Mom-ninja. Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I will never pay for cable again. We use Netflix for the times we watch TV which is rare. I love life without TV. However, I could not do life without internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueTaelon Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Only read the 1st page, but a lot of the networks have the shows online to watch for free too. We don't have cable and between, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, youtube and the network sites we don't really miss anything. We don't have internet where were moving, its going to be interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wabi Sabi Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 We looked into cutting cable and getting a digital antennae to pick up the local stations, but ultimately it was only going to save us about $18/month since we have the absolute most basic and cheapest cable package. We also have a disabled elderly relative living with us, so for her sake we ended up keeping it. OP, can you cut down to the very basic Comcast package and just learn to live without all the speciality channels? We are also Comcast customers and their basic package is under $20/month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymonkeybug Posted July 27, 2012 Author Share Posted July 27, 2012 OP, can you cut down to the very basic Comcast package and just learn to live without all the speciality channels? We are also Comcast customers and their basic package is under $20/month. I am looking into that as an option as well. Have to see really what they will jack the internet up to if we drop tv or reduce tv. UGH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChemMommy Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Internet alone is $45. Cable was $55. Netflix was $16. We dropped cable. Live TV is our least used entertainment option and we watch NO new broadcast shows. I'll miss Project Runway, though.....I know, brain candy! Savings: $660 per year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrixieB Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 The sports are why dh will not go for giving up cable. And really, it's only pro football. He says "no way"... Same here. And in the last year he watched maybe 5 games total. :glare: Honestly, that is all the cable was used for during the whole year. Everything else we watch is on Netflix or DVD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymonkeybug Posted July 27, 2012 Author Share Posted July 27, 2012 Same here. And in the last year he watched maybe 5 games total. :glare: Honestly, that is all the cable was used for during the whole year. Everything else we watch is on Netflix or DVD. UGH, so glad my hubby is not a sports kinda' guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WagsWife Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I am a serious TV junky. I had a major love affair with my DVR. A few months ago, we had to let our DISH go. We told ourselves that it would only be until we could get caught up on other things. We really do not miss it, and have not had one conversation about bringing it back. We have Netflix and Hulu Plus streamed from the Xbox. On Hulu, you can have a queue so that anytime a new episode of your favorite shows is posted, it shows up in your queue. There are some shows that Hulu can't carry--if we don't want to wait for them to be available on Netflix, we just purchase through Amazon Unbox, and download to our computer. On the Xbox, you can stream movies you purchase (and have as computer files) to your TV. At some point, we may get DISH back...but right now, no one is clamoring for it to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma23peas Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 No cable for two years...love it! Don't miss a thing!! We do keep our internet service going ($29 a month) and then we hooked up Roku which allows us to access Amazon PRime streaming and have Tivo still...so that is really all we need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizzyBee Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 The last time our cable was due to renew, we decided we didn't want to pay the new rate. We tried to get Time Warner to offer us a better rate, but if they did, it was only a small discount. We decided to cancel cable and phone, but keep internet. THEN they decided they could offer a better rate after all. So now we pay $80 for cable, internet, and phone. I think that price is guaranteed for two years, then we get to do the dance all over again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksr5377 Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 What I don't understand is this: You all must still pay for high speed internet, right? Otherwise you wouldn't be able to have netflix, etc.? If you're paying for internet alone it often makes the price much more expensive, right? So, how much are you actually saving by cutting out cable but keeping the internet? I've been trying to do the calculations but now my head is just spinning. lol This was our issue exactly. Because we had all 3 options we were given discounts and what I consider to be a good deal. We pay $99 for phone, high speed interenet and cable (no premium channels but more than the basic 12 channels). When we