But then there are the weekends and filling in that whole 2 days and 3 nights of time, plus you will be short of cash for at least the next few months while you catch up with bills. Why not make or grow something and sell it at the local farmer’s markets and craft bazaars and boutiques? It could be something simple for a small workspace, such as painting trees and animals on terracotta flowerpots or hand sewn pet toys or hand made soap or leather dog collars and belts.  Or if you have space enough for a dedicated craft room or workshop your imagination is your only limit.  In my family we each spend a 2 to 3 hours a day making things to sell or for around the home or just for fun.  It keeps you young, maintains and improves your IQ, and helps keeps your emotional mind healthy, as well as net around $ 1,200 to $ 3,000 per to month if the whole family pitches in part time.  If money isn’t an issue try spending your weekends volunteering at a charity, animal shelter, or local litter cleanup to help improve your neighborhood. Great education to learn about real life and what an individual and a community needs to survive.

So now our total savings plus earnings for an average household of DIY-ers is hovering around $1020 per month.  Add another $300 to that as average weekend net profit from selling your home made stuff and you have a total $1,320 per month extra cash in your pocket. Multiplied by 12 months that’s $15,840 per year. Plus you and your family are leading full and active lives, staying out of trouble, learning life skills, and have plenty to talk about around the dinner table and productive satisfying experiences to share. It’s all about getting out of the virtual world and back into the tangible world by giving yourself and your family a reality check. Who knew that giving up TV, Internet, and video games could be so family healing and lucrative?

By Deborah 

June 2, 2011