TECHically Speaking: So you want to cut cable?

It’s new years! Everybody is donning their Lulu Lemon pants and hitting the gym, making one word resolutions and organizing their coat closets. YIPPEE. {But seriously, I get a little tingly in the seasonal section at Target full of storage stuff. Is it hot in here?} Right along side these resolution lists, the credit card bill from December comes.

Ouch.

futuramaYup. You start integrating “ways to save money” into that list you started. Well GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! I have an answer for you.

CUT CABLE.

 

Seriously. You have power. Cable companies think this isn’t a “thing” but from my viewpoint, more and more people are doing it. We cut it 3 years ago and have never looked back. At the time, it saved us $90 a month. I imagine that would be even more savings now because cable companies are twatwaffles.

I know you TV lovers are cringing. “But how will I get Honey Boo Boo and Real Housewives?” I have a secret…YOU DON’T NEED THAT CRAP. One major thing with us was the way our lives changed around TV when we cut. No more mindless watching. We found when you had to choose something to put on, you often choose nothing. I work from home every other week on a day and I almost never turn on the TV for background noise anymore. I play music if anything. Putting the decision on myself to just choose something, makes me not care. It’s pretty refreshing.

So what’s changed?

Skipping_bath_time._Gonna_stay_up_and_watch_Elf.___

I wrote an update a year after we cut. I figured it was almost another 2 years, I should update. We now have 3 TVs in the new house…each with an Apple TV. We pay for Netflix ($7.99/month) and Hulu+($7.99/month) during primetime seasons (cancel it in the summers). Each TV also has ability to pick up over the air channels for local stuff. We do not own a DVR so that is why we pay for Hulu+.

This is plenty for us. Now we also have Amazon Prime (not for TV reasons but good ole white-suburban-folk-who-buy-everything-online reasons). We are soon going to check out it’s selection. We still have the Mac Mini on the home network and can use on the TV as well.  We can also Air Play it to the AppleTV. The Nickelodeon may be needed for Ollie’s attraction to Blue’s Clues.

The Dirty Little Secret

HBO Go. Watch ESPN. Showtime. All of these require cable subscriptions. It’s a crock. There are rumors of them each breaking off to a la carte plans. I would happily pay $8-$10 a month for HBO Go. No question. We love their shows and would spend off seasons watching old stuff we have missed. One thing is for sure, I know I would never go back to cable to pay for these services. I know I am not alone.

Note: It is noted people who do have cable subscriptions don’t have a cap on the number of people using those credentials. I’m just gonna leave that fact here and move along….

Tips

Not ready to go cold turkey? Fair enough. Here are some things to try

  • Make a list of all the crap you watch. List it all out. Mindless and stuff you truly keep up with. Start crossing off what you could live without. ::poof:: goes the Kardashians ::poof:: goes Duck Dynasty. Now how many of those are available over the air (or later via Hulu)? Not so unrealistic, right?
  • Go down to a single TV with cable. This will lesson your dependency on it a little. You can only watch Bring It On on TBS in one room. Dilemma. Can you survive?
  • Get on board as a whole family. If you are the only one behind it, gonna be a hard road. I was lucky to have a kid so small he didn’t know any better. My husband was also on board as he was the one seeing that bill in the stack each month.
  • Explore what is out there. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Crackle…there are tons of services out there for TV and movies. You might be surprised how much they have covered. Weigh your device options. Even new TVs have a lot of apps. Hell I think I can watch Netflix through about 8 different avenues here. It’s like the most first world problem of all time.

Wanna read more?

Cord Cutting 101

Update on Cutting Cable

So what do you do? Have you cut? Do you want to? Any other questions? Hit me.

17 thoughts on “TECHically Speaking: So you want to cut cable?

  • January 7, 2014 at 7:19 am
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    Amazon prime instant video is full of Blue’s Clues!

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  • January 7, 2014 at 10:23 am
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    Honestly? The only reason I have cable is for sports. Because everything else I can get online.

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    • January 7, 2014 at 10:24 am
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      you and about 90% of the market. I hope ESPN is making hand over fist because they keep cable companies in business.

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        • January 13, 2014 at 9:18 pm
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          I have been on this topic in our house for 2 years now. But same thing – damn ESPN and sports. We got to a compromise spot where the hubs agreed that once March Madness is over we can cut it. But the point you made that I passionately believe: no more mindless and needless watching. So amen and thanks for this.

