Just turned off our cable television

[Tricia56]

I am so addicted to TV! I remember when I was a kid and we just had a black and white tv and the antenna. The shows didn't begin till like 7 am and ended at midnight. Now I just have basic cable (included in my rent) and I know I watch too much. Can't imagine what it is like for those folks who have lots of channels. If I do move and cable is not included I plan to just try to live without it. I am sure I will find new ways to fill my time. Has to be a big adjustment. But after awhile you must get used to doing other things.

[Mary Mary]

When my husband and I married and moved out to a rural area I was stunned that just about the first question people would ask us was, \"So can you get cable out here?\" Fact was, that was the same question I'd gotten years earlier when I moved to a small town. And my husband and I both have the same attitude towards cable...who needs it? We do watch some TV, but make do mostly with PBS nature and science shows. Other than that it's West Wing and ER along with the news. I even got the cable question just yesterday.

[muogin]

Congrats, I watched our quality of life descend when we added full cable to the mix. I lasted about 5 months and we just got rid of it a few months ago definetly made a huge difference for the better once we got rid of it. What I don't get is why with the technology being where its at why we can't grab the shows we want to see only. If I could choose my shows and the times to watch them cable would get our money but being force fed there machine of boring sit coms, negative news casters is just to much. Best wishes! Muogin:)

I feel great! I am free of tv. I just cut off cable completely. I know it will be a big lifestyle change but it is one that I long for and one that is so worth it. My kids are great...my son got up first thing this am and wanted to play a game with me instead of complaining about no tv and he is 12! My objective is to create an environment that produces more thinkers than watchers. I want us all to create, read, play and listen instead of being passive bystanders watching the world go by. I am hoping this will have a huge impact on them once they go back to school in August. They have really lost interest in reading and I want that back for them. My husband and I love to read. I just finished reading "The Plug-In Drug", a must read for everyone. I will keep you posted on our progress.

[sunshine2]

Just some of the things we have done since turning off the tv: Talked to each other in a deeper more meaningful way. Asked questions about a lot of different subjects. Go to the YMCA much more. Cleaned our kids' rooms together. Read every day. Don't miss the noise. It's great!! I'm looking forward to the kids doing their homework without the rushing to go see a tv show.

[Starwriter]

Congratulations--welcome to the cable-free world! Since I cancelled mine a year ago--originally to save money--I have found all kinds of free time to do more important things. My reading and writing time has tripled. And I've become much more social, going out and getting together with friends. I admit I missed cable for a few weeks but soon grew used to it. Now I can't imagine going back to being a couch potato! Ellen

[Sarahk]

Me too! I turned ours off about a year ago. The cartoon nework was too much competition! Never regretted it except when something good was on A&E........... Goodbye forever spongebob!

[Tituba]

Good article

http://homes.yahoo.com/news/a-few-of-th ... 47531.html

[velvet]

Ah, this is so cool to find others without cable tv!
On occasion, my husband and I consider cable tv for awhile, check rates and deals, do the math, and then invariably we end up looking at each other, and saying, "well, to be honest, I know it's just $600-800 a year and now we can afford it, but, I guess I dont really want it that much."

We did that again just yesterday, when we discovered to great disappointment that the San Francisco Giants baseball game was not on our regular tv, only on a cable channel. And in fact, all of the rest of the NLCS pennant games will be on Fox Sports 1 cable channel. augh.

So we started looking up cable and dish and all the rest, and sure there were deals, but then we looked at the regular price, and just didnt think it was worth the cost.

So we shrugged, said we could always stop by a sports bar in town to watch a game if needed, and dropped the idea yet again.

Like all of you, we dont want the added noise or distraction, we've got enough to do and rather like it quiet.
Thanks for this thread!

[Tituba]

I just gave up cable myself. I know a couple of people who put antennas on their house and get 18 channels (including 4 pbs channels) crystal clear for free. To see if you can get channels from antenna go to:

http://www.antennaweb.org/

This is also helpful

http://www.outofstepper.com/watching-te ... out-cable/

http://www.cancelcable.com/

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/201 ... story.html

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-get-the-be ... socialflow



I also purchased Ooma. I now only pay for internet and have free TV and phone (just pay monthly taxes of $8)

Velvet - around here, cable/tv/phone packages are $160 a month. That is WAY too much a year considering 99% of what I watch is online anyways. I also find that just watching the shows that I like and not letting the TV run as background sound creates a calm in my house that allows me to think, read and declutter.

[SquarePeg]

Cable is top on my list of things to cancel if my wife dies before me (or leaves).

[Tituba]

This was just announced

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/20 ... n-in-2015/

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/first-hbo ... 57840.html

[Elaine Glimme]

Interesting, Tituba,

I thought it was just me, but apparently Comcast provides lousy service to all their customers. It's ranked the worst company for service.
I use Netflix for my TV entertainment, and a newspaper for my news.

It's not really turning off the TV in that I still get hooked on watching the boob tube at night, but I don't have to put up with commercials.

[Tituba]

It has been a week now that I've been off cable. I'm getting more done and enjoying the silence. I use to turn it on for background noise. I haven't missed any of the shows I normally watch. I just see them the day after they run on Hulu. I signed up for Netflix just to get House of Cards. I also have Amazon Prime, which has shows. I have a laptop sitting next to the TV. For those shows that aren't on Hulu yet, but are on the net, I connect the TV to the laptop using a HDMI cable and stream directly. Works fine.

[velvet]

Tituba,
omg, $160! per month. yikes. that's a ton.

It turns out I'm a total nerd with online calculators, so I like to take something like $160 and put it into an investment calculator and figure out how much you could have in 10 years if you invested $160 and I input say, 8% interest, or 10% interest (10% is average stock market investment return since the late 1800s or somesuch).

I like the one here:
http://www.daveramsey.com/article/inves ... entry_form

so $160 per month, 10 years, at a very conservative 8% interest: over $30,000!! Tiny amount of money, short amount of time, huge amount of return.

Like many of you, if I had cable I'd totally waste more time sitting in front of the tv. I know myself, and I could gorge on HGTV shows, easily. But I also get bored with that eventually. So often, we consider cable and then think, it's not like we need to spend more time in front of the tv.

It helps so much to read this discussion, because we were at a friend's house this week watching the World Series and after the game, we turned to Fox Sports 1 to watch a UCBerkeley football game, and I turned to my husband and said, "Wow, cable is nice!" It would be the only way for us to watch a college football game for our school, unless we went to a sports bar that was playing it.
Looks like it's the sports bar for us.

velvet

[Tituba]

If you put a digital antenna on top of your house, you can get TV for free. I don't have a house, so that isn't an option for me. I have a customer with an antenna on his house and he gets 18 channels (inlcuding 4 PBS) and they are clear as a bell