I love to watch TV even though I am one of those people who have a hard time sitting and just watching (I have to be multitasking, especially during the commercials) We had an expanded cable at home for about 2 years. I loved my HGTV, but one thing I noticed was how we seemed to “watch” more and more TV the longer we had the extra channels. When DH accepted his new job and we made plans to move to Tyler after Little One was born, we made the decision that we would not have cable TV or any contract TV after we moved. We instead opted to stick with internet as our only extra service. Personally, this is working out very well for our family.
Am I saying that we gave up TV? No.
Am I saying that you should give up TV? No.
Is there a way to give up all the bills and still watch all my favorite shows? Yes!
If you haven’t ever considered ditching your Cable or Satellite, here are some reasons why we made the choice and why it’s working for us.
- Broadband TV is now all digital, making it a much better picture than before with analog. Plus, all the major networks offer full episodes free from their websites.
- No bill– an indoor/outdoor antenna is $50 (very important to get a good one), a converter box is $50, and a S-video cable (if you want to watch through your computer) is less than $20. Most people spend that in less than 3 months for cable or satellite. If you already have a digital TV, your OOP will be even less.
- Many larger cities have 20+ channels including exclusively kids, sports, and weather channels. You can check to see how many and what channels you can expect to get in your area at this website. For the Tyler area it says we should get 6, but we get 10 because of subchannels. Your area may be like this as well. NWArkansas has 8 listed but I think I recall them having around 14. The Memphis area shows 10 but gets over 20.
- Very few commercials if you watch through your computer. A show that typically runs for an hour block on TV will run less than 45 through the network websites.
- By watching TV on your computer you will make a point to choose shows that you really want to watch, not just have something on. Most people can view their computer on their TV screen by connecting the two with a $12 S video cable.
- Your children can’t just turn on the TV to watch without your monitoring their usage. They too have to be a bit more intentional with the shows they watch. 2 key words here : Minimal Commercials
- You can get more TV shows in syndication through sites such as Hulu and Fancast than you can get through Cable and satellite – plus you decide when you want to watch them.
- All my favorite shows can be viewed anytime I want, with no DVR necessary, directly from their network websites.
- Local news and weather can also be viewed from the local news websites.
- If you still find yourself wanting to watch more shows than you can find for free online, you can sign up for streaming videos for just $7.99/mo. Netflix is well known, but now Redbox offers streaming plus 4 redbox rentals/mo. That’s pretty cheap for entertainment! Both services offer a free no commitment trial for 1 month, just so you can see if it’s a fit for you.
For us, this is working out very well. I watch significantly less TV than before, but the shows I watch are the shows that I truly want to watch. Occasionally I will go to HGTV and just leave it on (they’ll play episodes back to back) Could this switch work for you? Is there something else you could spend your cable money on?
This post was originally posted August 26, 2010. Currently (May 2013) we do have cable in some rooms of our house as one of those “try to hook them” promotions. As much as we do enjoy it, we enjoy it too much and will not be subscribing.
This post is being linked up at Works for Me Wednesday at We Are that Family.
Speak Your Mind