Giving up Cable/satellite do you miss it?

[crisi]

We got rid of it for a year and a half and I never missed it. We just signed up again a few months ago and I honestly don't watch it! I'm still watching Netflix! I wish we didn't sign a 2 year contract or I'd cancel :-/

We just cancelled again. I had gotten rid of it back in 2009, didn't need it, felt good about it...then my husband - WHO DOESN'T WATCH TV - said he wanted it again for baseball. So he went and got a Dish - and watched two baseball games over the whole contract! Finally, he came to terms with $1200 a year for baseball games he doesn't watch was pushing it.

I don't mind paying for it if it gets used for something (like baseball) that I can't get another way. I do when it gets used to watch shows that show up on Amazon for $2 the next day. Or for free six months later. Or barely gets used at all because the combination of Netflix and Amazon meet our needs.

There are maybe four shows that we pay for through Amazon. The biggest one has 22 episodes a year - Sherlock has had nine episodes over four years (but they are really expensive episodes to buy - a whole $4 rather than $2). The whole "buy what we want" ends up costing us less over the course of a year than two months of cable. I like Downton Abbey, but I'm willing to wait six months to watch it for free.

 

[MillauFr]

How much do you pay for cable/Internet bundle?

Comcast tried to pull that line on me that my cable was almost free. My bill was about $60 for Cable and Internet. They told me I was almost getting the cable for free. I told them I didn't care and to drop the cable TV. They told me my internet bill was going to be in the high 50s. I said you are going to charge me $58/month on internet? They said yes and then I said cancel that too. They transferred me to someone else who "found" a slower speed internet, but still fast enough for me for $39.95 per month all taxes included.

 

[MacDalt]

Comcast tried to pull that line on me that my cable was almost free. My bill was about $60 for Cable and Internet. They told me I was almost getting the cable for free. I told them I didn't care and to drop the cable TV. They told me my internet bill was going to be in the high 50s. I said you are going to charge me $58/month on internet? They said yes and then I said cancel that too. They transferred me to someone else who "found" a slower speed internet, but still fast enough for me for $39.95 per month all taxes included.

That's a better price. I have DSL thru AT&T for $23/month.

 

[supergoofy]

Did it for a year and it flat sucked.

Yeah the savings was nice.

We have Netflix and Hulu but even then you are watching a season behind. And if you like sports then you will have to go out to watch them as most cannot be found offline.

 

[crisi]

That's a better price. I have DSL thru AT&T for $23/month.

Our internet is expensive - but its a business class line. It cannot be coupled with a package. It cannot be throttled.

 

[ferrarimomof3]

We got rid of our satellite a little over a year ago. I only miss it when we have things like the unusual ice/sleet/snow storm and couldn't get local news. We only have Netflix and rely on getting news through news websites.

 

[turkey1031]

I have netflix to watch movies and hulu+ to watch current seasons of shows. We got rid of cable because we found that we spent most of our time channel surfing. There's nothing on cable. Big monthly savings. We don't miss it.

 

[MillauFr]

That's a better price. I have DSL thru AT&T for $23/month.

Our phone company offers DSL for $20ish per month but you have to bundle it with a landline. I dropped our landline long ago and the price without a landline is $40.

 

[MacDalt]

Our phone company offers DSL for $20ish per month but you have to bundle it with a landline. I dropped our landline long ago and the price without a landline is $40.

We gave up our landline 3 years ago.

 

[DisneyWalle]

We dont miss tv at all. When we are in the mood to watch something, we rent from one of those Redbox terminals. We save roughly $1500 a year by canceling all tv service.

 

[pocomom]

I have Hulu, Netflix (dh already had) and since we do a lot of amazon shopping anyway we use Prime. Although you pay for a lot of the episodes of say Walking Dead or Downton Abbey through Amazon, on our worse month it was still much less than cable ever was. Don't miss it at all. My girls miss some of the Disney channel tween shows, but they get an episode a week on their I devices for free, and catch up when at their dads, friends, or vacations. Honestly I never liked their shows anyway because the kids are so bratty with each other, and often they have the kids lying etc and everyone acts like it is not a big deal, all in good fun. So I'm happy to not have the constant influence - the kids and I play a lot more board games and go to the gym together now a lot more, whereas before the rare free Saturday or Sunday involved a lot of TV.

 

[nugov2]

I will admit that I have tried and just can't do it. I changed companies last year and I gave up all the extras and just had the basics. We have had netflix for years and amazon prime for a couple of years and even then I wasn't happy.

Dh watches lots of sports when he is home, so that was one reason we keep the cable.

The kids are leaving home and I am home bound due to an accident I had last year, so that maybe one reason I still love my cable. Love my HBO and Showtime and I also like the shows on USA/CLOO during the daytime. Maybe once I am able to leave the house, I will be willing to give up my cable, but I just can't do it!

