A few months ago I wrote that one of the ways to save money in my life was to unplug the television but I morphed into a Frugal Fraud and did not follow through with it. Well on Sunday this week I noticed that I had not watched television for the last two weeks for a number of reasons. The biggest reason was that I watch my favorite shows online through Hulu or directly from the website that hosts the show.
The second reason I have not watched television is that I have been VERY busy with work and school and then when I had some downtime I was sick and television was the last thing on my mind.
Another reason I have not watched television is because the set is in the living room and I have been too lazy to unplug the space heater from the bedroom and carry it into the living room. I have not put on the central heating due to the sky high electric bills of the last two months so there was no heat in the living room and that also made it uncomfortable for me to stay there.
I decided to go ahead and see if I could just live without the cable subscription like a lot of other personal finance bloggers do. I took a deep breath and called up the cable company to see what I could do.
They said they did not have a holding plan but I could go ahead and disconnect and then get a reduction on the reconnection fee when I did decide to get the cable back. The reduced reconnection fee is $20 less than the monthly cable bill so it is not too bad when I really think about it.
I plan on leaving the cable off until school closes in May and things settle down a little bit. I will still have my online classes to deal with but I will not be at work all day long, so I should have some more free time when I can really appreciate the television.
While I will not be paying the cable portion of the bill for the next few months, I will not be editing my zero based budget but will simply shift the dollar amount over as a snowflake payment to a credit card.
yeh! Good for you. Who needs TV nowadays when there is the internet.
I think cutting the cable is a great idea! Honestly, I hardly ever watch TV and if I do it’s either for the news or my favorite show which, like you, I can catch online as well. The TV isn’t convenient for me anymore with the invention of streaming shows online because I can’t always plop myself down and watch TV at a certain time. I’m out running errands or busy with school projects. Good job on cutting the TV. I’m sure your productivity level will increase!
I think my productivity is already increasing plus I am saving about 15 minutes of commercials by watching Hulu instead of regular tv.
Unless you are a massive sports fan and NEED to watch ESPN or fox soccer channel, you could easily do any with cable!
I do not watch sports….I mainly had the cable for other shows like things on HGTV and VH1 or MTV.
My sports obsession is the one reason that I would not be able to follow suit and disconnect my cable too. If it weren’t for my favorite sports team, I would have at least been able to reduce my cable bill. It is convenient to watch tv and movies online.
Unplugging your TV and turning off the socket is good for the environment too… double savings 🙂
This is something I’ve been considering for a while too. Internet TV has progressed much further than I ever thought it would. Even then, it’s hard to find programs and with good quality broadcasts so we’re not quite fully there yet. The big TV companies need to look at net broadcasting as a serious alternative soon. The money making opportunities are tremendous since you can reach a worldwide audience easily and use region specific advertisements too now with AdSense, etc.
Till then,
Jean
I mainly had the cable for other shows like things on HGTV and VH1 or MTV.
I commend you for doing this, LuLuGal. You will no longer fall a victim of mass media 🙂
Its better to watch your fave shows on the net. That way, you can save a lot of energy.
I imagine during the next few years alot of the cable companies will have some serious market share loss due to people not reupping subscriptions. If all their primetime shows can be found online what does anyone need cable tv for.
Well they will find a way to make that money back….mostly from the people who do continue to renew. Either that or they will have to close up shop.
we got rid of our subscription too, havn’t even noticed really
If you have high speed; Netflix’s $8.99 deal is a great tv alternative.
This is such a great way to save money now so many shows have online players (official ones)