dropped the cable, we lost our discounts as well, so our bill only went down $15, not the $30 you would think. So by the time we added in Netflix it just wasn't worth it. The final decision to get the cable back was that I wanted to watch the Olympics by just turning on the TV and having them be there AND our provider called us to try to get us to sign up for cable again by offering us all 3 things bundled for $89. That now makes it more expensive for us to have Netflix. We do live in an area with good competition between providers, so that helps. I did think our screen time decreased initially, which was nice. Then it seemed to get even higher after DH and the children realized you could just keep watching your favorite shows over and over whenever you wanted. So instead of watching one show and then moving on to another activity, they would get sucked in! I probably wouldn't have even tried it if not for all the threads on here. However, now I have and I won't wonder anymore. I'll just have to settle for saving with my pay as we go cell phone :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2queens&1princenmyhouse Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 We gave up TV and cable 10 years ago. You miss it for a few months, but then life goes on. We didn't even have netflix or hulu etc, lol. In all that time, we haven't ever had a problem where we couldn't figure out what was going on. We stream election night returns and even the ball dropping on New Year's Eve. We pay for Netflix with one DVD. Honestly, we hardly use the one dvd, but it is nice to have when we want it. We don't pay for hulu plus because we don't use it enough. I don't think my kids have ever seen Hulu, and I haven't used it in at least 3 months. It could be longer. We don't have a family TV. It just isn't something we want or value. We own two laptops and we watch stuff on that. Mostly, it is the kids who watch stuff. They pretty much only stream on Netflix. They don't use the computers except for that. This is us. Over the past 3 years, we've weaned ourselves off of TV. We went from a higher satellite pkg to the most basic (no we don't want you to quit) pkg. Then we dropped satellite altogether and had an antenna. Last August, we sold our TVs and had nothing until January. We got a subscription to Netflix and watch it on our 15" laptop and 20" monitor on our desktop. We also have the Netflix app on our Kindle. We don't have a Wii or other gaming system and we don't subscribe to Hulu Plus or rent Redbox movies. If it isn't on Netflix (or from the library), we don't watch it. :iagree:The only things my kids miss are YTV and treehouse (both kids channels here in Canada, treehouse is for preschool and under, YTV is for schoolagers). WHen they go to gramma's they watch those. They made many comments in teh couple months that we had tv how stupid the shows on were. No one cared when we didn't set it up in this house. Most of the shows they like I can get on dvds from the library so we just borrow lots of shows for them to watch when they want. We frequently check out DVDs from the library too. OK so I just signed up again for Netflix for the free month and got it through our Wii via our Wifi connection. I also saw in the Wii Channel Store that we could get Hulu so I added that but will go in later and see what it is like and whether I will want to pay for Hulu Plus or not. Regardless, having Netflix at $8 a month is cheaper than the TV part of our Comcast bill each month and the savings would be awesome. I can honestly say that once school starts for us on Aug. 6th, the kids won't be watching as much TV anyway. Hubby I think will miss the morning local news the most but I am sure we can work around that some how. I also believe the TV we have in our bedroom that my mom left when we moved into her house and she moved out of state is internet capable and such so once I find the booklet, which I saw back in the fall lol.... My SIL hasn't had TV/Cable for years and loves it. They borrow from the library and from my inlaws who are always buying the newest DVD releases. They do have internet and watch news and sports on that. I will give all this a try and see what I think. I am thinking though, and ROKU users correct me if I am wrong, but with my Wii and Netflix and HULU, having a ROKU is really pointless???? I would definitely check into whether or not your local news has streaming. Ours doesn't stream the whole newscast, but it does stream the top stories and the weather. What I don't understand is this: You all must still pay for high speed internet, right? Otherwise you wouldn't be able to have netflix, etc.? If you're paying for internet alone it often makes the price much more expensive, right? So, how much are you actually saving by cutting out cable but keeping the internet? I've been trying to do the calculations but now my head is just spinning. lol For our situation, we didn't save much money, but we got better service. We lumped all "communication" together. This was cell phones, landline, internet, satellite/cable. Previously, for my daycare licensing, we had to have a landline. It was cheaper to bundle the phone with the internet rather than to pay for a basic landline and internet from somewhere else (plan was $60, but $85/month once taxes were added). Our cell phones were the most basic package we