Just moved yesterday to rural Iowa. Cable tv is 1/4 mile away along with cable internet. Since we won’t be getting a phone we are not going to have any internet. I will be stuck with ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS, no FOX. Waiting to see who caves first my wife with no House MD or me with no sports. I have a bad feeling.
First of all, congrats on ditching the boob-tube (or at least part of it). This is what I pretty much do every day when I get home:
Walk the dogs.
Practice the drums.
Write music.
Play Legend of Zelda.
Play Tetris or MarioKart with my wife.
Clean/Laundry
Play a board game with my wife.
Read.
Run.
Stretch.
No need for TV.
We also have no cable, and a netlfiz subscription. Still, Id like to go without it all together but I am sure the SO would grumble. I am pretty sure that on my deathbed I am not going to say ‘gee, I wish I had spent more time watching TV’
Really the only part that spooks me is the weather. We do have some good storms every now and then and I like to know they’re coming.
But, i’m sure i’ll survive. I’m actually looking forward to it.
Odd, the wife is cancelling Dish right now, they’re offering a discount of $16 per month to $27/month. I told her to dump it.
I wonder how many disconnects they’re getting these days
If you’re worried about weather warnings, a NOAA weather radio should handle those duties.
We are weaning ourself off cable as well. I’ve canceled our movie channels and the sports package. One step at a time. We have an Apple TV, which each cost money, and got a Netflix subscription and we can now get as many movies as we want on our XBox. We do have to watch how many movies we get from Apple TV so that we don’t end up spending more than we did on cable :-). Its awesome. I wish there was a meter to see what we actually watch. I am fine with pretty much standard cable but I do watch stuff like TLC and Discovery. I’d probably miss those.
Save for six months where I had a roommate who insisted on having Internet and cable, I’ve been without a signal for two years and haven’t regretted it. A lot of that had to do with having a TV at work (I used to work at a newspaper) so I never felt out of the loop. Plus, despite splitting costs with the roommate, I lost $50 a month on the cable and Internet. Back to the edge of the grid I go.
But in the last two-and-a-half years I’ve read more than I did in the 10 previous. I also wrote creatively and trained better. Slept better, too. If I played something other than the trumpet (I live in an apartment) I’d play music a lot more. And I fell in love with NPR, because the places I’ve lived in this time span had great NPR stations with cool shows (This American Life, Fresh Air, Piano Jazz, Jazz at Lincoln Center, etc.).
Frankly, I stopped giving a crap about live TV when Seinfeld went off the air, and the only things I ever watched on live TV were Seinfeld reruns and live sports. Now, I have a membership at Netflix and am catching up with the first seasons of several TV shows that have come highly recommended. I’d love to see lots of people give up cable/dish just to see what the TV networks/signal providers do. Maybe, I don’t know, produce better shows and drop prices?
I also got rid of the internet at home.
Wow I could never do it. There is too much great information easily available.
read!!!
Really the only part that spooks me is the weather. We do have some good storms every now and then and I like to know they’re coming.
Are you getting rid of your internet as well?
We don’t have high speed internet at the house. Being in rural michigan the options for my area are low, that being Dish sat internet $$$$, or Freedom Net Wimax - about $45. I haven’t sprung for either, although we were about too, to push a business idea even further.
So, with the $300 reduction, business plans on hold, as well as TV and internet.
I have it at work, so i’m covered. The wife can always hit the library or coffee shops if she needs to go on line.
No need for TV.
Agreed. We have a basic subscription for Bell ExpressVue - a mini dish satellite TV service that Bell has. We have a slight discount on this because it’s bundled with our High Speed Internet from Bell - I think it works out to $20/month for the TV Honestly we could do with out it. I watch the news a few times a week and live sports with my son from time to time - Soccer and Hockey mostly. My wife watchs a few episodes of Coronation Street each week. However, whole weeks will go by and the TV does not go on.
We were about to cancel it, when at the end of the dial we found all these satellite music stations that are added on to the TV service. There really is some great genre specific music stations that we listen to a lot. My wife and I both work at home from time to time so we’ll have this on in the back-ground all day. We have mini speakers throughout the house. Ironically, if not for the music, we would cancel the TV!!
If you already own the proper tools I would suggest taking up woodworking.
Once the kids are in bed that is.
I have been woodworking for several years. I have built dressers, blanket chests, bookcases and lots of other things.
I even built my own canoe.
Just recently I had a paying customer and netted $200.00 on a project.
If you don’t have the tools though it can be more expensive than triathlon and I realize the point of your thread is that you are cutting back on expenses.
Regards,
Ryan
I grew up without a TV and my mom read something like 63 books to my brother and me over 3 years. If you have boys you can’t beat Ralph Moody’s Little Britches books – the series begins with his growing up on a ranch out west and becoming a trick-riding champion on the rodeo circuit. Pick books a grade or two above your kids’ reading level-- they’ll still comprehend and enjoy the stories and it’ll make them want to get better at reading.