Turn off the Cable TV

[vsjhoc]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

I keep it to pretty much 4 shows a week.

Which 4 shows?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

Law and Order SVU, survivor, Law and Order, two and half men

[disneysteve]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

Want to save money? Turn off the cable(/dish/satellite) TV.

I bet it's costing about $50 per month.

Actually, it is costing exactly $10.53/month. We lived without cable until this past February when we finally took the plunge and got limited basic cable. We were tired of the lousy reception on certain channels. We have no debt except our home, my wife had recently gone back to work and we save 26% of our gross income. We decided the $10.53/month was well worth the expense, and almost a year later, I'm very glad we made that move.

[Bookie]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

1. No cable TV. Come to think of it, no TV at all.
- I was once told that my living room looked weird because all the seating faced for conversation instead of having a common focus (like a TV set)

2. Internet is provided as a retirement benefit at no cost to me.
- I've had the same email address for the past 16 years or so.

3. Cell phone is basic service from a regional provider.
- I find the convenience worth the cost.

4. Satellite Radio
- You're kidding me. People pay for radio?

[tabbycat31]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

I have cable TV. I Consider it one of my few luxuries. I generally am not a fan of network TV shows, and I need to have my MSNBC, Court TV, and Animal Planet.

As for the others........
Internet.... see above
Cellphone...... my only phone. I havent had a landline since 2002
Satellite Radio........ I listen to it at work, but at the company's expense (it's our background music)

[LuckyRobin]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

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]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

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

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

[Broken Arrow]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

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]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

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

[Dido]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

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]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

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

[Dido]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

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]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

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]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

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]

Re: Turn off the Cable TV

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.