View Full Version : No more cable, no more dish!
Well after years and years of suggesting this my DH has finally agreed and cut the cable/satalite TV. We are now strictly antenna, with Netflix backup.
We were paying almost $100.00 per month for TV, now it's $7.99 for Netflix through our Wii. :cool:
After the first few weeks I finally asked him what he thought, he said he never missed it. YES!
So proud!!
Oh, how I wish we could do that---but we'd never see any baseball, football or basketball or gasp--Tennis!
treehugger
8-12-11, 5:44pm
Congrats! Welcome to world of no cable and lots of incredulous looks from people. :) We switched off the cable in 2000 and sometimes I like to think about how much money we've saved over the years. We joined Netflix in 2004, but at far less per month than even the cheapest cable, it's a great deal with tons of entertainment options. We can't even access local TV programming where we live, so we are truly Netflix-only.
Get ready to be totally clueless when people complain about TV campaign ads and such.
Kara
We for years had the cable goodies, then we had two homes with one having Dish. Moving a few times and being in contracts, we ended up with Dish in the lower level, cable upstairs. With internet too....a whopping $200 a month gasping to say. Last year we got rid of Dish, leaving $110 a month. Last week we cut to internet only and for 94 cents more we also get local channels. So now we are basically TV free!!! Bill is $68 a month and yes we love high speed net. Never will we go back to those past days.
Once you go cable and dish LACK, you ain't never go BACK !
it is so awesome! :D
We went cable free back in 1999, and never looked back. It cost $35 a month then, and I just decided it was way too expensive for the value.
I had antenna the year before moving to NZ, and netflix (not download, but through the mail). We used dial up for the computer.
Here, people think we are nuts -- as we don't even own a TV! We just watch things on our computer -- download, or rent a movie (via the netflix-like thing we have here). And, we don't do it all that often.
I admit, i'm addicted to masterchef australia. So, one show a night. but some nights, we don't get to it, so we have to watch two shows some nights.
I've been using antenna/broadcast TV for years. I was not feeling too happy when it all went digital and I decided to buy the conversion box but have to say my picture is now the clearest it has ever been, except when a plane flies over and the picture gets all choppy (but that's only temporary and I've gotten use to it). For about 6 months I never could receive CBS, but you know, you get use to things and TV is not exactly a necessity and later for some magical reason CBS came back.
Last week I had to be out of town and one of my excitements was the thought of watching some cable TV. Boy, was I disappointed. There was so much reality TV and then reruns, reruns, reruns. I did get to see one episode of What Not To Wear which I enjoyed very much! This experience reinforced for me that I wasn't missing out on something terrific. I read most of the time anyway.
Congratulations Mrs B and think of all that money you'll be saving.
Way to go, was just reading an industry report that said the Satellite TV Industry in the US has lost 195,000 customers last quarter alone, they blame it on the economy and Internet TV, they ought to look at their greed....CONGRATULATIONS!!
from what I'm reading, the next predicted trends are 1) the pc is dying out, to be replaced by tablets and smart phones, and 2)internet will increasingly be provided by phone contracts and less so by cable and DSL.
I'm been cable-free for going on 15 years now. Love it! Don't spend my life sitting around on my butt glued to the boob tube anymore. Same with internet - don't have internet access at home use free wi-fi elsewhere - like at the library now. I usually use an antenna to get a quite a few local channels and just get free DVDs from the library (or $1/week for new releases) but my dog ate my antenna awhile back so have been TV-Free for several weeks now and love that even more!! But am getting a new antenna today because I miss having the news and weather info. Wel...sometimes :-)
Welcome to our side! My dw and I have never had cable in our married life. We have always joked that we would get it once the kids left home! Sitting here at the hotel, I am amazed at all the STUFF there is to watch on TV. A lot of time could be wasted! While some of it looks very interesting...I have survived this long, we can do without.
Welcome to our side! My dw and I have never had cable in our married life. We have always joked that we would get it once the kids left home! Sitting here at the hotel, I am amazed at all the STUFF there is to watch on TV. A lot of time could be wasted! While some of it looks very interesting...I have survived this long, we can do without.
