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Will I survive without cable TV?

Modified Brilliant

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Last week, I ditched Verizon, pulled the plug on my cable boxes and discontinued my service. I am without TV. I'm not watching or streaming on my laptop either. Since I stopped watching TV at night, I am more relaxed and productive...more reading :read: more quiet time :snore: more closet cleaning, organizing, etc. This could be really bad timing for me because I'm a baseball and football fan and I'm missing games. I check the scores on my Android phone often, though. So, no huge TV withdrawal YET. I will check back in a few weeks with a progress report. Who's next?
 

monarch64

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We haven't paid for television for over 4 years. My husband is a huge sports fan as well, but he just streams games online now. We have one of those flat screen tablet-size antennas and can pick up 4 local public channels which has served us wonderfully--our daughter has watched Sesame Street and other educational programs for kids, and I watch cooking shows and documentaries sometimes.

You can totally survive without cable. :clap:
 

VRBeauty

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I just watch broadcast TV at home... it more than meets my "needs." :oops: ;))
 

amc80

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For the first time in my life (well, since 1985 or so), I was without cable this summer. I thought I would miss it because I love tv. But really, I didn't miss it at all. There are a few shows I refused to give up on, so I streamed them online or bought them through iTunes. DH wanted cable back so he could watch college football. We just got it a week ago.
 

chemgirl

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Just realized that we cut the cord more than 7 years ago. At first streaming wasn't a thing so I just read more and watched DVD's. Now I can find pretty much anything using either Netflix, streaming from the network, or iTunes. Even after we buy the odd program we are still paying a fraction of what we were with cable.

You adjust. It's freeing.

I've saved over $8000 by dropping cable. I deserve bling.
 

Tacori E-ring

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I haven't had cable for years and don't miss it at all. My parents haven't had cable since 1998. Everything you want to watch is online. 8)
 

Asscherhalo_lover

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We cut it but we do have Netflix, Hulu Plus (w no commercials) and Amazon Prime. Anything else we find online one way or another. Mostly it was a money thing, the cable companies just won't play ball!
 

azstonie

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Cut the cord 16 months ago.

Bought high def antenna to pull good locals/network, I have Amazon and Netflix, TIVO for DVR and channel guide.
 

Jambalaya

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We don't have cable. We have an Apple TV, plus Netflix and Amazon Prime. We pay extra for the things we really want to watch, like $1.99 per movie rental on the Apple TV, whereas Netflix and Amazon Prime are subscription services. It's still cheaper than cable, and watching without adverts is bliss. The picture is better, too. So we still get to watch all the movies and great TV series that we want, but we don't get sucked into things like Pawn Stars or America's Next Top Model, both of which I've enjoyed in the past but which I can do without. We still get to watch high-quality dramas like Downton Abbey which for me are really worth watching, without getting time-sucked into the lower-quality-yet-addictive shows mentioned above. Works for us!
 

stracci2000

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I haven't had cable for 10 years. Cable TV is a great scam.

You have 24 hrs. in a day.
8 hours you are sleeping, hopefully.
8 hours at work.
8 hours left to watch TV.
But you cant watch those 8 hours straight.
So realistically maybe 4 hours?

The cable company is charging you for 100+ channels, 24 hrs. a day.
You can't possibly get your money's worth. It's robbery, I say!
 

in-the-air

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If I can do it, anyone can. My husband and I cut the cord on cable almost a year ago after realizing a majority of our television watching was mostly through Netflix and Hulu (and now HBO Now). There was just so much on cable that we were watching and I swear that bill was getting more and more expensive every month.
 

telephone89

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We have pretty basic cable, and download or stream anything that is not on those channels. I don't know if we could get rid of it entirely, but it is tempting...
 

chrono

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I'm not a TV person so the only thing I watch is the daily news, which I can get the same information online. Nah, you aren't missing anything at all. :cheeky:
 

missy

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This thread has me thinking (always a dangerous thing lol) and when I realize how much money we spend on not just one but two cable bills for both homes I get a little nauseous. It *is* a huge ripoff and the truth is we mainly watch netflix but there are some cable channels we do enjoy and my favorite channel is HGTV. I don't think a high def antenna will work in the highly dense area we live but other than that why am I so reluctant to get rid of our Cable TV.

Comcast in NJ and Cablevision in Brooklyn and it is hundreds and hundreds per month. And then of course there are our 2 phone landlines which keep creeping up in price. I know we should get rid of those too but am reluctant to rely on just my mobile phone. It is costing us around $350 a month for both homes for cable/internet (landline phone included in NJ not NY) and $90 a month for a landline in NY. Ripoff right?

Just asked my dh and he said we could not get the shows I love (LOL RHONY/NJ/OC/BH :oops: ) without cable but I don't think that is true. Just don't want to watch these shows online. I like the big tv experience. And we tried figuring a good way to hook the computer up to the tv but it never had the same pic quality and didn't work out.

