Operation No Cable

[BigJerm]

So like most I never have enough money... Paying the $90-110 a month (depending on what promotion we can get) for cable has driven me crazy. Most shows are just crap anyways and not even worth the time invested to watch them. So we started to figure out how to cancel cable but still have TV for entertainment value. I make this post for others who want to do the same but cant find the info on the net to do it.

So the first, and most obvious, is an antenna. I grew up in the country and pretty much lived off 1 for years. So we picked up a cheap indoor antenna for $25 at Costco that you just put in the window. Quick channel scan and I got plenty of channels including the big ones NBC, ABC, FOX, TBN, CBS, PBS, ION and a few other local but all total about 20 channels. Picture is great! You cant tell the difference between cable and antenna. It is not like the old days of adjust the rabbit ears, beating on top of the tv and trying to fine tune the adjustment knobs to get a clear picture! This is the antenna we are using http://www.winegard.com/flatwave/costco.php . Here is a website to determine some of the channels you will get at your address. I get twice as many channels as it list for my address so maybe it just shows the big networks. http://www.winegard.com/localchannels/

Second, since we do have a few shows we like to watch and like i said, I grew up with the antenna and sometimes you just want to watch TV but there is nothing on! So I heard of this thing called a Roku http://www.roku.com/ . Basically its a little box that hooks up the internet and has several channels for you to watch. It has things like Netflix ($8 a month to stream), Hulu (got 2 months free, then $8 a month to stream but has several tv shows and updates faster than netflix), Crackel (another movie channel but free), news channels, some sports channels, Disney channel for those of you with kids, HBO channel for a small fee, ect. Some of the channels cost a small monthly fee to have, a lot dont. Its basically... internet TV. At first I thought I could just use my Xbox with its channels but the Xbox just does not have near as many as the Roku box. We ended up buying the fancy Roku box at Costco for $90. It came with 2 months of Hulu+ and an HDMI cable when normally the box itself just cost $90.

So if your keeping tabs, thats $25 for an antenna, $90 for a Roku, so $115 total, or about a month and a week worth of a cable bill. We already had Netflix but total between netflix and hulu+ will be $16 vs the $90-110 a month for cable. Not bad... Cancel cable and 1 month will pay for the antenna and roku investment and then after that we will save $75-95 a month. We will be experimenting the next few weeks not turning on the Uverse cable box and just using the antenna and roku for entertainment needs.

Alright so the only hold up we have is college football. Thats the only sport we really care about. We assume it wont be as bad as we thought. First we are an Auburn house, SEC is all we care about. Having ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and those local antenna channels will cover a lot of the games we care about. The real issue is ESPN. There is no ESPN channel on the Roku but there is an SEC channel but I dont think its going to play live games. We will find out for sure though pretty soon! Soooo... The Xbox does have an ESPN3 channel and it does cover some live games from ESPN. Also you can watch ESPN live on your computer and if it comes to it... I can buy the cable to hook the laptop up to the TV and just play in on the big screen.

Alright, thats what I got for now. Hopefully anyone with questions will post up, maybe save some money, spend less time in front of the TV like we plan to do.

[Krawler00]

Sounds good Jerm. We tried turning the tv off at my house for a month... got 4 days in and we were going nuts with the kids. They had already exhausted there toys, too dang hot for them to stay outside and my wife and I had enough with the constant, nothing to do mom, dad! So we gave in and life is back to "normal" My kids don't sit in front of the tv by any means, but it helps to have it. Not sure I could live without any tv, unless I was a wilderness man somewhere with some land, then I could care less!

[tcdawg]

Jeremy
Good post.  I did all that research as well and went with the Roku for Netflix.  I still have not dumped my cable(U Verse) because I just can't seem to get past not having ESPN.

[BigJerm]

Ben I could see where that could be a big issue. Like I said there is a Disney channel and you can get several kids shows/movies on Neflix an Hulu.

As far as ESPN. I hope to find out that between ESPN 3 and streaming it on the comp we will do just fine. Like I said, we are just college football but they do have NFL, MLB and NHL channels on the Ruko I believe.


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[Trailabite]

Google Free to air

[BigJerm]

Interesting... But I dont think I want a dish to deal with esp when my antenna is the size of a sheet of paper.

I have been talking to people at work about this and I keep hearing "oh I couldn't live without..." and then I ask if they have looked up that show to see if it is netflix or hulu carried and they have not. Then I ask is that monthly investment on your cable bill really worth that 1 show? You functioned in life before that show right? Guess as I am growing near the debt free stage bills I am starting to look at how much money I spend everywhere. I cant tell you how close we have come to cutting out iPhones and going to regular phones to save the almost $60 a month we spend on just internet. But the iPhone is almost like a tool, a convient tool, but a usefull one none the less. The crap on TV qualifies for none of that.

[Krawler00]

Hey, more power to ya Jerm! Being debt free is an amazing accomplishment that I hope everyone can someday know. We have been debt free for about 6 months or so. Only owe on the house and student loans > But yes, the tv, cell phone, internet etc really makes me want to cut it as well. That is a shi- ton of money every year. Just having to pay for a home phone line cause I have a security system kills me. I could be using cell phones for it all. uuuggghhhh.

[BigJerm]

Ben have you talked to your alarm company about that? Ackerman has a wireless service that sends the call as a cell signal. Cant cut the phone line to it and trust me it works the few times I have set off the alarm!

Yeah cable is rediculous, phones, all of it... I figure cable could save me around $700-800 a year once you figure in the cost of what I have bought and monthly fee's for things like Netflix.

I plan to update this thread as we go and how we deal with things. Our test period for now is through Harlan. Figure that gives up a few weeks for football testing. Plan to not turn on cable at all except to watch the few things we have DVR'd like Walking Dead.

[DOUG]

No good for me, but would love to save the coin.  One day it will all be internet based, wireless, and on demand.

9 TV's in 2 houses all on 1 Directv account, and 99% of what we watch is DVR'd.

We love our Google TV.  Neflix and Pandora, networked, etc.

[Krawler00]

I did ask the security about that and I can't remember what they told me. Need to check again as I NEVER answer my home phone. It's just somebody trying to get me to buy something or my wifes mother...  </LMAO/>

[BigJerm]

We have 1 TV in the living room, thats it. When I was a kid my parents had 2 TVs and we survived with 3 kids and 2 parents. I refuse to have a TV in the bedroom... The bedroom is for 2 things, sleeping and... well not watching tv. Not to be on my soap box but we have become a slave to a lot of modern devices and our false sense of "need" is kinda sad. I am a prime example... dropping cable but still "have to have" some tv and a device for internet tv. The changing times is part of it but thats conversation for a camp fire 1 night.

[Krawler00]

But what about dual survival and man vs. wild? ha ha!