Turn off the Cable TV

[LuckyRobin]

We cancelled our cable in July. There are times when I miss it, but those are during storms when I'd like to tune in to see what the weather is doing in the forecast. I can find the stuff online but it isn't as easy. We still have a TV, we get no channels at all, but we have the $10 Netflix plan and we rent from the library or borrow from friends so any series we want to watch eventually becomes available, we just have to wait. Our cable was $65 a month.

Internet is $220 a year, dial-up, unlimited. My DH works in a very isolated area of Alaska and it is much cheaper for us to email than to talk on the phone. Plus I use it to get the weather updates, keep up on the school website, the kids' sports registrations, the news, banking, road closures during storms, to write to relatives. I'd give up my phone before I'd give up internet access in my home.

Don't have satellite radio. Cell phones are for emergency use for me as we live rurally and I have two young kids and can't get stranded, and travel use for DH. We have the cheapest plan that will allow us to have two phones and still give us reception for the majority of the highway between our house and the city. That's $72 a month. I hate paying that but the track phones don't work out here.

[pretty cheap jewelry]

Great answers, thank you all. Combining cable/internet is sweet.

I just think TV is such a wasteland (brains and money)...

[Broken Arrow]

I don't have cable anymore, but when I did, my favorite channels were the History channel, Military channel, TLC, Discovery, and National Geographics.... Ok, and the occasional Food Network and HGTV.

It could be a wasteland, but I don't think it's any more so than what people chooses to watch.

[creditcardfree]

No cable TV for 10 years. I would lose my husband in TV land if we had it.

[Dido]

No TV here....I own one but where I live (in a valley right by the river) there is NO reception and I don't subscribe to cable. I *do* subscribe to Netflix and will watch old TV series by renting DVDs.

I also don't have cell phone service, though I do have an emergency cell phone in the car--it will dial 911 for free and anything else I want to call by credit card for about $12/minute. I make about one one-minute phone call a year with it and don't have any monthly cell phone fees.

No satellite radio either--sheesh. But I DO pay $15/month for DSL internet access, and I sometimes listen to radio over the web.

[Aleta]

How do you only pay $15. a month for DSL?

[Dido]

Originally Posted by Aleta

How do you only pay $15. a month for DSL?

I pay for it a year at a time, rather than monthly, through a small local company. Actually the rate is 15.95/month, plus taxes, which makes it more like 18/month total when all is said and done.

Also, there are two DSL speeds that are offered by my company and I use the slower (768 mb?) which is ample for my needs.

Actually, when I first signed up, I got the first three months for $9.95/month--but there were also the other startup costs of setting up a wireless system with a router that made the first year overall more expensive.

[lrjohnson]

Originally Posted by pretty cheap jewelry

I just think TV is such a wasteland (brains and money)...

I have some pretty strong feelings about some things but the older I get the more I see shades of grey, endless shades of grey.

I see it as important that people live consciously. I'd rather someone think about whether they wanted cable or not and whether they wanted TV in their lives or not, than that they either watch or never watch without thought.

[amberbamber]

Basic cable here for 6.95 a month otherwise, we'd have no TV. And then we use netflix for movies-9.95 a month there. Pretty cheap if you ask me. And we can see new things too

[cschin4]

Actually, I just forked over ("upgraded") my services. I now have my phone, broadband internet and Dish TV. I got sick of dial-up and I am very happy with the broadband! And, I love the DIsh network. Much better than cable. Easy to see what is on. And, I did the 180 channel package just so I could get BOOMERANG. We love that channel. I would much rather the kids watch Magilla Gorilla, Jetsons, Smurfs, etc than many of the newer annoying cartoons. I spend more time on the internet than TV.
With the bundled service we pay $120/mo and that is for unlimited LD on the phone as well. Previously, we were paying $50 for basic cable, $15 for dial up and about $45 avg phone bill. So, it did not seem like a big stretch to get the bundled service.

[MonkeyMama]

The cable is for dh not the kids - LOL.

Got me sold - but he isn't giving it up - its his only luxury for the most part - to each his own indeed.

Both dh and I Actually lived without cable the first 25 years of our lives. But now on a budget it creates more entertainment at home I guess, which is nice. But there were many years we really couldn't afford it and lived without.

We have TIVO too but it doesn't cost us a dime.

[pretty cheap jewelry]

Boomerang! HA HA When it was tested the first year (almost 10 years ago) I taped about 8 or 10 hours when we still had the cable. We've been watching those tapes for years now.

The constant commercialism is just poison for kids. My kids are both under 10 and we get enough marketing with the basic channels (non-cable). They have learned how to navigate the commercials well enough though, whew.

The attitudes of pre-teens and sex inuenndos are just too much for these ages. Going to the movies is a minefield too. Even the SpongeBob stuff is a little too rude.

We use video, loads of video. They are only about $1 at the swapmeet now (VHS).