I haven't read through all of this, so if this has been said sorry. If you purchase Playon you can stream basic channels(lifetime HGTV etc) and it will give you a good variety of shows. It will delete the new shows after a bit, but they also have a tivo option where you can save any shows you think you might watch so it will be there later even if they delete it off of the network. Also you can get ESPN and a couple of other sports channels. My dh is then able to watch Fox, CBS and ESPN broadcasted games. He also can get some other sports channels, just don't know them off the top of my head. We also have netflix, hulu and amazon prime.

We also have some streaming apps. They have most any show available to watch about an hour to 24 hours after the live broadcast. It also has a huge library of movies. If you have an android based box like google tv just search your play store for them.

 

[Sunnywho]

We pay $50/month for cable. It seems reasonable. We own our Tivo DVR so we're not paying dvr rental fees, maybe that's why it's cheaper. We went without it for awhile but it's enjoyable to have. It surprises me on the DISboards if there aren't more people enjoying the Disney channel like us.

 

[bettymae1121]

The only time it's an issue for me is when the Bears play on Monday night football and I can't watch the game. But I'm not THAT big a fan so while it's a bit disappointing, it's not worth almost $100 a month. I do just fine with Netflix, Hulu and live network TV.

Overall, sports is the most difficult thing about getting rid of cable, and for a major sports fan it's a tough call. I'm lucky in that regard, the few sports I watch are almost always on broadcast tv and DH doesn't watch them at all.

 

[brymolmom]

The only time it's an issue for me is when the Bears play on Monday night football and I can't watch the game. But I'm not THAT big a fan so while it's a bit disappointing, it's not worth almost $100 a month. I do just fine with Netflix, Hulu and live network TV.

Overall, sports is the most difficult thing about getting rid of cable, and for a major sports fan it's a tough call. I'm lucky in that regard, the few sports I watch are almost always on broadcast tv and DH doesn't watch them at all.

Agree...I tell anyone who asks me if sports aren't a HUGE deal for you - then you'll be fine getting rid of it. And for the once a year Monday night football game(for a specific team) - you can go to a sports bar.

I still watch a LOT of TV (almost exclusively network prime time, CW and Downton Abbey). So honestly even though I'm sure I would be poking around Discovery Health and TLC channels if I had them...it's not like I can't find anything to watch that I enjoy.

Coming on 4 years without cable...Kids missed Disney Channel at first, but now they're to the age where they watch American Idol and similar anyway.

Just signed up for OOMA phone line too...So about to drop the $36 a month for the land line.

I'm sure I won't miss that either.

 

[JB2K]

Can't do it.

One of my great loves is baseball, which I watch religously during the regular season.

If I did as most, around here suggested, I would lose the majority of those games (the only games on "free" TV, are the Saturday afternoon games on the local FOX station, and even then, I may see the home team once or twice a month).

MLB.tv (a popular app on many boxes/Blu-ray players) doesn't work, either, as per MLB rules, my home market's (St. Louis Cardinals) games are blacked-out while they are being played, meaning I would have to settle for teams I have zero interest in, such as the Red Sox or the Phillies...

Speaking of Blu-ray players, I am surprised none of you are giving them love. They do the same thing that a DVD player AND a Roku/WD box does, but doesn't take-up all the space/connections.

 

[AquaDame]

No, but that might be unfair to say because we can watch the few things we want to off the internet.

 

[JB2K]

It surprises me on the DISboards if there aren't more people enjoying the Disney channel like us.

I guess there are a couple of reasons for this -- many people on the BB are not what you would call "hard-core" Disney fans. They tend to be more into Dave Ramsey, etc.

And the other is of Disney's 3 cable channels (Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior), they tend to cater to preschoolers through pre-teens.

 

[nugov2]

Can't do it.

One of my great loves is baseball, which I watch religously during the regular season.

If I did as most, around here suggested, I would lose the majority of those games (the only games on "free" TV, are the Saturday afternoon games on the local FOX station, and even then, I may see the home team once or twice a month).

MLB.tv (a popular app on many boxes/Blu-ray players) doesn't work, either, as per MLB rules, my home market's (St. Louis Cardinals) games are blacked-out while they are being played, meaning I would have to settle for teams I have zero interest in, such as the Red Sox or the Phillies...

Speaking of Blu-ray players, I am surprised none of you are giving them love. They do the same thing that a DVD player AND a Roku/WD box does, but doesn't take-up all the space/connections.

Playon has a lot of them. He also uses an app that is on his phone that then projects the games onto the tv.

 

[qv09vvp]

That's funny because I just put our Direct Tv on Vacation Suspension trying to get my DH to try this on a test drive. He promised to try it once football was over.


.

What is vacation suspension and how does it work?