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  • January 7, 2014 at 11:06 am
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    Yay no cable! We haven’t had cable for about 3 years, as well. I love our rabbit ears dearly. We just cut Netflix to see if we can live without it for a while (we had the streaming + 2 dvds at a time package). We have Amazon Prime so we can get shows on there. The BIG thing we did a while back was hook a computer up to our TV (we’re anti Apple people) and bought a TV tuner usb thing that hooks into the back and turns our computer (and massive external hard drive) into a DVR. Woohoo! Shows for days! I haven’t missed cable (for the most part) and think I will only miss netflix when Orange is the New Black comes back. 🙂

    Also, and then I’m done with my rant, promise, who can watch all that TV once you have kids anyways? Ain’t nobody got time for that.

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    • January 7, 2014 at 11:09 am
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      Yeah we have a Mac Mini with no monitor or keyboard hooked to the TV and network. We can watch through there too if we need to and could get software to DVR but we haven’t found the need for it. But i get you. WE dropped netflix disks maybe a year ago. $7.99 for as much as we use netflix is amazing.

      Oh and you will sing a different TV toon when that kid is older 😉

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  • January 7, 2014 at 11:24 am
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    When I first read this, I thought this was going to be a tutorial on how to cut & splice & fabricate coaxial cable.

    Huh.

    We cut cable just after the Super Bowl last year. After all was said & done (adding Netflix, Hulu, & Amazon Prime, which is kind-of a rip-off so we’ll be dropping it and paying extra for internet without the “internet & cable” discount), we’re saving about $70/month. And that’s wine money!

    The biggest issue is the lack of mindless watching . . . if I’m lying awake in the middle of the night, I can’t just put something on, I have to THINK about what I want to put on . . . but that’s a mild quandary – heck, it’s actually, probably, for the good. I do miss ESPN, but I get most updates from the ESPN app for Xbox – and with the over-the-air HDTV antenna, I get most broadcast sporting events.

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  • January 7, 2014 at 11:43 am
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    We cut cable years ago – probably at least 5 years now. It’s been no issue, other than sports. It is ridiculous how little you can watch on the networks now – it’s all ESPN, Fox Sports, whatever college network, etc – especially local games sadly. I don’t care about that, but my husband does get annoyed – he’s definitely become less obsessed with sports as a result, which I view as as happy byproduct of the no cable decision.

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  • January 7, 2014 at 11:48 am
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    I wish we could cut. I so very much want to. But the wife is home all day every day and loves and wants all of her prime time crap and so forth and gets seriously ill when I talk about getting rid of it. And I love GoT, and it’s about the only show I watch real-time. Sigh. I hope soon we can justify it. The bill is getting very onerous.

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  • January 7, 2014 at 2:05 pm
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    We cut cable about 4 years ago. We paid for an old TiVo with a lifetime subscription and connected it to the internet(because we wanted a DVR and the guide) and purchased a nice antenna to improve our over the air signal, and are doing just fine like that. We have saved a ton of money over the years and we still get to record/watch the important stuff anyways!

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  • January 8, 2014 at 1:46 am
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    We never bought cable because we are so cheap. LOL. We just have netflix and whatever our digital antenna that we bought off amazon will give us. We also have amazon prime but don’t watch too much on it, netflix has a lot of the same stuff. We found we don’t watch that much tv and are outside more enjoying the weather (we live in SoCal). My husband watches sports highlights on the internet.

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  • January 8, 2014 at 9:28 am
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    Yes, to all of this! We have gone years without it and it’s definitely not the end of the world. Between Netflix streaming, Amazon Prime, our antenna, and so much being available online, it ain’t no thang.

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  • January 8, 2014 at 1:57 pm
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    I so so so wish I could talk the hubs into getting rid of cable because our Directv bill is INSANE, but the man lives for ESPN. No substitutes, it’s got to be ESPN. Me? Could care less. I do watch Game of Thrones (and will order HBO for those few months it’s on) and I’ll order Starz when the Outlander series starts later this year, but frankly all the rest could go.

    My best friend on the other hand has been doing the whole Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime/antenna thing and is perfectly happy. I’m jealous.

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  • January 8, 2014 at 2:24 pm
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    We are about to do this as well! What internet service do you use for just internet?

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  • January 9, 2014 at 11:19 pm
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    I don’t even have an antenna. I’m with John – I put off reading this post because I thought you were going to tell me how to re-wire a lamp or something. (Actually, that would be very useful information.)
    I love the freedom of not knowing what the hell people are talking about around the water cooler when they are discussing their “shows”. I just get my cup of water and keep on walking.

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