Cancel the cable? A budget related question.

[PinkRhombus]

Thank you for your ideas everyone
If I lived in the U.S. I would use Hulu for sure, and just download the shows we like for free. But there's no access in Canada.

As for getting rid of it and replacing it with free outdoor activity... that is a great idea and I know that would work for the summer and fall. But the winters here worry me a little. I suppose we could do it until then though.
I can get my cable internet on it's own so we wouldn't give up that.

Hulu is a website and you should be able to access it from anywhere.

What I question about putting the money right back into the gym membership is....have you ever done this before? How much did you use it? What type of contracts are involved?

When making a financial change like you're getting ready to enter into, I wouldn't cancel the cable and immediately throw the money into some new expense. Wait a few months and save that money and see how things are going.

Something else to note, those childcare/babysitting rooms at gyms do not allow sick kids...one bit of a runny nose and they turn kids away.

 

[tink fan]

We can easily afford pay TV, but do not have it and are not planning to get it anytime in the future.

We had dish TV about two years ago when my youngest was 6--the others were 8 and 10 at the time. We canceled it after about a year. We felt a weird conflict with it--that we should be watching it because we were paying for it, yet we didn't want to watch so much because it is not great to be glued to the screen everyday. My husband was waking in the middle of the night to check out what the markets were doing overnight. My 6 year old only wanted to watch things like i-Carly and Hannah Montana and not the PBS shows she had once loved because they were too baby. But she was imitating those shows and developing an "attitude" we didn't like. We ended up canceling, and it was the right decision for us. DD went back to watching PBS and loving it, which is certainly much better for her. DH realized that listening to the business report in the morning was just as good as staying up all night and worrying about something he couldn't help anyway. My boys really miss shows on the History Channel and Discovery, but I let them download the ones they really want to watch on Itunes, and we have discovered Hulu.

I know their friends and parents think we are kind of weird. (You go to Disney every year, you have a vacation home, etc, but you don't have pay TV?) To them it is a necessity. It it probably the way I was brought up, but I alway felt it was a luxury.

It is definately possible to live without pay TV. Try it, and you may be surprised.

 

[pigletto]

I can access Hulu.. but Canadians can't download the content.

Your posts have given me a great deal of thought this morning. I think I will wait on the gym membership until the winter at very least and just try to drop the cable and pack our summer with other things to do.
It really has become a crutch in our household, so it's important to me to cut the amount of t.v. we watch. It seems like it is always on.. and I am the biggest culprit. I honestly think it just serves as a distraction from a million more important things I could be doing.
I am excited to call the cable company on Monday

 

[ssawka]

No exactly TV free, but cable free.

I have added a good rooftop antenna for local stations and built a PC that is dedicated to the TV for DVR and Internet TV. Between Microsoft's Internet TV (through Windows Media Center), HULU (using HULU Desktop App), Boxee Plugins, and Netflix, why would I ever need cable? I can tell you though that this may not work for everyone, especially if you are into sports. The one thing that Internet TV does not work well for is live content.

I should add that although we do not have a cable bill, we do pay a $60 Internet bill (FIOS 25Mbps). However, between the Internet TV and Vonage, we basically pay $80 a month for Internet, TV, and phone.

 

[jstbcuz]

Ive been wanting to do this too.......but Im the one with the hangup. I love my football on Sundays and Monday night, and I love my Jayhawk basketball. Alot of those games are on ESPN, and I wouldnt be able to watch them. If anyone has any ideas on how to work this out, I'd love to hear it.

I do think cable internet is a racket tho.

 

[disneychrista]

I would shop cable & dish plans. Maybe you could save money that way.

Also look at all the memberships that are available at the gym...Do you need to full bang Family memebership or is there a lesser plan that fits your needs just as well & saves you money?

 

[labdogs42]

My Dh likes to watch Entourage on HBO and the new season is getting ready to start. Is there a way to watch HBO shows over the computer? Or through my Tivo, maybe? Tivo won't work if I don't have cable, right? Can you get HD shows without cable?

 

[shamrock30]

My husband and I have never had cable. We get some stations with just our antenna, plus we buy a Netflix subscription off and on. We can afford cable, but have never felt the need for it. If we got zero reception from where we live, that would be another matter though.

 

[mrodgers]

...especially if you are into sports. The one thing that Internet TV does not work well for is live content.

Bingo! If there was no such thing as hockey, you could take my TV, DVR, satellite, and everything related to TV and throw it out the window for all I care.