My hairdresser cut out tv years ago and he is very happy without it though he did add Netflix recently.

Ugh it is time to clean house and rethink all those bills that are just not worth the money. Do I really need a landline? Do I really need all those cable channels? If I could figure a way to get HGTV and Bravo I would be satisfied I think.

Chemgirl, you do deserve bling for cutting out your cable. That's a lot of money you are saving. :appl:
 

zoebartlett

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I'd find it hard to go without cable. We do watch a lot of things through Netflix and Hulu but I don't want to rely on just those services. I hate how much we pay for cable though, and we get a zillion channels we don't want. I wish it could be an a la carte type of thing. My husband despises the cable company.
 

Tacori E-ring

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missy|1444742808|3937788 said:
This thread has me thinking (always a dangerous thing lol) and when I realize how much money we spend on not just one but two cable bills for both homes I get a little nauseous. It *is* a huge ripoff and the truth is we mainly watch netflix but there are some cable channels we do enjoy and my favorite channel is HGTV. I don't think a high def antenna will work in the highly dense area we live but other than that why am I so reluctant to get rid of our Cable TV.

Comcast in NJ and Cablevision in Brooklyn and it is hundreds and hundreds per month. And then of course there are our 2 phone landlines which keep creeping up in price. I know we should get rid of those too but am reluctant to rely on just my mobile phone. It is costing us around $350 a month for both homes for cable/internet (landline phone included in NJ not NY) and $90 a month for a landline in NY. Ripoff right?

Just asked my dh and he said we could not get the shows I love (LOL RHONY/NJ/OC/BH :oops: ) without cable but I don't think that is true. Just don't want to watch these shows online. I like the big tv experience. And we tried figuring a good way to hook the computer up to the tv but it never had the same pic quality and didn't work out.

My hairdresser cut out tv years ago and he is very happy without it though he did add Netflix recently.

Ugh it is time to clean house and rethink all those bills that are just not worth the money. Do I really need a landline? Do I really need all those cable channels? If I could figure a way to get HGTV and Bravo I would be satisfied I think.

Chemgirl, you do deserve bling for cutting out your cable. That's a lot of money you are saving. :appl:

Bravo has an app. If you maintain ONE of your cable subscriptions (whatever your main home is) than you can use that info to stream at the other house. Otherwise you can buy episodes from itunes. There are other ways if you want to get really creative.
 

missy

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Thanks Tacori. I will check it out. :wavey:
 

kindred

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we ditched cable and mainly use rabbit ears for local broadcasts and Netflix now. We occasionally stream shows on our Roku but the networks have become a lot more stingy about letting you stream shows if aren't a cable or satellite customer.
 

Puppmom

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Football is what held us back from dumping cable in the past but we finally did it this summer. I have no regrets. I don't miss at all. My kids watch programming on Netflix streamed to the TV. We bought an indoor antenna (called the Mohu Leaf) and we get our local channels in perfect HD (yay, we can watch football!) and about 40 other channels that I honestly never watch. As part of a promo Comcast sent a cable box (basic cable) for no charge for several months. We've had it for two months and I've never even turned the thing on.

The only thing that took a little getting used to is watching football without the ability to pause and rewind. But, it didn't take long. After all, that is how I watched football for the first 30 years of my life.
 

Modified Brilliant

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I'm lovin' all the great replies! Can you just imagine if one by one, people started to ditch their cable company? (Will never happen)
I'm in my second week of no TV and honestly, I really don't miss it. I may never go back.
So will I survive without cable TV? :confused:
We shall see.
 

missy

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Modified Brilliant|1444857765|3938305 said:
I'm lovin' all the great replies! Can you just imagine if one by one, people started to ditch their cable company? (Will never happen)
I'm in my second week of no TV and honestly, I really don't miss it. I may never go back.
So will I survive without cable TV? :confused:
We shall see.

What show/program do you think you will miss the most? That is, what do you think might be the biggest challenge for you in going without any tv/cable?

Good luck! I am rooting for you.
 

SparklySoprano

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We've done it (canceled satellite) about a month ago. We use Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime in addition to the antenna that gives us local channels. So far so good. Although it's slightly painful not to get college football games on the Big 10 network. But we do use the streaming option. Saving money outweighs any pain in this regard. ;-)
 

Modified Brilliant

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Checking in....still no TV. My night life has changed. I'm reading more and have more quiet time. I am not missing it....but to answer the question of what show (s) do I miss the most? MLB network, Nightly News, American Pickers and any car auctions and professional bull riding. Quite a weird spectrum of TV actually :twirl:
 

missy

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I made an interesting discovery recently. I know I probably should have realized this long ago but tv watching relaxes me and allows my brain to stop thinking so hard and analyzing everything to the nth degree. IOW after a long and challenging day tv watching allows me to rest and rejuvenate my mind like nothing else can.

