Disbelief in one of our frugal habits

**disneysteve** · 05-29-2012, 07:23 AM

We didn't get cable TV until a few years ago when I paid off my last student loan. That was my treat for doing so. And then, we got limited basic cable for $10/month.

Personally, I know numerous people without cable. With so many free offerings online, I don't see the point. Just this past season, I watched the entire season of Awake without ever seeing an episode on TV. I watched them all on my computer for free. The other two shows that I follow are NCIS and Once Upon A Time and I watch almost all of those episodes online as I'm usually not home when they air.

The only thing I haven't done yet is to hook up a computer to my TV so that we could watch the shows on there instead of having to watch them on the computer.

**Eleanor** · 05-29-2012, 07:28 AM

We hook up our laptops to watch Netflix and Hulu and it's definitely more than sufficient (although we only watch a combined total of 3 shows I think).

We actually get free cable in our apartment (it's included in rent) but there's a $50 setup fee so we're sticking with online stuff until we deem it necessary (i.e. worth it) to turn on the cable.

**Joan.of.the.Arch** · 05-29-2012, 07:52 AM

We don't have any form of pay TV, but as the matter doesn't ever come up in conversation, no one ever offers comment. This is not a decision of thrift. We just aren't interested in more TV. Me especially. DH watches several TV shows on network TV. Last night while he was watching, I took my glass of wine outside and watched the first rising fireflies, the planes overhead, the moon and stars, the nightime joggers, and the neighborhood cats on the prowl. Enjoyed the smell of petunias which are more fragrant at night, and picked some clover flowers to see if they smell similar the hay I put in my garden and wondered about their geraniol content. No cable, no satellite.

**jteezie** · 05-29-2012, 08:31 AM

I don't have tv for the same reasons.

**marvholly** · 05-30-2012, 01:24 AM

MANY moons ago (kids were 8 & 12, now mid 30's) when cable first came to my burb our friends were horrified that we did NOT sign up.

My response was: I have NO intention of paying $XX to encourage us to watch MORE TV. As a widow w/kids grown & gone I still feel the same way.

**MonkeyMama** · 05-30-2012, 05:30 AM

I honestly don't get that much, but living in a more techie region, many people that I know have gotten other alternatives to cable over the years. I might have gotten more disbelief in college (over a decade ago).

Anyway, did have cable for about 10 years - my spouse is in the film industry and swung me to the dark side (I never watched much TV before we married). BUT, we dropped it about a year ago. Quality passes muster with my uber-picky dh - streaming things to our TV. Basically, you can get all the same content for a fraction of the cost, very easily with a little tech savvy, so why bother with the cable companies? I think it always pained my spouse to have to get so much content through the cable companies (contracts, high prices, and BAD customer service, on and on and on), and he is glad those days seem to be over. & honestly, the only reason we stuck it out about 12 years was that we had a small mom and pop cable company that was very good and affordable. Maybe for 8 of those years? If the other years had been our primary experience, I think we would have ditched it ages ago. All of the big monopolies have just been horrid to do business with. One of them bought out the mom and pop, of course.

But yeah, I don't know very many people who even have cable any more.

**kork13** · 05-30-2012, 06:07 AM

Originally posted by MonkeyMama View Post

But yeah, I don't know very many people who even have cable any more.

I'm quite the opposite... I have a number of friends who don't have cable/dish. With the prevalence of online shows, netflix, and other options, having cable just isn't necessary. Sure, most people do have cable. But it's not extraordinary, at least in my circles. I don't get so much as a raised eyebrow when I say that I don't have cable.

**skruggie** · 05-30-2012, 06:10 AM

I haven't paid for cable/satellite in years. More recently I subscribe to Netflix (streaming ony) and Hulu plus. I can watch on my iPad, or attach my iPad to my tv if I want to watch on a big screen. For $14 a month I have access to pretty much everything I need - and occasionally I will buy a seson pass or older series off of iTunes.

Paying upwards of $75 a month for cable/dvr is a long, long, thing of the past for me. And yes, people think I'm weird, including my parents. I'm good with living with that consensus.

**disneysteve** · 05-30-2012, 07:19 AM

Originally posted by skruggie View Post

Paying upwards of $75 a month for cable/dvr

This is what I think many people don't get. You can have cable in most places for under $20/month which really isn't all that terrible. For the longest time, we were paying $10+tax before we voluntarily upgraded. No we didn't have 200 channels but who really needs 200 channels?

