This is the third time in my life I've lived without cable, although its the first time I've lived without it for reasons mostly related to money. The first time I had no cable was when I was little. We lived out in the country and cable just didn't exist out there at that time. The second time was when I was traveling the majority of the time with my old company. At that time I could have squeezed it out of the budget, but I was only home on the weekends, and sometimes not even then, so I figured why pay for something I was never going to use? The third time, which is currently, Hubby and I made the decision to forego cable when I was told we would have to pay a $99 dollar connect fee, which they refused to waive. I was pretty angry about this, because I already HAD cable, and if I had moved within my area, I would have been considered a "transfer" and not had to pay it again. So I figured I had lived without cable before, I could do it again.
For entertainment, we use our rabbit ears and Netflix. Our rabbit ears pick of the local channels. The reception is hit or miss. Some days a channel will be crystal clear, other days it will be somewhat off. It is rarely ever so bad that you can't watch though. Of course, Netflix is our real source of entertainment. We LOVE Netflix. We LOVE movies. Netflix allows us to watch as many as we want, as often as we want. Its great and CHEAP.
So if you're looking for a way to cut costs, consider abandoning your cable or satellite. You'll miss it at first, but eventually you'll find other forms of entertainment that are just as good. For more frugal tips, visit Frugal Friday!
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5 comments:
Stinky cable companies! I wouldn't pay the $99 fee, either. Sometimes, talking to a manager helps, but other times, it's just a waste of time.
Have you looked into Redbox for additional movies? There are free codes all over the internet. I haven't tried using them yet.
I'm thinking seriously about dropping the insurance part of our satellite bill. That would be I think $16.00 per month. I'm not sure about the amount. As soon as we drop it, one'd probably blow up or something, or get struck by lightning! I should just put a dvd in the dvd recorder one some channel that you like and let it record all day and you could put it in your player and just pretend its cable!
We've been without cable for over four years now and I don't miss it much. My favorites were news networks and Food Channel, but I've found pretty much a bazillion more options online!
Also, there are lots of TV shows now available online and entire movies posted on YouTube!
We have done without cable many times for several months or so at a time and I didn't really miss it too much. Now we have a bundle pack with our cable company for phone internet and cable and its a good deal. Otherwise we probably wouldn't have it either.
Try contacting your local sales rep if your cable company has one. A lot of times they can hook you up and waive the fee.
One added benefit to grabbing our entertainment from the airwaves with rabbit ears comes in the form of exercise, since we gotta get up every five minutes to readjust them dern things!
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