[QueenOphelia]

Ugh. Might as well live in a cave. I'd gladly pay double bill to get the best shows on tv....WEEDS, ENTOURAGE, SOPRANOS, RESCUE ME, NIP/TUCK, TVLAND, COMEDY CENTRAL...etc forever and ever........


L O N G L I V E C A B L E TV!!

[lrjohnson]

Originally Posted by QueenOphelia

WEEDS, ENTOURAGE, SOPRANOS, RESCUE ME, NIP/TUCK, TVLAND, COMEDY CENTRAL...etc forever and ever........

I admit some very high quality shows are on cable. I watch 4 of the above myself. That's why I get them through Netflix. The shows are still fabulous a year later, and it's much cheaper for me.

[rob62521]

Part of me has to agree that I really hate paying that cable bill, but recently when our town had an ice storm and we didn't have power (and cable!) we really felt isolated. We rely on cable to get us our news and weather. Our newspaper is pretty boring and as for national or world news, what a joke! Our local radio stations couldn't be bothered to broadcast more than 30 to 60 seconds of local news. As a houseful of only adults, although commercialism is a pain, I love watching stuff on the Food network, HGTV, Discovery, and TLC. About the only stuff we watch on network tv is the local news for a half an hour a day, and CSI.

We have cable for tv and internet and after leaving dialup, I hope I don't have to go back.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by amberbamber

Basic cable here for 6.95 a month

That's even better than our $9.95. I think a lot of folks don't realize that those rates exist and think their cheapest choice is the $30 or so per month. The cable companies usually don't list or advertise the cheap rate. You won't get it unless you specifically ask for it. The only way I found out about it was from speaking to one of my patients who worked for Comcast.

[MonkeyMama]

Originally Posted by lrjohnson

I admit some very high quality shows are on cable. I watch 4 of the above myself. That's why I get them through Netflix. The shows are still fabulous a year later, and it's much cheaper for me.

I already posted but I had to come back and say yes TV is a wasteland - probably 90%+ crap. BUT there is so much QUALITY programming. & as I said we have a TIVO which doesn't cost us a dime. There are NO commercials in our house. The kids alone watch the Public Channel which is not violent, no commercials, etc. Cartoons today have come a long way from the more violent ones of past decades.

We love Discovery, History channel, CNN.

Frankly, I just told dh the other day that I felt the t.v. was making the kids smarter. This has been a huge debate in our house because I am anti-t.v. and in the beginning I Felt dh let the kids watch too much t.v. We are really big on teaching the kids ourselves, but to me the t.v. just broadens their horizons and teaches them above and beyond what we can offer. It is a nice supplement in our every day effort to teach them through many ways.

If you told me 3 years ago I would praise the kids watching t.v. I Would have said you were insane - LOL.

Watching t.v. can be smart - like anything it is how you approach it I guess.

[rob62521]

OK, you ate your words on the t.v. and kids, but you are controlling what they watch and what they see is quality stuff. Big difference than the fluff and garbage that many homes tune in and watch. You should be proud of yourself you are so informed and keep tabs. Many of the students I work with don't have anyone monitoring their t.v. use and it shows. They watch absolute garbage and some even watch porn because that's what their parents subscribe to. No one monitors what they see. I won't even go into the details these are the same folks who don't feed their kids well and get lots of help with food stamps, and help with power bills. It's all a matter of priority and they think of themselves first.

[lrjohnson]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

That's even better than our $9.95. I think a lot of folks don't realize that those rates exist and think their cheapest choice is the $30 or so per month. The cable companies usually don't list or advertise the cheap rate. You won't get it unless you specifically ask for it. The only way I found out about it was from speaking to one of my patients who worked for Comcast.

I looked into this a couple months ago, and found that some minicipalities have it as an agreement with cable companies, but it's a county to county, municipality to municipality thing. (Offering some basic channels, such as CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, UPN, PBS - in my area I get channels 2-13 for 9.95 a month.) So people should definitely inquire, but it may be that your locale doesn't have an agreement with the cable company.

[cicy33]

no way would I give up my cable or internet. we pay $110 per month for both combined. we have digital cable and cable modem internet. we dont' go to the movies, we dont' out to the bars or even out a lot to dinner, my dh is a major sports fan so must be able to watch the games! It is one of our expenses we pay and don't mind to much. I would rather cut costs on groceries or keep the light bill down more or the heating or something than to give up my tv. And while I realize that there are people out there that want to spend "quality" time talking to their kids and hubby's, what about us who either our kids are grown or don't really want to spend every single second of every single day doing that? We spend lots of quality time with the kids but dont' feel i have to all the time, frankly I think that they would rather not and I am pretty sure they would drive me nuts. So then I would spend all that quality time yelling or in a bad mood. I like my privacy and quiet time. and I am pretty sure that if my dh and I had to spend that much time together we would be divorced!!! I really don't have a problem with people that want that kind of life but I sometimes feel like it is pushed onto others.