could get: 2 phones, 400 minutes, no texting--$60/month. Originally we were paying $60/month for satellite, then $30/month, then $20 before we quit TV. In January we added the $8 Netflix. Since I dropped my daycare license (in June), we dropped the landline and went to cell phones totally. We upped our cell phone package to include unlimited minutes and texting, and we switched to cable internet. Our costs now are $90-100/month for cell phones (don't know exact price b/c we haven't received a regular bill-only have the one that includes activation and a prorated month). Our internet is $15/month for the 1st 6 months, $25/month for the next 6 months and $40/month guaranteed for the next 5 years (speed is 20 mbs, we did have 10mbs with our landline co.). Then we'll have the $8/month for Netflix. So, we went from $153/month for "communication," to $148/month (starting next June, but $15-25/month cheaper before then). That isn't a huge savings except we were able to add unlimited talk and text to our phones and double our internet speed. We cut cable many years ago. In Tacoma, we got the broadcast channels for free. When we moved to Lacey, we no longer got any broadcast channels. We pay $17.xx for Netflix and buy Dr. Who episodes from Amazon for $2.05 per episode as they come out. Given that, we still have a problem with the kids and screen time. We have to keep an eye on it and keep it limited. I still miss the anticipation of waiting for the next episode of a show we enjoy. With Netflix, we pick a show and watch it daily until done. It isn't the same. I don't miss the news. I like being ignorant of current events, honestly. It's a lot less depressing. Big things I need to know about, I end up hearing about it here, on Facebook, or through my husband who reads the news. :iagree: Ignorance is bliss in today's world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeaganS Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 (edited) We have no cable or satellite. Here's what we've done: We use a Roku (XS) on one tv and a blu-ray player with streaming abilities on the other one. For straight streaming, the Roku is way better (interface, remotes, selection of channels, everything). We have Netflix for $8/month. We also have Amazon Prime that we pay $39/year for (my husband is a student, so we get half price). Between those, we can watch 80% of what we want. For anything new, we watch Hulu. We have PlayOn which allows us to stream it onto our tvs without paying for HuluPlus, but it isn't great. Ideally I would just pay for HuluPlus during tv season time, but that's not in the budget at the moment. Oh, and we have an antenna for local channels. We almost never use them (I hate local news, for example), but we like to have them in case of big things, like the Olympics or a disaster like 9/11. We can get ABC, NBC, WB, CBS, and a few other channels without much difficulty using them. The new digital channels are seriously crisp. The antenna is nothing like I remember it being when I was a kid. We pay $48/month for internet fast enough to handle this. We'd have internet without it, though. It is pretty much a necessity for my husband to be able to study. We could probably save $8/month with a slower connection if we didn't stream. Once we waited long enough, all the old stuff was new to us, and we just pretend that it is airing now, and not a week/season ago. My little girls don't know what commercials are. They were watching tv at Grandma's house and kept getting angry whenever a commercial would start, because they thought the show was broken. All the tv they've ever known is a la cart. Their favorite shows are Blues Clues, Sean the Sheep, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, and Wallace and Gromit, along with Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, Doctor Who, and Star Trek, which they request occasionally. Occasionally we'll buy seasons of a show from Amazon to stream, but between all the resources out there, we've had no problem finding content for ourselves. Averaged out, after equipment, our monthly set costs for entertainment is under $20 and I never watch commercials. That's worth it to me. Edited July 27, 2012 by MeaganS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 We cut cable, and it did make a difference. Since I knew I was only going to convince dh on cuts at one time, I went all out. I cut the cable, added a Roku and Netflix instant streaming, and reduced our home phone to emergency only. We can call out, but we pay for each minute. We can receive calls for free. Since I pay for 450 minutes/month on my cell phone, we it to make all our outgoing calls. I would have eliminated our home phone, but our older two do stay home alone already. Our total communication bill went down $100/month, and we had the most basic cable package offered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 In Maryland, you should be able to pick up your local channels with an antenna, so you could still get local and national news. Ours is in the attic. If I go up there in the dark, I always bump into the stupid thing...but I digress. I grew up with just the "regular" TV channels (is it called "network TV?") and find it's enough. Netflix adds a little bit, but we could probably do without that, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Does anyone know if you can use Roku without a television but just a laptop? