Can a higher awareness of how we spend our time be an advantage to us regarding getting out of debt? If we found some time, could this help our cause?

Did you ever log how much time you spend in front of a television set? Are you aware of how long your children sit in front of the television? If you become aware, you’ll discover it’s one of our nation’s biggest time wasters. This is a pastime started innocently enough as a form of much anticipated relaxation, entertainment and enjoyment. Over the past couple of decades, it’s developed into simply a mind numbing experience for too many people.

During the mid-fifties through the mid-sixties, enjoying a couple of hours of entertainment initially replaced what our grandparents did when they listened to those old radio shows at the end of their hard day’s work. Ahhh! Those good old radio programs. They thought it was a treat listening to The Lone Ranger, Jack Benny and Fibber McBee and Molly.

When TV came along, we watched shows like Death Valley Days, the Honeymooners, I Love Lucy and “Out of the Clear Blue Western Sky Comes” Sky King.

Today, it isn’t the treat it once was. It’s turned into part of our expected, everyday routine. The programming seems to lack the positive value system it once had. Did you ever stop and watch someone sitting dazed in front of a television? It’s a unique observation experience, isn’t it? You’re watching a fellow human in a trance. They sit there; take in the information being relayed to them, while the body almost seems to be asleep.

I must admit, I discovered myself watching a lot of TV and did some investigative research. Research shows, thirty years ago in the mid-seventies, the average person was watching about twenty-three hours of TV per week. Today the studies are suggesting the average child is watching twenty-eight hours, and the average adult is watching thirty-one hours per week.

Is there some wasted, nothing-else-to-do time, that could be used to your advantage? Instead of watching the TV, could we mow the lawn rather than paying someone else to do it? Would this reduce our household expenses? Could mowing the lawn be considered enough exercise to allow canceling our membership at the gym?

What would happen if we helped our spouse complete more of the laundry and vacuuming instead of watching TV? Would this free some time for one of us to cook a balanced meal instead of spending thirty dollars for pizza? Would this result in a more profitable situation regarding our household expenses?

If we turned off the TV a little more often and helped our kids with their homework, would we be showing them, by example, what we feel is more important?

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests children be limited to two hours of television per day. They also suggest adults watch less than ten hours per week. How can you cut back?

Plan to view only certain programs per week. Use a VCR or digital recording device. By using the recording devices, you’ll be controlling your television time. You can skip through the commercials, which are almost thirty percent of the programming.

Television is probably much more detrimental to our household finances than we realize. Sure, it’s a great idea to have some relaxation. However, in most households today the TV is always on.

Many families turn it on first thing in the morning and shut it off the last thing at night. Look into your TV habits and see if this is true in your household. What do you have to lose?

Much of the text of this article originates from the book No Balance Due.