(Works-for-Me Wednesday is backwards this week, so I’m asking what works for you!)
We canceled our cable and Internet last spring when we moved to the cabin. I wasn’t happy with the Internet service and knew TV and Internet wouldn’t get used in an empty house, so we saved ourselves about $300 to cancel everything. But now we’re faced with the reality we’re moving home from the cabin, and have none of our electronics hooked up. I called to install a phone line, so we’ll go with DSL this time. But I’m so conflicted about the television.
Up until three years ago, we’d never had cable or satellite television. The four network stations we received were enough, despite their sometimes fuzzy reception. But we’d moved to a remote area that required a 15-foot-tall antenna to acquire a signal, and even then it was iffy.
So we plunged. We got Dish Network, which catered to our perceived need to plug in and zone out. And because of it, we are now the proud parents of two Disney Channel addicts.
And I’m thinking about pulling the plug.
I purchased $15 rabbit ears for our TV and found that we receive one channel perfectly and about three others so-so, if I jimmy the antenna. The kids noticed the TV was on, after three months off, and were very excited, but I didn’t have the heart to explain my evil plan.
I’m inspired by friends like Holly who have done the same thing. This cold-turkey loss of cable may induce some drama in our household, but I’d love to think that it might also lead to better family communication. I guess we’ll see.
I brought up the discussion on Twitter, and Beth at Life with Two Little Vikings suggested I offer up some kind of family reward for the money we’ll save (which would total at least $30 per month.) This may ease the discontent that will surely be communicated when our daughter hears the news.
I’d love to hear about your experiences related to quitting cable, as well as more suggestions on making the switch. Thanks so much!
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10:32 am
Ever since I’ve been married (16 years now), we’ve never had cable TV. We get about 5 channels, but we hardly ever watch. The boys have never known cable so they don’t miss it. We recently bought a Wii system. The boys play an hour of Wii a day, usually active sports type games. During other free time they play outside, build with Legos, and read books.
10:37 am
Hey dear,
I’m so behind on blogging lately, but I wanted to let you know when I read this that we did the same thing with replacement stuff. Our first big reward was bikes for the entire family, smaller ones included new games for the Wii or movies/favorite TV series on DVD. Having a few of their favorites on DVD that they watched on TV made our transition easier.
It’s crazy but we’re coming a year and none of us have really missed it that much. The Internet provides you the ability to have it all but with more control.
I look forward to reading what you do!
Hugs,
Holly
11:17 am
You don’t say how old your TV is, but one thing you need to consider is the switch to….whatever it is (digital? high definition? I’ve lost track)….that takes place next February. If you have cable TV, supposedly you don’t need to do anything. If you don’t — like us — you may need to get a converter box to make your old TV work at all. Which reminds me, that needs to go on my to-do list.
3:07 pm
In over 16 years of marriage we have NEVER had cable. It started out as a “we just do not have the $60 a month to spend”. We never got around to getting it. My kids see it at my parents house. (which upsets my Grandfather who thinks cable is a basic needs like water)
We either get dvds from the library or if there is a series we really like (like the old My Little Pony & Transformer 80’s cartoons from our childhood) we save up and purchase them. We tend to be a great deal more picky about WHAT we watch. Plus, unlike some of their friends they are not slaves about when to be home to watch a show. We watch on Sat. Mornings sometimes.
After a while, you will not notice it gone. I have found that TV watching goes from entertainment to a bad habit when you just want something to do.
4:23 pm
Kelly,
I loved this. And I understand how you are conflicted. I grew up hardly watching any TV and, though I didn’t like that at the time, I look back on it fondly now. I think there would be many benefits to not having cable, but I also have to admit, I love some of the shows on the Discovery Channel, or HGTV. We limit TV, there are channels we don’t watch, and DVRing all our shows means we avoid having to ever watch commercials, but I can see how no TV would probably be better. Good luck!
Thanks so much for the link,
Genny
5:07 pm
I understand and admire your passion for quitting cable. My oldest goes to a college that doesn’t have cable in the dorms (thank goodness, ’cause many of them do), so she’s been gradually weaned from it. My youngest is going to the same college next week. She’s pretty much a cable addict (please don’t judge me–I’m not THAT bad a Mom!), so we’re hoping no easy cable access will be a blessing. Fingers crossed, anyway!
8:21 pm
Once I heard some college kids saying, “When I was growing up I didn’t even have cable.” I almost laughed out loud.
I wonder what they would have thought if I told them I didn’t even have a TV growing up?
[They were around - I'm only 30.]
My husband and I have continued with the no TV in our house so cable is not an issue. We do have internet and a portable DVD player. Even that I have to monitor because the kids want to watch constantly!
Good luck with the transition!
P.S. Heard you on Behind the Blog – good job!