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 This was our set up: Phone through Vonage: $33/mo High Speed Internet through cable: $44/mo Satellite TV: $100 Our setup now: Phone through Ooma: $3/mo Internet: $44/mo Netflix, antenna and Hulu: $16/mo So, we are saving $84/mo. What I don't understand is this: You all must still pay for high speed internet, right? Otherwise you wouldn't be able to have netflix, etc.? If you're paying for internet alone it often makes the price much more expensive, right? So, how much are you actually saving by cutting out cable but keeping the internet? I've been trying to do the calculations but now my head is just spinning. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 We thought we couldn't get TV stations with an antenna either, but we found that with a rooftop antenna AND a booster, we were able to get TV! A little Walmart Antenna won't work for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovinmomma Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Our internet alone is $30. We don't have a landline anymore, so we are just paying for internet. That sure beats paying for internet/landline/satellite. Wow. That's cheap internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovinmomma Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 This was our set up: Phone through Vonage: $33/mo High Speed Internet through cable: $44/mo Satellite TV: $100 Our setup now: Phone through Ooma: $3/mo Internet: $44/mo Netflix, antenna and Hulu: $16/mo So, we are saving $84/mo. I guess what I'm figuring out is that most of you are paying much more for cable/internet than I would for cable/internet. I think that's what is making it worth it to you all. If I had just internet instead of having internet/cable I would only save about $20 because of my bundle discount and by the time you add in hulu and netflix and an antenna I'm at the same cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 What kind of cable do you have? I called the cable company and they said, "Oh, it would only be $30 more to add cable." Well, what they aren't telling me, and I had to push them, is that that is only for cable directly to your TV, limiting you to live TV and limited channels. Expanded channels cost $12 per box per TV OR $15 per DVR per TV. We have 3 floors so we have one TV on each floor. That would be $75 total on top of our internet. Bundled phone on top of that is $30/mo. We have Ooma for $3/month. That would be a waste. So, it is still a huge savings for us. $100/min. Dawn I guess what I'm figuring out is that most of you are paying much more for cable/internet than I would for cable/internet. I think that's what is making it worth it to you all. If I had just internet instead of having internet/cable I would only save about $20 because of my bundle discount and by the time you add in hulu and netflix and an antenna I'm at the same cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 What kind of cable do you have? I called the cable company and they said, "Oh, it would only be $30 more to add cable." Well, what they aren't telling me, and I had to push them, is that that is only for cable directly to your TV, limiting you to live TV and limited channels. Expanded channels cost $12 per box per TV OR $15 per DVR per TV. Exactly! The fees and taxes were a huge piece of the cost. They tell you that you'll only pay $xx dollars more to add in cable into the bundle. What they don't tell you is that you have to pay a cable box fee, communications fee, 911 fee, taxes, and on and on and on. The fees and extra charges were almost 1/2 of our savings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymonkeybug Posted July 28, 2012 Author Share Posted July 28, 2012 What is Ooma? Guess I will be doing an internet search on that. Well, having had Netflix for less than a day now, I can say I am a bit disappointed in what they offer. On the bright side though, I can watch older shows and movies that I enjoyed as a child and earlier adulthood. :D Funny, they have movies like Transformers 3 and Thor and Iron Man 2 but lack other movies out about the same time??? :glare: Gonna' take some time to look into Hulu and HuluPlus since that can be gotten on the Wii also. Thank you all again so much for all the feedback and info. on some things we don't even think about like the taxes, surcharges, 911 fees, etc...that jack that bill up each month :001_huh: Crazy that those fees alone many times equal as much as the service itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 I LOVE Food Network and the Cooking Channel...can you get them on Netflix? Ha! I just noticed your siggy. Love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 (edited) It all depends on what Netflix can work out with the company that owns the movies. I am not a big movie watcher and tend to enjoy TV series' and crime type shows. My kids are going through all the Leave it to Beavers and Denis the Menace episodes! :lol: As for Ooma. It cost me $179 up front for the "hub" but then is about $40 per YEAR in taxes and that is it! It allows for unlimited long distance, voicemail, caller ID, call waiting and a few other features. They also have a premium you can add on so that you can have more than one line, call forwarding, an app to use minutes through your