As of March 1, we are a cable TV and land line free home.
We like TV, so it was a bold move for my family. We were paying for a deluxe bundle package that included high speed Internet, a land line, a gazillion cable channels, and HBO, which we enjoyed quite a bit.
But when our cable/Internet/phone bill increased over $100 from the previous month, we thought twice about our love for cable TV in our home. While I sheepishly admit that I may have had a slight addiction to the reality shows on Bravo TV, I also realized that I was spending too much time watching grown women cat fight in their Manolo Blahniks–that they clearly can’t afford. And I definitely don’t want to spend an additional $1200 a year to watch that train wreck
Anyway, following the advice of personal finance bloggers everywhere, I immediately called the company to understand why our bill increased by so much and negotiate a new price. I was told that we had enjoyed a promotional price for two years and the new price reflected on our bill is the actual price for the package we had originally chosen. Huh, no budging, not an inch.
So, my husband took a different approach and chatted with an online customer service representative only to be told that the online reps are not able to offer anything but the prices that are listed on the website.
Wow, they’re really making this decision easy for us. After quite a bit of research, we decided to cancel our cable to pursue other TV options, which I’ll describe further in an upcoming post.
And in the process, my husband point blank asked me, “who calls us on the land line?” Back in October, I would have said, “President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney”, but campaign season is over, so my reply was, “NO ONE.” Honestly, we are using our iPhones for everything.
So we cut that cord too!
A funny thing happens when you call a cable company to cancel services–they reduce their price. But it was too late. They weren’t in any hurry to help us out previously when we hadn’t even considered leaving cable TV and we were already intrigued by much cheaper online TV viewing options.
We kept the Internet, of course! So now instead of paying an additional $100 a month for our deluxe cable package, we will now pay about $55 less than our original bill for our high speed internet, so we are saving about $660 a year.
It’s now March 14 and we can honestly say that we do NOT miss cable TV one bit!
Do you have cable TV and a land line or have you cut the cord too? Let us know in the comments!
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We did the same thing several years ago – our bill for internet is $49. The funny thing is that you find other things to do besides watching mindless TV – we read more and play games with our kids. You wan’t regret it and I only miss it about 5 times a year – rainy cold saturdays and days my fav basketball team plays on ESPN. . . I’m trying to downsize my cell phone bill now ala MMM. Well, probably I’ll go with Ting so not quite that extreme!!
Stephanie – I’m definitely reading more. I’ve actually finished a book in time to take it back the library! Thanks for commenting.
No cable in our house either–we do not even watch TV! Only use the TV for watching old VHS videos and occasional DVDs, though of course the computer plays DVDs just fine. Mostly the videos or DVDs that we are watching are educational ones that we already own or borrow from the library–we home school, so it’s part of “school” for the day. TV is addicting–I am the weakest one there, I really get hooked! So I have found the best thing is for me just not to watch at all. I do not miss it now one tiny bit, and wonder how in the world I ever found time to watch it in the first place! We still have our land line, but that is because we use prepaid cell phones for our cell phone, and it costs us every time anyone calls us on our cell phones so we give out our land line number instead, and only use the cell phones for our use–not for other people to call us. With our land line and high speed internet, we pay $65 a month for those two. Cell phones add $20 per three months, per phone. My husband and I each have a cell phone, and our 19 year old does as well though he pays for his own pre paid cell phone cards. If for some reason we have a time period where we need to use our cell phones a lot, such as when on a trip or some such thing, it is easy to go add another $20 card on the phone to extend your minutes. The only drawback is that your time on the prepaid cells will expire, so you need to purchase a card every three months–either that or go for the one year card for $100. I have done that one as well–works out to less than $10 per month for cell phone use–not a bad price in my book!
TV is too addicting (for me) and I was a little nervous about giving up cable, but I’m reading more and watching much less stinky TV. It’s a win-win! Your cell phone strategy is awesome, you can’t beat 10/month for a cell phone.
Thanks for commenting.
@TNQuiltbug I did some calculation about these phones like Tracfone for example: you buy the card for $20.00 which you have to add more minutes every 3 mos, which comes to 4 times a year and that equals to $80.00, then you divide that into 12mos and that equals to $6.67 per month which is great, you can’t beat that, but you have to be very disciplined with the use of your phone and also whatever the minutes you have left, they rollover til next time you have to buy more minutes. I think that’s the cheapest way to go to have a mobile phone, just wanted to pass it on.Love your website!
@TN Quiltbug, I did some calculation to figure out to go cheapest way for a mobile phone.Example:With Tracfone you have to add minutes every 3mos for a $20.00 which comes to $80.00 per year, then you divide that into 12mos and you get $6.67 per month. Isn’t that great? this is the cheapest way to go, but you have to be very disciplined with the use of your phone, so you don’t go over and then whatever the minutes you have left, they will roll over when it’s time to add more minutes(every 3mos). Just wanted to pass this on…I am new to your website and I love it…In this economy we all have to be very savvy…
I gave up my land line 4 years ago, but still have cable! I view cable as part of my entertainment budget.
We now have Netflix and that is definitely in our entertainment budget.
Thanks, Krantcents, for commenting!
We got rid of cable a little over a year ago. We don’t miss it. We did purchase a Roku box to make our tv internet ready for hulu plus and netflix. Love it!!!
My husband bought a Roku too. It makes it so easy. Thanks for commenting.
Our cell service is terrible inside the house so we have to have a landline.
Jen – Fortunately we have good cell service pretty much everywhere. We would have kept the landline if that weren’t the case.
THanks for commenting!
We have no cell service inside the house so we have to keep our land line.
Good for you!! We cancelled our cable over 1.5 years ago and cancelled our landline in January of this year. Don’t miss the cable or the landline. We do have netflix…but that’s it.
We barely watch TV at all now. It’s funny because just a couple of days ago my hubby had mentioned that he couldn’t believe how much time is wasted watching tv..we’ve made a lot of family changes since then..cooking everything from scratch, spending more time interacting with the family and being outdoors. Best gift you could give your family!
Margaret @ Live Like No One Else
I agree, Margaret, it has been the best gift we given our family! Thanks for commenting.
It was a scary decision when we got rid of our cable. We watched tv alot. It took me almost 2 years to get my husband to agree, but when the cable company kept raising our prices, we finally did it a couple years ago. Now instead of flipping through the channels, we watch tv with a purpose through netflix. The only tv I watch are a couple shows that my husband and I like to watch together on his nights off.
Mrs. Ripples – I tried to talk my husbnd into canceling cable for years, but it wasn’t until the price jacked up that he finally said, “enough!” I like your comment, “we watch tv with a purpose”. No more mindless tv for me too!
Ha! I canceled cable on March 1st as well. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was when Comcast started charging for the digital adapters they promised would be free when they were touting the switch from analog to digital. I can say that I couldn’t be happier without paying the huge cable bill. Netflix, Hulu, and Over The Air channels are all you need. Enjoy the cable free life!
We are enjoying the cable free life very much! Thanks for commenting
I canceled my cable two years ago, and it saves me about $44 per month.