Things I Live Without

After my last post, I get a comment about how I don't have AC.  Well, really, AC is one of many things that is not available at my parent's house.  I'm going to share the list because a) I really love people's reactions to this and b) as an example that sometimes the things we think we "need" we could live without.

Lets start with the air conditioning because it's freaking hot out and sometimes I do wish we had it.  However, we live in New England and it would really only be useful a few weeks of the year, which really isn't worth it, in my parent's opinion.  And really, you get used to the heat after awhile.  We do use fans a lot and we get by.

We also do not have cable TV.  How do we live, you ask?  Well, we do have an antenna on the roof and because we are close enough to Boston, we do get the major networks.  For not having cable, we have a pretty good selection.  I think we started out not having cable because my parents couldn't afford it.  But then I think it grew into a realization that we didn't need it.  My brother and I were busy with school and sports and we spent a lot of free time playing outside.  My family was on the go on the weekends and we didn't really watch TV all that much.  And when we did want to mix things up, we rented a movie.  Besides, we could always go to my grandparents house to get a Spongebob fix.  I might have resented not having cable growing up, but I appreciate it now.  TV is addicting and if you're a little kid you don't need it anyway.  Kids should be playing outside and being kids, not glued to the tube.

Up until about 6 months ago, we still had dial up internet.  Ok, this one was a huge pain.  We didn't even have dial up until about 6 or 7 years ago when I insisted that I needed it to get my homework done, which was true.  I hated dial up internet.  But I suppose my brother and I ended up avoiding the internet because it was a colossal pain to use and again, that probably wasn't a bad thing.  It probably kept us from getting into a lot of trouble.

Finally, and probably most shocking, is that we do not have a microwave.  Gasp!  That's right, no microwave.  I told this to a kid when I was in high school and he looked so shocked.  He asked me how we cooked?  Um?!?!  We heat up leftovers in that thing called an oven.  And my father uses the stove to make a home cooked meal every night.  Obviously his family didn't use the stove much.  Trust me, we get by without it.  We make popcorn on the stove and we rarely have leftovers to heat up anyway.  I think we had one once for a couple weeks, but we never used it.  I have one when I'm up at school, and sure it's convenient, but I don't need it.

So that's the list.  Think of all the money my parents have saved by not having these things over the years.  Do you think you could give up any of these things for a week?  A month?  I challenge you to give it a try!  I'll bet you'll be surprised by the results.