phone, and a few other features that I don't need so I didn't add it. I believe the premium is $9/mo or you can purchase a whole year at a time. One little hint......if you can, get your Ooma hub from Costco. I had one go out after 2 years and Ooma's warrantee had expired. Costco replaced it for me for free and I was good to go again. It is internet based and will need to be connected to your router. I have not had many problems with it. A dropped call here or there, but overall, not a problem. I have had it for 3 years now. Dawn What is Ooma? Guess I will be doing an internet search on that. Well, having had Netflix for less than a day now, I can say I am a bit disappointed in what they offer. On the bright side though, I can watch older shows and movies that I enjoyed as a child and earlier adulthood. :D Funny, they have movies like Transformers 3 and Thor and Iron Man 2 but lack other movies out about the same time??? :glare: Gonna' take some time to look into Hulu and HuluPlus since that can be gotten on the Wii also. Thank you all again so much for all the feedback and info. on some things we don't even think about like the taxes, surcharges, 911 fees, etc...that jack that bill up each month :001_huh: Crazy that those fees alone many times equal as much as the service itself. Edited July 28, 2012 by DawnM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RachelFlores Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Does anyone know if you can use Roku without a television but just a laptop? You wouldn't need a roku if you were using your laptop, you would just stream what you wanted (netflix, huluplus, amazon prime) directly from the website. The roku is only for TVs that cannot stream directly from the internet. We love our roku! We have netflix,huluplus and were given a subscription to amazon prime as a gift. Check all three to see which has your favorite shows. We might drop netflix and just go with amazon prime as we are realizing that although most of it is overlap, it does offer some shows we like better (plus we get free two day shipping) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymonkeybug Posted July 28, 2012 Author Share Posted July 28, 2012 Ha! I just noticed your siggy. Love it. LOL, yep a major Cap't Jack fan :001_wub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 What is Ooma? Guess I will be doing an internet search on that. Well, having had Netflix for less than a day now, I can say I am a bit disappointed in what they offer. On the bright side though, I can watch older shows and movies that I enjoyed as a child and earlier adulthood. :D Funny, they have movies like Transformers 3 and Thor and Iron Man 2 but lack other movies out about the same time??? :glare: Gonna' take some time to look into Hulu and HuluPlus since that can be gotten on the Wii also. Thank you all again so much for all the feedback and info. on some things we don't even think about like the taxes, surcharges, 911 fees, etc...that jack that bill up each month :001_huh: Crazy that those fees alone many times equal as much as the service itself. Are you only streaming? only DVDs? or both? We do both--one DVD at a time--and we're pretty happy with it. I haven't bothered with Hulu as Netflix keeps me busy enough. I think it's $15 a month? Which is way cheaper than the $130 I was paying for DishNetwork. Netflix doesn't yet have some shows I'd like to see (Nowhere Man, First Wave) but then I did actually watch them when they were first broadcast, so it would just be for nostalgia's sake. :) Within the next couple of months we'll be getting all our favorite broadcast shows from last season: NCIS, CSI, Fringe, the Closer, Burn Notice, and more; we'll watch them on DVD with *no* commerical breaks at all (and no fast-forwarding through commercials). I'm thinking of changing my account to two DVDs at a time. :D Mr. Ellie refuses to get anything bundled. Landline with DSL is separate from the cell phone which is separate from satellite/cable. If you buy a bundle and something goes down, it all goes down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unscripted Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 As someone up thread mentioned- we also do the antennae/converter box. We had the same package as you with Comcast- and cut it 3 years ago. I am so glad to not have that bill anymore! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 I guess what I'm figuring out is that most of you are paying much more for cable/internet than I would for cable/internet. I think that's what is making it worth it to you all. If I had just internet instead of having internet/cable I would only save about $20 because of my bundle discount and by the time you add in hulu and netflix and an antenna I'm at the same cost. Maybe something has changed, but I have never paid for Hulu. Am I missing something? I only use it every now and then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdventureMoms Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Maybe something has changed, but I have never paid for Hulu. Am I missing something? I only use it every now and then. You can pay for Hulu+, which is their premium service. It has more shows and more older episodes. Regular Hulu is still free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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