Anyone Else "Cut the Cord" (Cable or Satellite)

We just cancelled Direct T.V about a month or so ago and have not missed it one bit. We got Netflix and just love that. That has all my kids favorites. We also opted to get a Tivo box because I really love having a DVR. That is $20/month. So with the netflix and tivo its $28/month instead of $90/month.

We got rid of TV altogether when my girls were younger. It was not missed at all. We just reinstalled it about a year and a half ago and my youngest is now 16....The adjustment was more to adding it back than removing it.

M.

We got rid of cable in 2007 at that time I had 2 girls and one boy about to be born. The girls took time to adapt but have learned a lot of alternative things to do and do not require an electronic item to sit and behave. They do not have mp3 or ipods. They have computer time but our computer stays in the main living area of the house none in the bedrooms. My kids love to play outside and love sports and dance. They actually get caught up in books. We use dvds, online streaming and redbox for the occasional viewing. I don't have to wonder what they saw while I was out of the room. The money we were spending on cable was 74.96 a month and we ha been putting that aside since for a vacation. We will take that vacation when my youngest is 5 and do go somewhere we would never have been able to go.

We don't have TV at all! When we moved to our new home, we never signed up for cable because it was too expensive. And we don't have one of those converter boxes for our older TV set. So, no cable or television programming at all. You know what? I LOVE IT! I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old and it's very easy for me to know exactly how much they're watching and what they are watching because all we have are DVDs. And I limit their time to 30 minutes/day total. I get sucked into TV shows really easily as does my husband, so for us, it's way that we can have more quality time doing things that really matter versus watching the tube. Plus, if there is anything I really, really like to watch (and I do love this one soap opera), I can do that on my laptop. So, I just give you kudos and wish you luck! It might be a rough first few weeks with no cable, but you will learn to love it.

No cable, no antenna.

Yes Netflix & Hulu+

NEARLY everything that's on TV plus a whole lot more (like britTV, movies, etc.).

Our total for both is less than $20 a month. They're each about $7 per month. Vs the cheapest package out here was well over $100 a month (I'm trying to remember, it's been YEARS... I think it was 156 for cable, and 220 something for the cable and internet and house phone bundle).

We did that last year saving about $60 a month. Put that money into a new tv that was desperately needed instead. We got netflix streaming on our blu ray player and that is only $7.99 a month and the kids have so many shows and movies to choose from. My husband and I find things to watch on there too most of the time.

We had an old antennae on our home when we moved in so my husband just ran it through the wall from the garage crawl space to plug it in. We had an old pc that we hooked up to the tv too so that we have network shows from there after the shows air (usually can view them 2-4 days later with a lot of commercials though). It works out well. We also downloaded a free software on our computer to record shows from the live tv onto the computer. It has glitches now but we are working on it and when it does work, I can skip the commercials and it works exactly like a dvr.

We are fine tuning the system but it seems to really work well for us. We have more to watch than before and really don't miss anything.

We also put movies/shows on hold at our local library and let the kids each pick out a video once a week.

We got rid of cable a couple of years ago. I thought it would be hard, but we fill that time with so many other/better things. Our kids don't sit in front of the TV all day, although it can happen anyway with videos/netflix, etc. But, we make an effort to keep it off most of the time. That said, if you want to watch something in particular, many shows can be watched online now. Not everything, but enough. And, that's free. We didn't get rid of cable for money reasons, but because we wanted to be done with it. We put it off for a couple of years, and now I can't figure out why we waited!

Yes we cut the cord...and got rid of our TV. It has been 12 years now. We love it...we have family time every evening. When we want to watch something we use Netflix or my husband will download a specific TV show from that channel's website. Our kids have their favorite shows and watch them on my laptop. I don't think I'll ever go back. Now when I do see popular TV shows I am reminded how silly most of TV is!

We've never had cable TV and our kids (now 10YO) have never complained that our TV is just "the box that the VCR and DVD player plug in to" - they like being able to pick what they want to watch when we watch something (our public library system has a good assortment of videos and DVDs) and that they can pause for potty breaks or fast forward over anything they think is too scary. And DH & I like that they don't get inundated by advertisements. They'll see what's on TV at friends or relatives' houses but they don't mind that we don't watch it at our house.

Also - if your kids are old enough to understand the general concept of choosing where the family spends money in the "wants but not needs" department - you can let them know what kinds of things the family could do if you weren't paying $78/month for TV (e.g. get a membership to a local zoo or kids museum, go to a few more movies, etc.)

Do an online search for TV antennas and reception -- there is a website that will tell you what channels you'll be able to pick up where you live. I am 35 miles from a major city, but over hills and valleys and can only pick up PBS and maybe NBC on a clear day. I could invest in a roof antenna but there's still no guarantee that I'd get all of the basic channels.

