When we were first married, we were flat broke. As soon as we graduated college, we got married and headed to grad school. In case you didn’t know, grad students are poorer than college students…we surely were. We were newly married and busy in school so it was easy for us not to have cable tv.
We finally got out of school and even started our family, but we never bothered to get cable. I guess we went about 16 years without it but we really wanted to see the HBO series True Blood. We got tv, internet and phone bundled together for the introductory price of $181/month. We enjoyed True Blood and lots of other shows too. In fact, it sort of became the only thing we did in the evenings. Month after month we paid. Just this Fall, we started to notice this year that we really were not enjoying what we were watching. We watched anyhow of course, out of habit.
I am not sure why but we finally snapped out of it and realized what a waste of time and money it was. We pulled the plug and cancelled our land line phone and tv. I called to cancel and the rep asked if they could lower our bill to keep us subscribed. I asked what the offer was and that sealed the deal for me…she could lower my bill to $120/month with no change in service…a savings of $60/month! That infuriated me! I asked why they didn’t just lower my bill automatically…blah, blah, blah. Forget it! We kept internet so we can stream programs if we want. It’s funny but we haven’t bothered streaming much. When we do stream a program, it’s because we want to watch it. Not only are we saving $120/month but we are interacting again…like…as a family!
To each their own, but no one in our house has noticed any lack of things to do or any withdrawal symptoms from cutting the cord! And with an extra $120 per month, I can probably get a new hobby or something!
Way to go, Warren! I am hearing from a lot of friends who are or have already done the same thing. No one seems to miss it much. We can’t stream here so we can’t get any shows even if we wanted to, but we manage fine without–and the library gets all the good ones on DVD anyway, sooner or later. And when we stay at a motel or somewhere with TV, it’s a treat again–if there’s anything worth watching on, which we’ve found is mostly not true.
Merry Christmas to you, Emily and the kids! Hope to see you over the holidays!
Good for you! We’re in the same situation, but because we were too cheap to sign up for cable in the first place. It’s funny, I was talking with Todd the other day about how our kids’ lives will be totally different in this way. Our generation was the first to grow up with cable, and I think it will be a thing of the past by the time they are adults, since you can stream so many things. Very interesting to think about how fast things change.
I literally cannot watch a television unless I am eating. Dinner. I just cannot fathom the time wasted if you were to actually sit and watch, and watch…. Furthermore, as soon as I am done eating, I walk out without regret. I can spend an entire day on the Internet, but the knowledge gained for what *I* use the Internet for is worth the time. Like how I got to your blog……. researching vacuum pumps / sealing mason jars. Hooda thunk?
Mikes – I totally understand. It’s funny as soon as we cut it off, no one even noticed in our house. We immediately returned to reading and talking and stuff like that I love to learn from the Internet and am glad you found my blog!