Lately I have been too busy to watch anything but "cat" tv (long story lol) and I am a high strung anxious mess. Watching mindless shows allows me to just forget about all my stress for at least a short while and allows me to be better able to deal with it at another time. When I read an engaging book or listen to good (for me) music that also happens but not exactly like just watching mindless entertainment like the RHO shows. For me it is a mix of good books, good music sprinkled with mindless (and not so mindless) tv that helps me rejuvenate and continue to be able to function in high stress situations. YMMV of course but this is what works best for me at this time.

Glad your experiment is going well Jeff.
 

TooPatient

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We cut satellite something like three years ago. Hardly watched it anyway. Cancelled Netflix a little over a year ago. No streaming.

We have DVD and BluRay to watch when we want. Instead of money to cable or anything, we choose to buy discs to grow our collection to watch any time. (haven't added in the last year but our collection is big enough it hasn't mattered)

Wide range of movies, tv series, documentaries, etc. Works great for us.
 

kenny

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No. Without cable TV you will shrivel up and die.

Nothing in your real life matters half as much as the Kardashians.
In fact your REAL life should be consuming media by staring at a screen all day long.
 

missy

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I'll say one thing. I'd rather be without cable tv than internet. I wonder if anyone wants to go without internet. Cannot imagine that. And I am relatively new to the internet actually as I did not start with the internet until 2006. I bet that's later than most or at least many. I was perfectly happy before I got started with the internet and mobile phones etc though so I guess in some cases ignorance is bliss because now I cannot imagine being without either.
 

OoohShiny

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We don't have cable or satellite and, previously, we only had a digital set-top box that picked up the free channels the satellite dish picks up.

It's been about a year now but the box broke and wouldn't switch on. Because I am lazy/disorganised/have too much other stuff to be getting on with, I never got round to boxing it up to send it in for repair, and since we've not had it, we've not really missed it at all.

There are some shows that I am sad we don't get (BBC4 educational stuff, motoring shows, the amusing opening shows of X-Factor :???: :lol: ) but they are available online. Well, that is if we had an internet connection or even a phone line... lol


Do I feel like we are missing out on life? Not really. Any news that is important I tend to pick up from browsing the newspaper in the local shops at lunchtime, so the constant "Breaking news! Not really, we have one more tiny bit of information! Wait right there for an unspecified amount of time for our next tiny bit of new information!!" that the news channels churn out to keep you locked on is certainly not missed. Ultimately there is pretty much zero any of us can do to influence what is happening in the wider world (and very little of it influences us directly) so why should we have to watch it play out in minute detail second-by-second? Reading about it in the newspaper the day after means the conjecture and sensationalism is removed (or at least reduced) and you can skip straight through to the pertinent information, saving you time and unnecessary stress, and it's pleasant to take the time to read the paper over breakfast or dinner as you can then discuss it with your family members rather than all staring zombie-like at the screen. Alternatively, you can have the radio on and be listening to good music and the news bulletins while actually doing household chores or some DIY that needs doing, meaning you're multi-tasking and making good use of your time instead of having to look at the TV and not being able to do much else! One can be as ignorant of the outside world as one wishes, and I certainly do agree that 'ignorance is bliss' to a certain extent - from what I can tell tribes of mountain people days from civilisation and living off the land are perfectly happy not worrying about the after-effects of Fukushima or global credit meltdowns or super-resistant strains of bacteria, etc etc - but how one receives information from the outside world is in one's control, not the TV companies!


On top of that, most good entertainment shows come out on DVD or BluRay nowadays, so we just buy them as and when, and it means that we can get home, make dinner, sit and talk about our day at work, and then put on perhaps an hour of a show on a BluRay before getting ready for bed and reading for a bit.

We are now the ones in control, not the TV companies, and we don't get home and go "Jeeze, we've got to watch four hours of recorded stuff before we can go to bed tonight so we can make room for tomorrow's recordings". I miss the educational stuff but there is so much to learn and find out about in general that there simply is not enough time in life as it is, so I'm just filing the missed educational TV in the 'I wish I had time to learn this but I don't' box.


Interestingly, a lady at work who is a bit of an 'earth mother' type, who has only recently got a TV recorder thingy and is the last person I would have expected to be addicted to trash TV, said that she's gone from watching perhaps two hours of TV a day at the most to nearer four, because of all the stuff that is being recorded by her box and which she then feeling obliged to watch.

I'm not exactly sure how being sedentary for even longer each day will help us all stay fit and active in the longer term, so I am quite happy that I do not feel obliged to watch TV that's been recorded because I might 'miss out' if I don't!

(And this is British TV, which is generally quality stuff, not the horrendously advert-filled junk that I understand is the staple diet of a depressingly large number of the American people... :???: lol)


So, if anyone is considering it, I would say "Do it". It's a free-ing experience and you will create time to do more productive things! :))
 
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