Four months ago, we cut the cable TV and installed an antenna in our attic to catch the local over-the-air TV signals. I’m not saying it’s been easy to give up the extra channels (especially Food Network, Disney, Nickelodeon, TLC, HGTV, and USA), but we’ve adjusted and found many creative ways to fill any “entertainment void” we’ve encountered.
We Discovered “New” Shows
Not long after ditching cable, we ran out of pre-recorded material. Our favorite shows were on their winter hiatus and we were left with nothing to watch. So with the help of Vista Media Center as our DVR and program guide, we set about to see what else was on.
To our surprise, there were a number of shows we didn’t know about that we started enjoying right away, such as the syndicated rebroadcasts of Scrubs. And now that our favorite shows have returned to the air, we have more than enough to keep us entertained.
Our older daughter, on the other hand, didn’t like missing out on her Pooh, Dora, and Mickey Mouse shows. To entertain and help educate our daughter, we investigated the local offerings from PBS as well as their over-the-air sub-channels. Now she’s hooked on Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and Angelina Ballerina. In just days, we had enough recorded material from PBS and the PBS Kids channel to permanently replace the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.
We Caught Up With Hulu
Hulu has been a great resource for when we miss the regular airing of one of our favorite shows. While we’re constrained to watching on my laptop sitting on the coffee table, it’s a great way to legally catch up on missed episodes. While I understand their restrictions, life would be much better and my wife would be much happier if I could integrate Hulu into my Media Center and watch from my living room’s Extender…
Netflix Filled In the Gaps
Now that we’ve discovered a show like Scrubs in its eighth and final season, there’s a lot of catching up to do. The syndicated rebroadcasts are nice, but it’s a pain to watch a show with long storylines out of order. Making full use of my Netflix subscription, we’ve been able to watch many new-found and old favorite shows from the beginning.
Netflix has also been a great resource for children’s shows for my daughter. Through their service, we’ve been able to introduce other educational and entertaining shows to her, such as Little Einsteins and Care Bears. Now we make sure to always have at least one kids DVD ready to ship from our Netflix queue.
We Pulled Out the Crafts, Books, and Board Games
When there was nothing left to watch or we were in the mood for some family quiet time, we’re content to just turn off the TV and enjoy each other’s company. We no longer feel pressured to “use” the cable TV we were paying for and we feel freer to take it or leave it as we please.
I’ve rediscovered my love of books and have read a great deal over the last few months. My wife has picked back up her knitting hobby and has knitted some wonderful creations. My two-year-old loves her puzzles and coloring books and we can’t wait for the day when we can all sit down to a heated game of Candy Land with her.
We had forgotten how much fun it was to just be together, instead of training our eyes on the brain-wasting TV. That discovery alone has made the antenna more than worth the price I paid for it.
Dropping Cable Has Paid Us Back Many Times Over
Our savings from dropping cable has more than paid us back for putting up the antenna and buying the digital converters. We went from $70/month for cable TV to just $17/month for Netflix as our only on-going cost. We’re happy and the TV we do watch looks way better in free over-the-air HD than it ever did on standard definition cable.
I doubt we’ll ever go back to cable. Why would we? It turns out that we’re not missing anything – at least nothing that can’t be found online or by Netflix. I wholeheartedly encourage you to investigate the availability of over-the-air programming in your area and start saving serious money.
Photo by: The Eggplant
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Just out of curiosity how does your bill for internet get related into this. For me they give a great price if you combine cable TV and internet, otherwise I pay almost the same for internet alone.
As long as I keep a promotional offer I get extended basic for the same price as only my internet!
We got a digital converter box back in the fall and it really hasn’t made a difference for us except that now we get more options for dinner-time watching, like Simpsons broadcasts from Baltimore. :)
Hulu is a real godsend for our schedule, because we’d rather not shape our evenings around what’s on and instead catch up as we have the time and interest.
Philip,
Right now, I still have cable internet and I’m on a promo that ends soon. They signed me up for 6 months at the same internet rate I had with my bundled package.
With the significant distaste I have for Charter Cable, I believe I’ll be switching over to AT&T DSL soon. I don’t love AT&T, but I really don’t like the idea of giving Charter any more money.
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Mrs. Micah,
We don’t like scheduling our lives around the TV, either. That’s why I set up my Media Center as a DVR. That way we can record the shows we like and watch them at our leisure. Hulu’s great for when my server invariably crashes and fails to record one of our favorites.
Suspicions confirmed! I’ve never subscribed to cable, because every time I look at the program listings, what I see is scores channels with nothing on. Given that most cable channels make you sit through ads, what’s the point, unless you’re really into spectator sports?
And it’s the principle of the thing: the airwaves belong to the public. We shouldn’t have to pay to use the public airwaves, and certainly not for the privilege of being deluged with advertising messages.
We just cancelled our cable. Everything we watch can be easily found online, so we just kind of stopped using it. We cut our cable/internet bill in half even after upgrading to faster internet.