8:24 pm
We have cable but I have banned The Disney Channel.
My daughter was being a smart mouth in imitation of Zack & Cody and Hannah Montana. Every time she spoke to me like that I had an urge to slap her. I didn’t, but I wanted to.
We sat her down and told her we were blocking Disney Channel, especially Hannah Montana. We told her she HAS to respect her mother and she can never talk to me like Hannah Montana talks to her dad.
Guess What? A month later – she doesn’t care.
I’m starting to think my kids like boundaries and discipline if I’ve got the guts to back it up.
8:26 pm
We gave up dish, but rent Netflix instead…so we have some movie time, but it’s together and not as often
10:26 pm
I’m basically in the same boat as Lisa. When the first child was born, we gave it up cold turkey. Didn’t really want it and we certainly didn’t need it! Our kids do so much more with us and by themselves, especially since they don’t realize what is “missing.” When they go to Grandma’s house for the summer, they usually get their fill. When they come back, we have a detox time, which basically is us saying things like, “No tv/computer, go play! Go read! Go build something!”
We have a tv and a dvd player so that we can watch movies, but for the most part, we don’t have tv. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t admit to the purchase of an antenna on Saturday, but it was a moment of desperation. Football season is among us and I am a fan.
10:30 pm
I would keep a VCR and DVD player. You can pick up tons of movies at garage sales and/or rent them from the library, even the history channel ones, etc.
10:32 pm
We also have rabbit ear antennae and no cable. One of my favorite things to do is reserve all the Showtime and HBO shows I want to see from the library. I have never had cable, yet know all about Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm–for free! Good luck taking the plunge!
You may be interested in joining our Thrifty Green Thursday blog carnival at the Green Baby Guide. Come over and check it out!
11:22 pm
I don’t really have any advice that hasn’t already been offered but thought I’d post some moral support. I’m proud of you! That’s a big deal but such a worthwhile one (in my ever-so-humble opinion! lol). I LOVE the Beth’s advice of the reward jar. I think it’s great to be able to show the family what else that money can be used for. Although, I like the idea of SAVING that money also so I’d probably do a few months of using the whole amount on a family treat of some kind and then maybe start whittling it down to half that amount. You’d have to save up a little longer for family items but you’d be able to keep that little extra bit in your checking account.
Chin up! You can do it!
11:39 pm
Blockbusteronline.com
We rented tv shows and movies.
Good luck!
2:04 am
You mentioned you have DSL so if there was a show you want to watch I suppose you could try a free service like Hulu.com and watch via the computer. I have a friend who does this and only allows certain shows to be viewed by his kids such as Flipper or Lassie. I know the main networks have some tv shows available to view on their sites so you could try that as well to save money.
Good luck!
6:01 am
When we cut the cord 2 years ago we told the kids if there was a show they just couldn’t live without, they could probably buy a season of it for less than the price of a month of cable. So far, only one has parted with any cash. Birthday money has purchased 2 seasons of Avatar from iTunes.
About a year after the satellite was gone, our TV bit the dust. We still have one TV in our bedroom and a projector for movie watching but it’s really nice to not have it staring at us all day.
Although, for me, football is the hardest thing to live without. We contemplated getting cable for the football season, but after we saw the kids all agog over someone else’s cable TV, we know it’s not wise.
I’m sure you will find a solution that fits you situation perfectly.
Kari
6:02 am
We lived in a remote area for a while that didn’t get any channels without cable. Rabbit ears wouldn’t even get a signal. Anyway, we chose not to pay for cable because, I really don’t see any benefit from it at all. You said in your post that your kids are Disney channel addicts and that they were excited to see the tv back on. To me that would be reason enough to pull the plug. We haven’t had television (channels) for over six years. We get our news on the internet and the kids still watch movies occasionally (less than once a week). Our family is so much happier because of this decision. One of the biggest changes I saw in our kids was that they stopped asking for things because they were no longer exposed to commercials. This was huge! I would encourage you to quit cold turkey. I am sure you will not regret it long term.
Toni
7:16 am
We got rid of satellite/cable/whatever several years ago and I personally haven’t missed it. The hubby misses it occasionally (when there’s a sporting event he can’t watch) and the kids missed it at first but learned to live without it. The issue we’re facing right now is that our television sets are all old and the DTV converters we got with our “coupons” aren’t fabulous. Hubby is researching to see if we need to get a different kind of antenna or what will make it better. For now, the analog stations come in better, which won’t help in February, 2009.
In desperation, I did check into cable prices to see if that would be an option to fix the DTV problem. Wow! I had no idea people paid that much for basic cable these days! That will certainly NOT be an option for us. Not only is it cost-prohibitive, but spending all that money makes you feel OBLIGATED to watch more TV, which is not what we want for our family.
