Monday, February 18, 2013

we got rid of cable - week one.

i never thought getting rid of cable would work for us because sam is a bit of a (read: HUGE) sports fanatic.  sportscenter is always on & if it's not sportcenter, then it's some random game even if it's two teams i could care less about.  i mean, i love me some local college & seattle sports but i couldn't care less about st. mary's college vs. who the heck knows.  sam?  don't matter... if it's sports he's into it.  in fact, his mom told me about when he was like nine years old she caught him glued to the tv watching golf.  she was like, "sam, surely there's something more interesting on." and he said "this is the only sports i could find!"  so there's that.

anywho, we'd thrown the idea out to get rid of cable before but left it undecided.  then one day sam came home from work & started setting up hulu plus.  ten minutes later he was on the phone with comcast changing our service from cable, internet & phone to just internet.  goodbye landline, goodbye cable.  goodbye $170/mo, hello $65/mo.  sweet, right?

so here's where i'm at with it.

i've never not had tv.  i love watching the news in the evening & sometimes have the today show on while i am getting ready in the mornings.  i like hearing random stories that come on & being caught up in my current events & pop culture.  but there are just so many other sources to get these things that paying $100+ a month for it just seems silly, right?  i mean, surely they're not that important.  i also kinda miss channel surfing... or do i?  did i actually like watching the random episode of super nanny or  was tuning in to that kind of stuff just old habits?  pretty sure my life can go on without another episode of hoarders.

so we'll see.  i'm finding that whatever we watch is much more intentional & through the magic of hulu & internet streaming we haven't missed any episodes of our favorite shows.  we can airplay news broadcasts from our computer to our tv through the magic of apple tv & i'm not crying any tears over missing the "cat & the hat" on the pbs morning line up but rather am loving hulu's on demand episodes of "super why" & "dinosaur train," parker's favorites.

if we decide we're missing too much stuff we'll just sign back up, no big deal.  but i kinda don't see that happening.  i like the savings too much.  and there are so many other ways to get our shows that i think we'll be just fine.

actually, maybe we'll take that $100/mo of savings & put it into our vacation fund for a trip somewhere awesome a year from now.  we can laugh our tv-free selves all the way to some hawaiian beaches next february & bask in the treat that is tv from our hotel room.  seems like a good idea.

(via)

30 comments:

  1. We don't have tv anymore either. I have found myself wanting to learn new things! I really want to learn how to be a great photographer. ANY tips :) How did you get started?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Robin, yay photography! yes, i got started just by all sorts of online tutorials & blogs. the most helpful one for me was the 31 days to a great photo series by My 3 Boybarians. Google it... it's great!

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  2. Urgh, the sports is what kills us too. The kicker... we pay for Hulu and Netflix... plus Amazon prime in addition to Comcast. You may have put me over the edge.

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  3. My husband would die without his sports! I have totally suggested getting rid of cable for a while but he starts to have a mini heart attack! haha

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    1. he doesn't have to go without! there are all kinds of sites where you can stream live games. We're finding out there's really not much that doesn't play live online :)

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  4. hey you should look into getting a digital TV antenna. We manage to pick up a few channels with it for free and my husband could watch football all season long. We have hulu and nextflix too. I hope the cable companies will get their act together and lower their prices!

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, we're totally looking into a digital TV antenna :)

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  5. Yay, yay, yay! Way to go guys! I've always thought we were the weird ones not having cable ever in our marriage, but it's becoming a lot more common now! Back in Seattle we had a digital antenna and got the basic channels. Here our antenna doesn't work but luckily Hulu was just becoming big when we arrived in Olympia, so we've never felt deprived of stuff to watch. In fact, the cable people stopped by in December and offered a no-strings-attached free month of cable. I flirted with the idea for a few minutes and then said nah...just wasn't tempting enough.

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    1. nice work! i totally would've said yes to a free trial ;)

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  6. We never had cable until we moved to Denver. Before that we could always get the regular chanels and watch anything else online (we had a computer hooked up to the tv so the tv was the monitor). But here we didn't even get the regular chanels so we got cable and now that we're moving we're thinking about canceling it and I'm like, "What if I miss the real housewives of Beverly Hills!" It will probably be a good thing for me ;)

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  7. I wouldn't miss much besides just the DVR service. The ability to pause, rewind and record live TV is so nice!! I hate watching commercials.

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    1. yeah... I'm finding even the 30 second Hulu commercials are annoying. I do miss DVR!

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  8. i've been contemplating this for months!!!! I just used your post as a prompt to bring this up with the hubby again and i think we might try it too!

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  9. we just did the same! we got apple tv so we have hulu plus and netflix and then anything else we can air play from the mac. a total win! we were paying $150+ a month for direct tv once our referral credits wore off - it was nuts! i seriously love feeling the savings. now if only internet went way down :/

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    1. no doubt! no way we ever get rid of internet... that just won't happen :)

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  10. You can get an antenna for the local stations! And also, if he's ever interested, there's a way to ::coughcough:: "obtain" sports games. We've been cable free for a few years, and it's utterly liberating.

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    1. totally liberating! yeah, we've figured out some ways to stream free stuff... and we're looking into getting a digital antenna :)

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  11. I am sorry you are no longer subscribed to Comcast. If you decide to sign up in the future, we are here to help! :)

    Mark Casem
    Comcast Corp.
    National Customer Operations
    We_can_help@cable.comcast.com

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  12. We don't even pay for cable! A year and a half ago we bought an antenna. We only pay $13/mo for Netflix and still get all the basics. Best decision ever! The only thing we miss is Sports Center, but if that's the case we just invite ourselves over to a friend's house :) Way to go!

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  13. I always thought I would be a tv slave my entire life. I lived alone last year and had a PVR and paid ridiculous money for cable when I was never home.

    Then I moved in with my parents temporarily and they're always watching TV and I never was. Once a week I'd sneak in their livingroom and catch up on the 4 or 5 shows I watch and then never watch it until my next catch up session.

    I'm moving in with my boyfriend and he hasn't had tv in years. He's the same as Sam sportswise, but that's what apps and friends homes are for. We plan on watching Netflix or online TV and I am so excited that I won't be forking out mad cash to spend non-quality time in front of a black box every night.

    You'll be surprised by how much more you'll be doing in the evenings and how much better you feel!

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  14. I loved reading about this. Since I've been home on maternity leave, I've noticed I often have TV on for pointless background noise. We stream netflix, use the Wii, and have one million DVDs and there is really no need for anything more. I'm gently working on my husband to give this a try! Way to go and keep us updated!

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  15. We did this almost 2 years ago (wow that long already) and I love it. We still have basic cable so I can watch the news and we pay about 70 a month with internet and that. We don't have hulu because brad downloads all our shows onto a hard drive shhhhhh don't tell the FBI but we have netflix and so its EVERYTHING ryan could ever need. and they have the just for kids section where they can pick shows by CHARACTER and its awesome he is in control and its safe. Plus if I am missing random tv there are always weird documentaries, or random shows with all 6 seasons or so on there. Hello "Brothers and Sisters" that was a great find... welcome to the no tv club, its fun!

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  16. it would be hard for me to imagine no tv.

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  17. Tv used to not be in our budget and we got along fine but once we could we went back to Tv. You are right about how nice it is to save that money and I hope it works out for you. Maybe you will inspire more of us to go tvless!

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  18. We have Hulu & Netflix for our TV & movie needs, but our cable provider also has an option of letting us keep the first 11 channels for only $5 a month, so we still get the basic network channels. You should see if yours has that option and then you can watch the news.

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