Giving up a creature comfort
By dorannmwin
@dorannmwin (36392)
United States
July 10, 2012 10:21pm CST
I think that everyone of us is used to having many creature comforts in our lives. Those things range from something as simple as having a microwave in our homes to the internet that I know that each and every one of us depend on daily.
So, the question that I have today to discuss is what creature comfort would you choose to give up if you were told that you had to give up one of your creature comforts and why would you choose to give up that comfort?
For me, the thing that I would choose to give up would be cable television. The reason that I would choose to give up cable television is because of the fact that we also have Netflix in our home and many of the programs that I do watch on cable are things that I am able to find online and I can watch them from the computer.
Please share with me what you would give up and why that would be the thing that you would give up in your life.
3 people like this
14 responses
@bounce58 (17380)
• Canada
11 Jul 12
I think I could give up my van.
Although I work just a few blocks away from home, I (am ashamed to say, that I still) drive to work. I like the comfort of spending that extra minutes supposedly for walking, to just spending it in bed for a few more minutes of sleep.
If I gave up the van, then I'd be forced to walk. And maybe a little bit healthier.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
If you were to give up your van would it mean that your family would no longer have a vehicle? I know if we were left without having any vehicle at all, it wouldn't be possible for our family to go on because grocery stores and such are too far away from our home to be able to walk to.
@bounce58 (17380)
• Canada
13 Jul 12
Not really.
I actually just met a guy who doesn't have a car. Not because he can't afford it, but because he decided not to. He works close by, and he lives in a neighborhood where everything is walking distance. He has a license, and just rents a car for family weekend getaways. I think he's very wise!
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
17 Jul 12
See I can't say that I do want to live in a place where everything is in walking distance. I believe that I am a country person at heart and I really need to live somewhere where we are able to have some land, but I also don't want to be more than an hour away from the nearest Wal-Mart.
@KrauseHome (36445)
• United States
14 Jul 12
Well, one of the things I would give up if I had too would be my laptop and my Computer. I know I would miss them, but since I can access most everything now from my phone, etc. it would save Electricity and probably earn me some $$ at least for the short term. Just would have to sell all my Computer games that I have then as well.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
17 Jul 12
Honestly, my computer would be one thing that I would never be able to consider. It isn't only because of browsing the web, it is also because of the fact that I do all of my scrapbooking digitally and I couldn't imagine not being able to do that at all.
@cher913 (25781)
• Canada
11 Jul 12
if i had to, i would give up tv as i could read more to fill up my time. my kids usually give up something they love for Lent (the 40 days prior to Easter). One year, one daughter gave up chocolate, one gave up soda and this year they both gave up Facebook for Lent.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
With the digital world that we live in right now, it does seem like Facebook is one of the most common things that people give up for lent. My best childhood friend has given up facebook for lent during the last two years. I don't think that I would be able to do it, but I really respect her for being able to do it.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
17 Jul 12
For me, birds are the reason that it would not be possible for me to give up my clothes dryer. I would never have any clothes that were clean and dry if I had to depend on line drying my clothing.
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
11 Jul 12
You make a good point about cable tv . . . in fact it were just giving up a creature comfort for myself, I'd say get rid of the tv entirely! I don't watch tv or movies for the most part (don't have time to sit and watch) - so I don't think I would miss the tv if it weren't here. BUT, the kids need their tv - hee hee - so for that reason I wouldn't give it up - ha ha!
Otherwise, I think I could give up the dishwasher. My mom never used a dishwasher in her life, and certainly I lived without one in our first apartment. But of course by now I've gotten spoiled by the dishwasher - ha ha - but honestly I can do the dishes by hand. I almost had to give it up because the kitchen in our new house didn't have the space nor plumbing necessary for one . . . but we ended up gutting out the kitchen anyway so we added it in. Phew - ha ha.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
You know, even though our family does have a brand new dishwasher, we have never installed it in our kitchen and we've pretty much been living without it. It is something that is possible to do, but I really don't like having to go without the dishwasher.
@vidhyaprakash_2 (7116)
• India
11 Jul 12
Hi friend, i am also in your sort and interested in giving up my cable TV, as i am not an TV addict and rarely watch tv, i spend most of my time in internet and think TV is not necessary for me.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
I will admit that there are still some things that I do like watching and I am quite looking forward to the Olympics this year. But I think that given a little bit of time, it would be something that I really wouldn't miss all that much.
