Just kidding, I promise not to be all smuggy. We did it, though, we got rid of cable. It was a big leap to take for us, because we looooove tv. I mean, we love our tv the way some families love dogs, or cats, or hamsters. I’m pretty sure that we’ll never be the people who say, “Oh, we got rid of it YEARS ago… and we don’t even miss it!”
BUT Husband has not been taking much overtime since Skeeter was born, a mutually-agreed upon decision because we will only have so much time with the babies while they’re, you know, babies. So without our usual cushion of OT cash, money has been a little tighter than usual, and we’ve had to embrace our pennies in new ways.We do love TV, movies, and video games. Netflix now has an instant watch option that we’ve hooked up through our Wii, which is great. I had a revelation while watching “Bait Car” the other day (yes really, it’s a real show. It’s exactly what it sounds like). We spend more time channel-surfing than watching programs, because there’s almost nothing on that we’d enjoy watching.
So we did a trial run for a week, making a mental note of how much cable TV we watched vs. Netflix. We searched Netflix online to see if Scooter’s favorite shows were available for instant viewing – Dora, Backyardigans, Super Why – they’re all there.
Then we had another dilemma – we had a package deal with our cable company. Taking away our cable would actually raise the price of our phone service. After another discussion – we decided to boot the home phone too. We’re getting an adapter for our phone jack and using Skype for our home phone calls, and we have a ton of rollover minutes for our cell phones. I’ll let you know how that all works out once we’ve been doing it for a while.
Do we miss it? A bit. I’m waiting for my ‘Real Housewives’ withdrawal to kick in. It’s comforting white noise to keep the TV on all day, but we were getting less selective about what we watched. We still watch a fair amount, but the big difference is that Netflix stops after each program. And when you have to actively choose each program to watch… it’s a lot easier to choose ‘Off ‘.
Just want to let you know something I learned recently about the difference between landline/cell phone service in a CPR/First Aid class. The average response time when you call 911 form a landline is 4-6 minutes (almost exactly the time you can keep a person alive with CPR) while average response time from a cell phone is 12-15 minutes (huge difference!)
The instructor told us always use a landline when possible — because it takes longer to pin point your locale and send help otherwise. We too had considered going just to cell phones, but with a small child the 911 response time was a deal breaker for us. You may have already considered this, but wanted to share anyway so you can run to a neighbor’s house or closest landline if you are ever faced with an emergency.
Thank you Kristen, those are absolutely valid points. We discussed exactly the points you brought up, and decided that between our alarm system (which has wireless panic buttons that summon Police and Fire directly), and having local Police and Fire/EMS numbers programmed directly into our phones, we are sufficiently covered in the event of an emergency.
We live less than a mile from both the police and fire stations, and our three-year-old was kind enough to accidentally trip our alarm system a few weeks ago. Their response time was less than two minutes! Which is great, but didn’t make it less embarrassing to explain to the officers who showed up.
Thank you so much for sharing your information though – I appreciate it!
Good Job!
Besided there are lot of great Free TV sites online. Just hook up you PC to the TV and rock on! There are even some great Remote adapters to run you PC from the loving arms of you couch.
Well, kudos to you for making the cableless plunge. I know I could never do that. But I have gone without a landline for a couple of years now and I haven’t missed it. In fact, the one thing that bothers me is a long wait time for 911 response – I didn’t know that. And my question is, why does it take so long? An emergency call is an emergency call.
Broadway Carl, Wendy is actually working on a post about why the wait time is different and what to do to lessen that wait. Stay tuned!
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