DH and I had a long phone conversation tonight and we have decided to cut cable. All cable. Not just down to the most basic package of all, but completely gone.
I forget who, but earlier on today (or technically yesterday as it is after midnight as I type) calculated everything the spent on technology and I thought what a good idea. Well, coming close to $2500 was not a nice feeling.
So I broached the subject to DH who has been kind of noncommittal about it up to now. Then I laid it on him, we were paying $780 a year, give or take some cents, for cable tv. And we don't watch all that much of it anymore. The kids don't watch much at all, just videos or dvds from the library.
And even though we both feel very weird about taking this step, not because we can't do it, but because it just seems so bizarre that we would want to, we are going to. It's been such a large part of our lives, our upbringings and all. When we first got cable when I was ten, it was like a whole new world opened up. But these days, that world isn't such a great place to visit and so many shows just aren't age appropriate and yet are billed as shows for kids.
Any series we want to see will eventually be out on dvd and any series that doesn't last long enough for dvd isn't worth getting invested in. We've had too many shows we liked yanked off tv over the years, so not much point in watching something, sometimes.
So we're taking the plunge. As soon as this season of Dr.Who is over, we are cutting the cord. As of June 1st, no more. Wow. This feels huge. But it feels very right.
Cable going bye-bye
May 15th, 2006 at 08:53 am
May 15th, 2006 at 12:09 pm 1147691376
May 15th, 2006 at 02:06 pm 1147698398
I noticed you left a comment on, and said you couldn't drop your cell phone service. I know what you mean--it's really a safety issue. Just wanted to give you a link to a good thread on Fatwallet about prepaid cell plans. Maybe there's some plan out there that would work for you and be cheaper. (We use Virgin Mobile, which is fine for us because we don't use many minutes and are close to home 99% of the time. But your situation sounds different.)
www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=24&threadid=6...
May 15th, 2006 at 02:24 pm 1147699482
May 15th, 2006 at 03:00 pm 1147701640
May 15th, 2006 at 03:25 pm 1147703114
May 15th, 2006 at 03:48 pm 1147704526
Good for you
May 15th, 2006 at 04:55 pm 1147708543
I am looking forward to hearing your success....and I am sure you will be inspiring others to at least tinker with the idea!
May 15th, 2006 at 05:58 pm 1147712317
May 15th, 2006 at 06:10 pm 1147713014
You'll find yourself becoming a lot more productive. Good for you!
May 15th, 2006 at 11:14 pm 1147731254
I did without cable for a long time and now seems to be addicted to it. I want to cut it out again!
May 16th, 2006 at 09:23 pm 1147810981
May 19th, 2006 at 02:37 am 1148002631
I have no cable myself and am doing just fine.
May 27th, 2006 at 06:09 pm 1148749752
But mainly I found that when I can find a show on the 4 chanels we get that is half decent I spend less time talking to my husband, and less time working on the house...
I thnk no cable is good for me, I can always borrow the reruns from my friends, all of them have cable, Tivo, and whatever else they can get..or maybe it is satelite tv? or digital satelite? or whatever it is that has a billion and two channels of nothing to watch most days (hence the Tivo to catch the 3 good shows in a week...)
May 29th, 2006 at 06:20 am 1148880048
I live in an area that doesn't have good radio stations so I got XM satelite radio. It's much better than cable tv and only $13 mo. or less, depending on the subscription length. XM has all the major news channels, drama, talk, and of course every kind of music. I save enough on electricity to pay for it by not turning on the big TV. Combine that with free DVDs and audiobooks from the library and who needs cable?!
October 28th, 2006 at 01:04 am 1161993864