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
11 Jul 12
I would be willing to give up the cable also. I would probably have a fight with my husband, but that would be the easiest for me. It is getting so expensive for what you get. They say you get all these channels, but most are just repeats, showing the same thing.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
Isn't that the truth. My husband would be the one that I would have to fight with over the cable as well. The reason that I think that is because of the fact that he really hasn't embraced the fact that television programs can be watched on the computer and on Netflix as much as the rest of us have.
@schulzie (4061)
• United States
11 Jul 12
I think I would give up my deep fryer. It is very convenient for me to have it sitting on the counter and whip up a fresh batch of french fries or fried ravioli, etc. But I think I could just fill up a pan whenever I need to fry something up.
I like your idea of getting rid of cable but keeping the internet though. I've never tried Netflix but that sounds like a great way to save some money.
Have a great day and happy myLotting!!!
Have a great day and happy myLotting!!!
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
I absolutely love Netflix. For a long time my family had netflix but we didn't have it at our house. A few months ago my best friend said that we should get a netflix account and I tried it out for a month and found that it was great to have and I've not thought about getting rid of it since then.
@Hatley (163772)
• Garden Grove, California
11 Jul 12
hi dorannmwin thats what I have given up for three years as I too can find things on my computer. besides so much stuff on the television is silly sitcoms that do nothing for me.It costs to much for me to have both cable tv and computer so I chose only the cable
internet and I am a happy camper.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
At this point in time, we haven't had to give up any of our comforts, but we have discussed definitely changing our cable subscription so that we will be able to save at least a few dollars every month.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
11 Jul 12
We usually do give up cable in the summer anyways because we watch less TV in the summer. So we could definitely live without cable. We have Netflix also, but I have also cancelled that for the summer because we haven't been watching the movies lately either. If I weren't in school I might debate losing the internet for the summer also to keep my kids off the laptop and send them outside! But I am still in school at the moment and do a lot of my banking and bill paying online, so the internet is a bit of a necessity.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
Honestly, I don't think that I would ever be able to consider getting rid of the internet because of the fact that I do access the internet every day and I use it to make money as well as keeping in touch with friends. My life would be completely depressing if I didn't have access to the internet.
@wilsongoddard (7291)
• United States
11 Jul 12
I could easily ditch the cable television and microwave. I don't consider internet to be a creature comfort; for my boyfriend and I, it has crossed into the category of "necessity" due to its role in our being able to earn incomes.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
For me, it would be a lot easier to give up the cable television than it would to give up the microwave. The reason that I would not be able to give up the microwave is because of the fact that the kids are able to heat up their own food with the microwave and I wouldn't trust them with the stovetop.
@randylovesdar (4932)
• United States
11 Jul 12
There was a time when I would have said that I could live without a cell phone, but when Randy was working two jobs and his mom had been terminally ill we had to get a cell phone so we can have it for emergencies. Only very selected people (my mom, his mom, the doctors, randy and I) had the phone number. Our friend's did not have the number because it was not a social phone it was an emergency phone. Now we have one cell phone and it is prepaid. I guess I would give up the microwave. I do not use it much. I would also give up DirectTv (of course Randy would not like this so we won't). I cannot live without my Internet and my sewing machine. I use both of these all the time.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
Honestly there has never been a time since I've had a cell phone that I would be able to say that it would be something that I would be able to give up. This is especially true now because of the fact that we actually don't even have a home phone in our house.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
So you are saying that you wouldn't be able to come up with one thing in your life that you would be willing to give up without something serious happening in your life.
@sishy7 (27166)
• Australia
11 Jul 12
We could do without a dryer and just aired and hanged up the laundry on clothes lines in our back yard. The only problem is during rainy or winter seasons. So we did that for only about a year when we first moved in the house then ended up buying a dryer... 
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Jul 12
I honestly don't know that I would be able to do without our dryer because of the fact that we live on a heavily wooded lot and that would mean that much of the clothing that I would hang out to dry would end up being things that would promptly have to be rewashed.
1 person likes this