We have Apple TV (which basically means Netflix and iTunes) and XBox Live, which gives us Netflix as well as Hulu Plus. I watch most current shows on Hulus ($7.99 a month) but we can also hook our computer up to the TV and watch free stuff online. We may order shows on itunes ($3 per) and are addicted to a few series on Netflix (also $7.99 a month), like MadMen and Friday Night Lights. I am happy with it, we struggle with sports because we don't get more than college sports on ESPN on the XBox. My kids are OK, but programming for them is fairly limited. They have a handful of shows they love, and if they've seen them all then "there's nothing on." But overall we've become more thoughtful about choosing to watch TV, and my kids have discovered things here and there. My son is now obsessed with "Man vs Food", so much fun!

We've had cable for 1 year out of our 12 years of marriage- we didn't even own a tv when we first got married(mainly because we were broke!) but when we moved 3 years later and got cable- I didn't like how much time we spent watching tv- not just the kids, but I love the HGTV and my husband will watch any sports. So when we moved a year later we decided not to get it anymore. We have some local channels here so my husband will watch football on Sundays. But we have dvd's for the kids to watch- but mainly they read and they play together. We also have netflix for any tv show that we want to watch. But it really isn't on that much. But I do know that the first couple of weeks of going without after having it for so long- it's really hard.
Good luck!
~C.

We did it a few years ago and adjusted just fine! I do miss some of my programs I use to DVR, but, it was really the best thing to do for my family. I didn't do it to cut costs... it just took away too much of our life! lol! We still get local programming... and hulu.com has all my shows that I really like so I can just watch them online if i really want :-)

Dumped cable last summer, so we're going on 1.5 years now. We use Clear for our wireless Internet and hooked up Netflix to our TV if I want to watch any movies or kid's programming.

As far as over the air stuff, PBS and Qubo have great kid's shows.

We dropped cable the first time our toddler picked up the remote. That was over six years ago now. Between the antenna and Netflix (streaming & DVD - I think it's still a great deal, personally), we rarely miss it. Unless you're a news or sports junkie, I honestly don't know why anyone pays for cable anymore.

we got rid of cable and we don't miss it at all. in fact it was a bit of a relief.

I work in a library and it is amazing the number of DVDs we check out every day. It maybe just as much or more than books. The DVD's if they are holidays you can rent them for 3 days for free or 1 week if they are not current 7 days.

If I took Disney channel away from my son he might just lose it.....jk. Honestly if you can live without the cable, then they should be able to also.

When we first moved here we didn't have cable for a few months. Before we moved here we never had cable, and for kids shows we watched PBS. We got an antenna and tried that at first, thinking we would just stick with watching all the PBS channels and networks for the occasional show, but alas, where we live, and I am not really sure why, we could get no channels. I mean not one. Well, that is a lie, there was one channel we could get sometimes around 12:30 am that would cut in and out. I am really not sure how that was even happening, I didn't think that could happen after digital took over analog. Our cell phones didn't work out here either... I think we live in some sort of technology black hole or something. We caved in and got cable, and changed our cell carrier. If we were able to get any channels out here, we would still be without cable. It is very do-able, but I would recommend getting the antenna and seeing how well it works and what channels you can get before you make a set decision.

We dropped it all a few months back. No more DVR. No more TV, unless it's VHS or DVD's.

It takes getting used to, but money wise it was a really good choice. As for kids coping/not coping. They will get over it, probably quicker than you will. TV isn't good for us anyhow, we should be picking up a book and reading. As I sit in front of the computer during naptime. So I suppose I can't talk.

But honestly, bad habits aside. If you feel it's costing too much, it's not something that is necessary, just nice to have. Only thing we really need is food to eat, clothes/shoes to wear, a roof over our head and heat and lights are nice as well.

I don't know anything with the Zenith Indoor Antenna, so i can't give advise on that.

We don't have cable, and it's just fine for us. I love that my son only watches PBS shows, because he is exposed to far fewer ads than he would be if he watched all the other kid cable channels. Sometimes I regret not having a DVR, but usually I can catch up with shows that I care about over the Internet.

I have a friend who recently quit her Direct TV. They are using a combination of Netflix, Hulu Plus, and an over the air antenna. It's worked for them, and I think they pay about $16 a month for all of it.

If you buy an over the air DVR, it will cost you about $400 if you get one without a subscription fee. I think Tivo sells a much cheaper one that does have a monthly fee. But maybe those are options to explore if you find the DVR portion difficult to give up?

Overall, I'm pretty happy with what we have. I know that I would watch far more TV if I had the other options. I spend enough time on "media," between TV and Internet, as it is.

You may want to see how an antenna works from your house. I am in Bolingbrook and it works great for us. We have been using it for over a year and loving it! The picture is better than our friend's cable as we automatically get true HD over an antenna (it has to be compressed to go through cable). We get Qubo on 38.2 and PBS on 11.1. My DD loves them both. We always had the most basic cable though. We also supplement that with movies from our library. Go for it!