So on Thursday we broke free from cable.
We still have our high speed internet, but we no longer have cable, or DVR. We still have TV, you know it's just kinda like the old days when you plugged it up and only got a few local channels (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox). In a conscious effort to reduce spending, we looked at our cable, and decided that we could do without. The hubby has been trying to convince me for a while now I could go without, but until our one year contract was up with Comcast, we had to hold out. Our contract ended on March 20th, so eight days later, I went to the store and cancelled it. (Of course we still have their awesome internet....)
Since the hubby and I have been back in school, we just don't watch as much TV as we used to. We looked into Amazon Prime, and we are trying out our free membership for 30 days. Can't beat that. If we decide we don't like it, we can cancel it before April 27th, and never be charged.
I added our expenses to keep cable. Here's the rundown:
It costs us around $2400 per year to have cable and internet.
It will now cost us $477 per year to have internet. We have to have the "high speed" internet mostly because the hubby's school is entirely online, and my classes must have internet access since they are hybrid classes.
Amazon Prime is $80 per year.
Netflix is $96 per year.
So add internet, Amazon Prime, and Netflix and you get a total of $643 for all three per year.
That's a savings of $1747 per year!
Wow. We could take another vacation if we wanted with that money!! (but we likely won't)
So yeah, I did it. The hubby didn't think I could do it...but it's only been one full day...
Could you live without cable?
Do you already live without cable?
Could you live without any other "luxury"?
I'm not sure if I could live without any other luxuries. I like my phone, but we don't have a "landline" anymore, I actually don't know anyone who does......
Full disclosure:
With Amazon Prime I am able to watch every show I normally watch. Some are free, some cost per episode, or you can buy the "season pass". They are typically $1.99 per episode, (if you buy a season pass you get the episodes for $1.89) so no worries, I won't be totally out of the loop when Game of Thrones starts on Sunday!
We haven't had cable for 6 or 7 years. We get about a dozen channels without it. We don't have Netflix or anything else either. I don't miss it too much anymore. We do let the kids watch Disney channel when we are on vacation so they at least know what their friends are talking about. We do have a land line phone because my husband is a nerd. He'd rather not have a cell phone. I would have a hard time living without internet or a second car.
ReplyDeleteWow!! I'm surprised by the amount of people who live without! After we disconnected, we've found several of our friends who live without too!
DeleteI could NOT live without internet. It's grown to more of a necessity nowadays!! We've lived without a second car for 3 years actually, but just one of us was working, so it wasn't too bad, it was totally doable!
We are a no cable household also! There is really no need for a zillion channels with Netflix or Amazon Prime! I'm not sure what other luxury I would give up...
ReplyDeleteI know, right? Amazon Prime is awesome! So it Netflix, but I have more luck with Amazon Prime since they show new shows.
DeleteWe ditched cable a few years ago - we do netflix and buy seasons of stuff we want in itunes, but we never did much tv so it just didn't make sense to hold onto the big cable bill. We never looked into amazon prime but are pretty happy with netflix!
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