 

[Chelley00]

We've never had cable (minus 6 months I was on bedrest and my dad paid for cable as a gift so I'd have something to do all day!) We have DSL internet which is cheaper than cable internet. It's all in your priorities

 

[TxRabbit]

We haven't had cable or satelite tv for several years now. We were doing DirecTv for the Sunday Ticket for DH when we moved away from the home viewing area of his team. It had been frustrating to him to move into a competitor's viewing area because broadcast would show the home team games, of course, and he couldn't see his team.

Long long ago, DH decided that the football watching was dictating our weekends. He didn't want our weekend life to revolve around the football schedule. Our son just turned 4. He wanted other things to take priority over the TV.

NOW, we still don't have paid for tv. When we upgraded to a digital converter at the time of the change, we were so excited to get so many more channels! LOL.

If you decide to lose the bill, then you may miss things at first. I think I was the one that missed the shows the most, being an avid HGTV+ viewer. However, if you make the switch, you will find that you won't really miss it. And there is much that you will appreciate about not being hooked on a tv show.

The only thing that became really frustrating was when they switched Monday night football to ESPN. DH keeps saying how wrong that is. ESPN is the difficult thing. We are big soccer/football fans and the World Cup is only going to be broadcast on ESPN. Haven't seen if there is any other way to watch.

Once, I was able to find a Norweigian feed of ESPN on the internet for Monday night football. That was hilarious. It was poor quality but we were able to see the action.

btw, we could totally afford to do it. It's just not something that has enough value at this time to be worth the money. I think this needs to be the heart of your decision. If you make it for a reason other than money, then it will be easier to adjust.

 

[ICF]

I guess I am the odd man out. There is no way that I would give up my cable, well, Direct TV. WE have given up a lot of stuff in order to save money. This is one area that I won't budge on.

Anyway to each their own, but give me TV or give me death. lol

I'm with you 100%!!

I'll skip meals before I give up my Direct TV HD package!!

 

[quirkymom]

I would say anything that gets you away from T.V. is awesome!!! We cancelled our cable 7 months ago. We are more family focused, active, and all around our house is more calm! Go for it... you can always turn it back on... if you must.

 

[dellasgirl]

While we are not TV free we are cable/direct tv/dish free.
we have a outdoor antenna that picks up local channels plus we get quite a few pbs stations. We also have netflix and roko(which DH LOVES).
I do not miss having the extra channels--there was never anything on i wanted to watch.

 

[Leajess99]

I would love some opinions on this
Hubby is going back to school to get an engineering degree. We can handle it, but finances will be tight for the next five years.
I was thinking today that I would like a family gym membership. It would cover swimming lessons, gym time, kids programs, babysitting services if we want to take a class.. e.t.c.
The cost would be covered if we cancel our digital cable. Seems like a no brainer. I just haven't lived without cable before and it's hard to let it go.
So .. I would love your thoughts on this.
Are any of you t.v. free?

We have not had cable in years and I really like it. My kids are not glued to it every chance they can and they do have a lot of DVDs they like watching. They do get to watch cable tv at their grandma's house but for the most part they prefer being outside playing, reading a book, or even playing the Wii.

 

[Amandaj0831]

I have at various points and it wasnt that hard. It takes a few weeks to get used to it. While I was in college we could afford cable or TV so we went back and forth. I would do it again if we could get local channels here. I have tried even the $50 antennas here and we get nothing. So we pay for cable.

 

[MickeyDisneyFan]

I too would like to get rid of cable. I think I would be happy just watching local channels and using hulu. The only problem is that my husband insists that he would have no way to watch sports - like the Red Sox and Patriots games? He says those are only aired on cable channels. Is this true? Does anyone know of any way we could get rid of cable and my husband could still watch live sporting events?

If you goto mlb.tv you can sign up for the full season for $100 you get every mlb game in every market for that price.

 

[ICF]

If you goto mlb.tv you can sign up for the full season for $100 you get every mlb game in every market for that price.

if you have highspeed internet and want to watch them on the computer....

 

[tlmcma]

If you goto mlb.tv you can sign up for the full season for $100 you get every mlb game in every market for that price.

Thank you! I will let me husband know - this may be sufficient for him. The sports is really the only thing holding us back from ditching cable!

 

[JanyJan]

Sports is an issue for us too. Otherwise, we could easily ditch the cable/satellite. My DH isn't a fanatic, but he does like to watch the games (usually at night after the kids are in bed) on DVR. He can catch up in half the time by skipping all the commercials, etc.