Yeah, I just spent a couple of weeks a motel and WOW! Lots of junk on that cable TV! Some good stuff too (I'm thinkin' the Sci-Fi Netwrok and the Cartoon Network - you know, for those of us with highly discriminating and sophisticated tastes :-)!) If they did the Ala Carte kind of thing, where you can pick and choose what channels and shows you want, I think more people would get/keep cable.
We were netflix only for years until we finally decided to go without the tv all together. We love being completly tv free.
we do tv-free weeks, but without my books around (they are in US), and without the library being free (stupid library! it's about $2-5 a book depending upon the book, and that's a 2-week 'rental!'), i find that I don't read as much as I used to (and prefer). People here usually share books among each other! I'm thinking of getting a kindle ap for my little computer, too, but IDK. I mean, i guess $2-5 every two weeks should be fine.
loosechickens
8-13-11, 10:42pm
That was an interesting comment, zoebird.....I guess we here in the U.S. take free public libraries for granted in the way that you guys in New Zealand take universal health care for granted. Is it just your particular area where you have to pay to rent books from the library, or is that standard practice in New Zealand?
It always amazes me that what we take for granted here, perhaps, is not the case elsewhere, and it works in reverse, certainly, when every other free democracy has universal health care available to all, yet we take for granted that hundreds of thousands of families go bankrupt from medical bills every year and many millions do not have good access to care. Somehow, I think I'd rather have the health care, even if I had to pay for my library books.
Our property taxes are itemized, and the amount that goes toward our libraries is really minimal - something like $75/year. It's a bargain for us!
I have never paid for any sort of TV. I think for a total of 2 years I lived in apartments that provided basic cable. We just returned from visiting relatives and after about a week DH commented that it's always a good reminder to visit people with cable because he learns again that there's not really much to see. We own one TV but don't watch much - it's mainly used for an occasional movie and for special events like election night. I'm happy that we have some mostly TV-free friends, too - and for all of us, it's not much a conscious effort, but just that we all have so many other things that we'd rather do. Our kids are the same way, which is refreshing to see after reading reports of how many hours kids spend in front of the TV. I recently read a book that stated that the average 22-year old today has spent >10000 hours playing video games and >20000 hours watching TV.
Sad Eyed Lady
8-14-11, 9:27am
Yea to you Mrs.B! We have not had cable/dish - anything other than rabbit ears - for several years and have never missed it. When we go to a hotel and flip through all the many channels we both agree that it is just "more of nothing" and have never wished to go back. Funny story: a young guy came to our house one day selling the local cable deal. I told him we used to have cable but had it taken out because we just did not watch much t.v. So, he said (kind of with a smirk I thought), "how long have you been without cable?". I thought about it and replied "Oh, 5 or 6 years I guess.". The smirk left his face and he just said something like "oh" and gave up the sales pitch! I guess he thought it had only been a short while and we would soon feel deprived all of the great entertainment we were missing and come crawling back. LOL!!!!!!!111
Yes we have gotten a few stares from friends who asked if we'd seen some show, and when we tell them we don't get cable they just sort of drop the subject with that "OH you poor people" look. We recently stayed in a hotel for a wedding, and laughed at the fact the one channel we use to enjoy was still showing the same remodel project from the last time we got the channel.
I felt like I'd won one for the team when he agreed. LQTM Now what's next on my simple living spouse conversion???
Mrs.B
We cut cable after about a year of having it. We got a Roku for Netflix and haven't looked back. :)
chrisganon
8-16-11, 9:45am
That's great guys. I'm happy for your freedom from the entrapment of modern technology!!
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We currently have DirecTV and seldom watch it "live", tho we do record some to watch later: lots of PBS for me, and DH likes his handy-person shows. He's VERY handy, but likes to watch the shows. And of course "Law and Order" :-D. Anyway ... when our contract expires this fall we'll cancel DirecTV and go to antenna only.
And yes, we'll miss Boise State Broncos football games!!! OH NO! :-( :-( We're considering keeping DirecTV thru the season and dropping it when it's over. We'll see ... we do love our BSU football ...
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