7:17 am
We have not had cable for about 10 years. My kids have really never known the difference because they are 3,7 and 10. They do know most of their friends and family have cable. I understand that the new converter boxes will help the local channels come in very clear and you can get $40 coupons to help with purchase the boxes.
https://www.dtv2009.gov
Hope you have a great day!
8:49 am
We got Netflix when we gave up our cable. We can watch a lot of great movies and TV shows. We got the added benefit of buying a lot fewer DVDs. We had been buying them and then pretty much only watching them once. Those two things combined have more than made up the cost of the subscription to Netflix.
9:09 am
I sure wish my hubby would agree to it, but he HAS to have his Golf channel. We don’t watch much tv at all otherwise.
9:40 am
Hi! We gave up our satellite 3 or 4 years ago and are so happy! The kids still get to watch some of those cable shows when they are at Nana’s house, but I certainly don’t feel like they are missing out on anything. And the Hubs goes over there if there’s an “important” sporting event that we don’t get.
I recently got the digital converter box. Mine was $49 at Walmart and I used my $40 coupon from the government so it only cost about $10. Since we’ve hooked that up, we have clearer reception and a couple additional channels. So we get all the networks now (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) and various PBS stations. That might help your fuzzy reception issues so you at least get SOME stations.
But really, there’s nothing good on. The Hubs and I usually end up watching videos if we want to sit and chill. No matter how many channels we have access to.
10:36 am
I have to admit that my husband and I have cable and we don’t plan on becoming part of the cable-less ranks. We DVR everything we like to watch and rarely watch live television. It works for us because we can save the time that would have been wasted watching commercials and we are not chained to any channels programming schedule. We can watch a specific show whenever we have free time… even if it’s a week after it aired. But on to a suggestion for your problem. (Sorry, I got a bit distracted.) If you choose to give up television, many of the networks have FULL episodes available on their websites for free. I’m not sure about children’s shows as we are currently working on our first child and don’t have a need for children’s programming, but you can probably find them too. Best of luck!
10:51 am
I am really glad we don’t have cable. I would waste so much time watching cooking or health shows.
Ditto on the converter box…it really makes the picture come in clear. If you are in a remote or windy area you may have to put up an antenna on your house.
12:27 pm
Congratulations to all of you cable quitters. We’ve never had cable because we’ve never had TV except when we lived in homes provided by our church and the TV came with it (furloughing missionaries). My husband tells everyone that he has enough discipline not to have a TV but not enough to turn it off if he had one. Makes us all much more productive and we still enjoy our movies from Redbox or Netflix a couple of times a week. We also play games as a family which I HIGHLY recommend. It allows casual interaction and is a wonderful opportunity to have fun together, enjoy one another and just chill out. We don’t get to do this every week, but maybe twice a month.
1:08 pm
We quit cable too a few years ago when we lived in the country. My husband found HD Bunny Ears (really) at Radio Shack for $40 and we got 11 channels in High Definition for Free; all the major networks and lots of public television. It wasn’t like pulling the plug on the tv, just limiting the options. Trust me, kiddos don’t care about the tv come the weekend past 10:00 am when you don’t have cable. They found other things to do (like the bajillion toys they own). When we moved back into the city this summer we hooked up cable as part of the “package deal” and are running into the same issues. I’m planning to edit the remote to pick a few channels for them and then set time limits. Good luck! ~Whitney
3:28 pm
We ditched the satellite back in January and don’t miss it a bit. We invested in a small outdoor antennae ($60?) that fit nicely into the spot where the satellite dish used to sit. Without it we wouldn’t be able to pick up our local stations. I just told a lady this weekend that we don’t have cable and she looked at me like I have 2 heads:)
Also, you might want to check your local library to see if they let you check out movies. Congrats on getting unplugged!
3:32 pm
We are in the debate as well about quitting dish, but even if we can get reception on free channels, we will lose our dvr and ability to record what we like and never watch commercials–that’s the real snag in it for me.
However, one thing you could consider is getting a subscription to Netflix. They have tons of educational dvds.
3:45 pm
We don’t have cable and don’t miss it really. We did get pretty excited when we got a digital converter box (we went from 1-3 fuzzy stations to 20) but after the excitement it worse off.
We do watch TV, but mostly via the internet. Most tv stations have streaming video, and there are sites that organize them for you (like hulu.com) as well as things like Veoh TV which is software that accesses the major stations as well as offering access to many other videos.
I have heard that an easy way to transition is to make everyone have tickets for TV. They have to use them even if they didn’t choose the show and watched it anyway. The first week’s tickets will be sued in a day or two, but stick to your guns. After a few weeks you shouldn’t have too much trouble with the kids.
