Ever wonder what it’s like to look back from the other side of cable, well wonder no longer because it is amazing. We have been without cable for four years and have no plans of ever going back.
As a fun experiment go for a walk around your neighborhood after dark and enjoy the lovely light show glowing from every house, possibly even multiple windows of the same house. Heck, some of these TV’s are so large I can comfortably watch them from the street.
People are so dependent on cable that almost everyone spends their evenings glued to a screen. Let me know if this sounds familiar. You had a long day at the office you come home tired, maybe you picked up some takeout on your way. You and your significant other settle into the couch and just channel surface the evening away then head off to bed probably much later than you intended.
This was my usual for a long time and I really had no idea the effect it was having on me. I started to choose a night with the TV over social situations, somehow the glow of the screen seemed easier than talking to people. I wasn’t learning any new skills, I wasn’t reading as much as I wanted to, I was ignoring household chores. The worst part of it was most nights I’m not even sure we actually watched anything, just a constant switching of channels looking for something to entertain. It was an illusion of relaxation, but really it was just vegetation.
So what changed? What caused me to shift away from the norm? Well to tell you the truth it was a two-part transition, the first was getting rid of the cable, the second was to stop watching so much TV. For me this was all about money. I am a person that hates recurring bills of all kinds and in Atlantic Canada, there is a serious monopoly on cable and internet. The cheapest cable and internet package I can find runs at about $175.95 +HST per month that’s over two thousand per year… for something that was stealing away my life.
It also turns out you really don’t need cable to watch tv. We did some research and discovered a nifty little device called a Roku. This allowed us to stream Netflix, Youtube, and many other streaming sites directly onto our TV. We also discovered that many television networks uploaded their shows online for free the day after airing. All we needed was to invest in an extra long HDMI cable and bam free TV.
Not only did the above changes result in us paying a whopping $10.99 month for entertainment it also pretty much eliminated having to watch ads. This is the part that really got me I was paying money to watch ads that are designed to get me to spend even more money.
Now, I can already hear the people crying out saying that’s all great but what about sports. Whenever I talk to people about getting rid of there cable they always say it all sounds great but I can’t give up my Saturday night hockey and guess what you don’t have to. CBC streams hockey night in Canada online for free and if thats not enough for you, the Roku offers NHL, MLS, NBA, NFL and MLB channels. Now these are all subscription channels that do cost money, but what they don’t tell you is that you can split the cost of theses subscriptions between multiple people and pay a fraction of the cost.
So with the above changes, our bill dropped to a total of $85.00 dollars a month, still incredibly high for just internet in my opinion, but unfortunately it is the best available in this area.
The real change finally came when our daughter arrived. This was the push we need to drastically reduce our consumption of media. It just didn’t seem right to sit and watch TV with a little one who was so interested in everything the world had to offer. Perspective is a funny thing and children definitely provide a boatload of it. Once we broke the habit of coming home and heading directly for the couch it was amazing how much time we suddenly freed up and the things we could accomplish when before we would just have complained about how there didn’t seem to be enough hours in the day.
Now, don’t get me wrong we still enjoy the occasional Netflix binge, the big difference now is that we are intentional about this time. We choose to do it instead of just defaulting.
So go do it! Cut the cord and reclaim your life or at least your money.