Cutting the Cable Cord

One of the biggest ways we've saved time and money over the past few years is by cutting television.  We canceled our cable service back in 2009.  At the time, it was just for a trial period of three months.  I had figured we had to wait that long to pay for reinstalling.  I thought SURELY we could go that long without Disney Channel or ESPN.  Those seemed to be the main channels that were being watched at our house at that time.

Needless to say, I had a couple of children that weren't to keen on this idea of mine.  To be honest, my husband wasn't sure either.  He really enjoyed watching SportsCenter over and over and over.  I took the time to point out what they were spending their time watching.  I then showed them ways they could still watch those shows without cable.

For children's shows, I pointed out all the DVDs and VHS movies we owned.  It seems that the cable channels just show repeats most of the time anyway.  What difference is there between watching the reruns from cable or watching them from DVD? None in my opinion.  I also took the time to find all the shows available for FREE on the Internet.  After just a tiny amount of looking, we found that just about everything you watch on cable is available for free on the net.

We then tackled the sports dilemma.  This one isn't as easily solved.  There are tons of events available to view live online but we've found that the quality isn't that great.  Perhaps if you owned a better computer or had faster Internet service it would be better.  Also, with just a little practice and patience, my husband has found that he enjoys reading about his teams online.  He, now, doesn't like, as much, all the extra stuff they talk about on ESPN.  He has also found enjoyment from sports talk radio.  Between the two, he stays on top of everything without spending his whole afternoon on the couch.  What if there is a big game?  We make it an event for everyone by going out to watch the game at a restaurant or a friends home.  What about all the big plays he misses seeing?  Trust me when I say that any play worth watching is shown on the net.  You just don't have to watch it more times that you care to see it.

One other thing that people comment when I tell them about being without local or cable TV is "What do you do during bad weather?"  Well, it's simple, just check the weather on the Internet or even on your phone.  All the local news channels live stream newscasts when there are tornadoes on the ground.  I actually feel better about storms because I'm watching the radar closer than I would if I were watching the local weather channel.

Now that I've told you how we overcame the big worries, let me tell you the practical steps to changing over.  Most newer TVs have HDMI cable ports on the back.  For those of us older folks, it's just a fancy cable similar to the ones we used to screw into the back of the TV.  This cable lets you hook your desktop or laptop computer directly to your television.  The cable itself doesn't cost very much and is available at any store that sells electronics.  The television we got recently even came with an HDMI cable.  This allows you to watch shows on the big TV instead of the little computer monitor.  This makes a big difference in enjoyment level.

There are other devices (boxee, roku) that you can purchase that let you watch Internet TV without using a computer.  I didn't think these were a very good deal.  I would rather have a multipurpose item like a laptop then a subscription service.  

In the interest of full disclosure, we do have a Netflix subscription.  We didn't have it for the first year.  We decided to add the minimum streaming subscription to add variety to our viewing choices.  It is less than buying a movie or two a month.  We've really enjoyed having Netflix.  We are able to watch it on our Wii, Xbox360, & computer.   I think we would be fine with out it but for $10/ month you can't beat it. We also just bought a Google TV after our laptop died.  This TV came Internet ready.  What that means is that the TV acts as a computer.  It connects wirelessly to our Internet and we can surf the net and watch Netflix on it.  I can only see this TV getting better and better over the next couple of years as more apps. become available.

All in all, we don't miss not having television at all.  Both kids will tell you that watching  regular TV now drives them crazy.  There are soooo many commercials and sooooo many reruns.  Plus, they have found all kinds of shows that they love to watch that aren't available on network TV.  So, be brave! Cut the Cable Cord in 2012!