4:33 pm
We canceled our cable about 2.5 years ago. It is the best thing we have ever done. Our kids were really upset for a while, but they had starting acting out the things they were seeing on the tv. We have the local channels now and have been limiting them even more. PBS does cartoons all day Mon-Fri, and my daughter was spending a lot of time on the tv. It is much calmer now without her watching that much tv. We love it. We spend more time together as a family.
4:51 pm
well, i’d say it will be much easier to monitor the filth that can come into your home through cable tv. even network channels seem to carry so many inappropriate shows. every so often i unplug our rabbit ear tv and stick it in the closet when i think the kids are watching too much….they throw a fit for a while, but then they read and find other things to do instead.
5:12 pm
We have never had cable at our house(going on 14 years). I can’t justify the expense and don’t want to get hooked on watching junk. We always had rabbit ears which pulled in about 6 channels with iffy reception. We recently purchased a hi-def antenna and we get *crystal clear* reception on about 20 network and PBS channels that broadcast in hi-def.
Maybe a hi-def antenna will work for you without having the expense of cable.
6:21 pm
I cut off our cable at the beginning of last summer when we watched less TV. My husband and I didn’t miss it at all, but our daughter did. To “rectify” the situation, I did start taking her to the library weekly and let her check out 7 DVDs — one for each day of the week (and mommy censored, of course). She quickly forgot all about cable TV.
7:46 pm
I have the same problem. It is such a waste of time!
8:33 pm
We have never had cable and several years ago our TV quit and we didn’t replace it. It took me many months of withdrawal to get over it. But once I did I am so amazed at how much more time I have. My children watch 2-3 movies a year on our PC but mostly we read and hang out. Now if I could just quit reading blogs. LOL. If you do quit my only advise is to hang in their and realize that adjustments will be made even if it takes a while. It’s really addicting but can be really worth quitting.
8:42 pm
When I was in middle school, my mom decided that we didn’t need television at all anymore… not even an antenna! It was done cold-turkey and was really hard at first, but one of the best decisions she ever made. A couple years after getting married I was able to convince my husband that we didn’t need to watch TV. We could get the news off the internet or from the paper. If we wanted to watch a show or movie we could just rent a DVD. I don’t ever want cable/antenna television in my home again. It’s such a time-sucker.
4:02 am
To help my family kick the cable / tv /netflix habit, we sat down and made a list of all the things we wanted to do as a family – photo albums, trips, learn new recipes, play games, read books, go to fun places in our city, the list was very very long. That really helped us realize all the things we would have time and money to do if we weren’t always watching tv, cable, and / or movies. Now, I seriously don’t know how we ever had time to watch tv. How do people do it? The hardest thing has been not watching sports, but if it is something we really want to watch (NBA Finals, Olympics, etc), we call my aunt up and go over there. It keeps it to a minimum and we’re hanging out with family instead of focusing on the tv, even though it is on in the background to check the score.
11:29 am
I was a TV addict as a kid, but still had time to play and be outside because there was no Internet or video games. If the kids need to see something maybe you can get by with renting it or let them go to a friend’s house to watch.
Thinking like a kid, I’d think peer pressure might be a problem. But not always. If they’re in other activities, that’s always better anyway, isn’t it?
There is plenty of stuff on regular TV and I haven’t had cable for years. I’d rather watch an entire series on DVD without interruption. And going to the movies or watching them at home as a family is the next best thing to family mealtime. The planning, the choosing, the popping of the corn or a day out at the movies.
Just consider the change to digital broadcasting, which isn’t a problem if you get a stand alone converter, one built into your DVD player, or a digital TV.
7:19 pm
Wow! All of the comments made me realize how big a deal this is. I am ready to get rid of cable. My husband watches way too much TV, and it drives me crazy. There is so much more to life.
9:42 pm
Our family quit cable a few years ago. I had to do it when the season ended. (I knew I would want to see how things ended)
If you really want to watch certain programs its likely that you can watch them free online.
3:30 pm
After our boys were born two years ago we did not have even an extra second for television for several months. Then we moved and decided not to get cable (which for us means no tv at all). The boys watch videos for 20-30 minutes at a time and they don’t know any better! They also watch some YouTube videos that are relatively short (and free!).
What satisfies our desire for visual entertainment is our Netflix subscription! Maybe you could get the $9 plan that allows you to have one video at a time – your kids could alternate choosing the movie. That would still come out cheaper (and more controllable) than cable!
8:02 am
We never had this problem with cable tv mainly because we don’t even have a TV set in our house!
8:21 am
[...] withdrawal — our family never missed it. Here’s the article I wrote last year, as we learned to quit cable. Easily a savings of $50 per month ($600 per [...]
11:25 pm
You were ahead of your time. It is becoming fashionable to be a “Cord Cutter,” especially given the price of cable service and the multitude of free/cheaper alternatives. We just quit cable about two weeks ago, and I’m blogging a bit about it at http://www.unthinkability.com . Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and best wishes!