And I totally don't see the point in a DVR. We have On-Demand which lets us catch shows that we missed when they first aired. Or we can go online and watch them for free at the network website or Hulu. Why do I need a DVR, especially if it costs me money to have it?

**skruggie** · 05-30-2012, 07:40 AM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

This is what I think many people don't get. You can have cable in most places for under $20/month which really isn't all that terrible. For the longest time, we were paying $10+tax before we voluntarily upgraded. No we didn't have 200 channels but who really needs 200 channels?

And I totally don't see the point in a DVR. We have On-Demand which lets us catch shows that we missed when they first aired. Or we can go online and watch them for free at the network website or Hulu. Why do I need a DVR, especially if it costs me money to have it?

I've looked into basic cable options, but I don't see what is worth paying for. With an antenna and a converter box I get perfect reception of the networks (not that I ever do this anymore) - and, I'd much rather pay $16 a month for the vast libraries of Netflix streaming & Hulu plus than the very limited stations available via basic cable.

for me, I get much more out of going through back catalogs of series. Right now I'm working my way through Mad Men on Netflix, something I never would have discovered through traditional means. And, for shows that I want to own/archive, I just find it easier now to purchase them directly on itunes.

i do get the fascination with DVR's, I was a very early Tivo adapter about 10 years ago, and thought it was the greatest thing ever - that was also when it wasn't so complicated to archive directly from the DVR, which is ridiculously complicated in the world of HDTV and the phasing out of vcr's. When I stopped finding shows that I want to archive, and when series of DVD's became so cheap to purchase directly, I stopped recording directly off the tv - and that is ultimately what ended my need for cable, and what weaned me off watching tv in general.

It's only more recently that I discovered tv again, through the more modern avenues of streaming vs. old school cable.

**JoeP** · 05-30-2012, 09:05 AM

skruggie: we don't have a DVR, although the idea intrigues me. It would be nice to have a single device to watch OTA HDTV/hulu/netflix/dvd/youtube, and my research says that you can do this with most versions of windows 7. Watching older series is something we enjoy as well. When our schedules allow, we like to sit down and watch a show or two on MeTV.

**josetann** · 05-30-2012, 01:02 PM

At home (in the US), we live in a really rural area. There's a huge antenna on our roof, but it's not pulling in anything at all. Even cable isn't run out that far. It's satellite or nothing. So we have nothing. Don't worry, we do have high-speed internet, so we can use Netflix, Hulu, etc. Plus DVDs...there's always plenty to watch.

Now we're living in an area where there seems to be dozens of FTA channels. Bought a PVR (DVR) for a few hundred, and that was it. It doesn't work 100% (for some darned reason, it often names the shows wrong, though the show description is always correct). Monthly bill is still $0, and we have WAY too much tv to watch.

And I think a PVR is almost a must-have. I hate live-tv (though my wife seems to love it, go figure). Reason being...I want to skip past all the commercials. I hate advertising. It's bad enough with all the product placement put in the shows/movies themselves (and no, this is nothing new...one only needs to watch some old Ernest movies to realize this was alive and well way before DVRs were invented).

**BuckyBadger** · 05-31-2012, 07:57 AM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

This is what I think many people don't get. You can have cable in most places for under $20/month which really isn't all that terrible. For the longest time, we were paying $10+tax before we voluntarily upgraded. No we didn't have 200 channels but who really needs 200 channels?

And I totally don't see the point in a DVR. We have On-Demand which lets us catch shows that we missed when they first aired. Or we can go online and watch them for free at the network website or Hulu. Why do I need a DVR, especially if it costs me money to have it?

It depends on what you are watching. Some thing you can find online for free soon after they have aired. Some things you can't. They may be for-pay, or they may not be available for a long time, or they may not be available at all.

We have Direct TV at home, and we give our DVR a brisk workout throughout the week. We recently switched from cable to Direct TV because of the sports packages. They are expensive, but they are my husbands one vice, and we can afford it, so we pay for the baseball and football packages. We also have streaming Netflix.

At the place I stay during the week for work, I have only an antenna, and an Xbox360 that lets me use our Netflix streaming. I do pretty well, and if we couldn't afford Dish network for some reason, none of us would shrivel up and die. But we can afford it and we like it so we pay for it and enjoy it!

**Jtuxyan** · 05-31-2012, 04:13 PM

Speaking as a youngin (23), I have never once considered getting cable since getting my own home, and I don't know anyone my age who has. Between NetFlix, Hulu, and other services, a cable connection just doesn't do anything for you that an internet connection doesn't do better. Your friends are behind the times.

Disbelief in one of our frugal habits