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A little over a month ago my husband and I decided to cancel our Direct TV satellite after determining it was costing us about $8/hour to watch. We waited until Breaking Bad was over (how could we not?) and pulled the plug, saving us almost $100 a month. And so far? Totally, unbelievably worth it.
I am definitely not a TV person- I hate the concept of "background noise" and would rarely, if ever, turn it on myself. I know some people have their TVs on from the moment they walk in the door after work until they go to bed but it just doesn't work for me. The only shows we ever watched while they were actually airing were Breaking Bad and Mad Men, with the occasional football game or Food Network show thrown in here or there (more my husband than me).
This isn't to say our TV never gets turned on or we never watch anything. I watch Grey's Anatomy (eye roll) on my computer every week whenever I have time and have been watching Scandal (double eye roll) on the treadmill. At night we usually watch an episode of whatever we're watching on Netflix or Blu-Ray if we own it. Right now we're watching Parenthood, and just finished Season 2 of Fringe (other favorites are Downton Abbey, The Girls, Modern Family, The League, House of Cards, and Orange is the New Black; up next is season one of Sons of Anarchy). All in all, I can say that I collectively watch maybe 10-12 hours of show a week with maybe the occasional movie thrown in. And my main reason for watching is to have an hour of down time with my husband at night or entertainment while walking. Studies show that most Americans watch between 20-35 hours a week... and this is why I read so much.
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This isn't to say watching TV is a bad thing. There are so many great shows on these days between network TV and Netflix- shows that are smartly written, make you think, and are well-acted. Not to mention the fact that we all need time to unwind; I read, walk, skim blogs, pin recipes on Pinterest, go to yoga (finally, I'm back!) and whatever else. Pinning another recipe for cookies or looking at another blog post about the best sports bras to wear while running (I read a lot of HLBers) are far from intellectual activites. There's just something about the noise and the need to sit still for an hour straight that gets to me. Plus, our TV watching was limited when we were growing up, so "finding something else to do" has become a habit (needless to say our kid will need to get used to hearing this phrase).
So, here we are, a month later, $100/month richer, and completely unphased.
We don't have it either, just never set it up when we moved here three years ago (we were coming out of a rough financial patch and it was a simple thing to give up). We have Netflix, so I can sit down and watch a show that I specifically want to watch when I want to watch it, without getting sucked into the next thing (it's ridiculous how many shows I got addicted to when I was younger, for no other reason than because they were there). For the few current shows we watch, we'll catch them online the next day. While I do miss having even the basic channels, and wish there was free streaming for ABC, CBS, and the like... I doubt we'll ever get cable or satellite again.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I didn't have cable/satellite for 7 months after moving into our new house. I didn't really miss it because I can watch almost anything between the internet, Netflix, & Hulu, but my husband missed his sports, so earlier this month we finally caved. And he's not the kind of sports fan that roots for one team and watches a game or two each week, he likes to almost every darn sport there is... When we first moved in there was so much to do we didn't have time to miss anything, but with the winter coming, things have quieted down. I don't know if we'll keep it forever, but we have it for now. It was kind of killing me how expensive internet was all on it's own, so bundling the two wasn't all that bad. ::shrugs::
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I got rid of cable about a year ago too. We have the bare minimum that our provider makes us have. THis wasn't an easy choice though, we both watch WAY TOO MUCH TV but we figured everythign w were watching we could watch on netflix (we have both the US and Candian version so it opens up some shows) and just stream other shows off the internet if we have an itching.
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn't for The Hubs, I could totally live without TV. Yesterday, home by myself all day, I never turned on the Tube. I listened to music, read, cleaned... I was so much more PRODUCTIVE! I do have a soft spot for Food Network and HGTV. But there are so many times when the TV is on that I'm doing something else instead. Alas, ShortMan needs his background noise and sports. I call it a necessary evil in my household...
ReplyDeleteWe have it, but honestly I barely watch it. During the week, hubby might put on hockey or football-which I love since that means I can read, The actual shows we watch, we can get through Netflix. I do however like to have music playing all the time.
ReplyDeleteGood choice!!! We had cable for free with our last apartment, but we didn't use it much - maybe if we just wanted something to watch for a little bit before bed. And I always tried to watch Cougar Town when it came on. But we moved and now don't have cable, and it's totally cool. We have Hulu and Netflix for the shows we do watch, and we play games together and read and whatnot.
ReplyDeleteMy mom's cable bill is like $150 to $200 a month and she's always complaining about it, and I keep telling her to just cancel it... She barely uses it, she just keeps it on for my little brother who is old enough to get cable in his own name and pay for it if he wants. Arrgggh.
I agree 100%. Watching TV isn't inherently bad, but I so don't miss it. Mostly because I'm cheap. Why pay for all that stuff I'm not going to watch when Netflix is so cheap and I can rent DVDs from the library for free?
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