How We Survive Without Cable
January 26, 2010 by Ellen
Filed under Money Saving, Saving Tips
It’s funny people are completely shocked that we do not have cable and never have. It seems like cable or dish or whatever version you have is seen as a necessity like electricity and water, but it’s not I promise. Don’t get me wrong I think cable is great there are lots of shows I would watch regularly if we had cable, but it’s a luxury in my opinion. Just because you don’t have cable does not mean you have to miss out on everything you just have to be more creative and choosy. So here are the ways we survive without cable and really I am not sure we will ever have it even if we win the lottery, there is just no need!
- We use HULU, Hulu is a free service that allows you to watch your favorite tv shows for FREE. My husband and I have a regular date night where we catch up on our favorite shows. We hook our laptop up to the tv and voila our favorite cable shows in HD for FREE. Plus Hulu is like a FREE DVR so when I miss the shows I love that are on network tv I can still watch them later.
- Frequent your library. We have a fantastic library system here in Columbus that has the new releases as soon as they are available. To rent them is FREE as long as you return them on time. We belong to not just our community library but the city library as well to give us a wide variety of access to media.
- We don’t watch that much tv. It’s amazing how much time we can waste watching tv. If there is nothing on worth watching them we don’t watch. That is the beauty of limited options. If we had cable I would be able to always find something to watch, but with network tv the show selection is not nearly as tempting.
- Netflix and Blockbuster free trials, sign up for a 2 week free trial from these companies to get current videos for FREE, just be sure to cancel within the time frame to avoid charges. If you choose to keep your subscription it is still cheaper than a monthly cable bill.
- Redbox is a cheap way to rent DVD’s they are just $1 a night an frequently offer FREE rental codes.
Not having cable has allowed us to be more choosy in our tv watching and our kids. I know exactly what my kids are watching because ti is a video I have pre-approved not a surprise on cable. My husband and I only watch when it is worthwhile making sure our time is not wasted with garbage. We don’t miss cable and with some time neither will you but you will love the new found money in your pocket.
We use Hulu, Netflix, and the library to watch shows & movies. Netflix costs $10 a month and includes one DVD sent out at a time, and streaming shows & movies directly to our xbox.
I so wish that I could get my husband on board w/ no cable!!!
I know that I would be fine w/o cable (as would our kids) – but his mindset does think of cable as a necessity – oh well – I’ll keep bugging him and maybe he will soon change his mind. I love to hear storie of others doing just fine w/o it – I keep showing him them hoping that one day he will go along w/ it 
We gave up cable/dish a long long time ago… We have antenna but tend to watch most of our stuff on hulu, or directly off the network site. I can even watch Good Morning America clips from ABC.com
I have a neighbor who is even considering switching over!
I know a couple of families that got rid of cable because they watch more shows on Hulu and use Netflix.
We live without cable as well, most of our favorite shows on our network television anyway and we watch for free. Everything else (like True Blood or Doctor Who) we wait for it to be released on DVD and watch it with Netflix. I do miss HGTV and DIY channel shows, although PBS’s Create channel has a lot of great shows that help.
It great to save money from cable! but It hard to find one with come closed caption because we are deaf family… I m thinking about get netflix rent and instantly watch movie.
I agree with you that cable is waste because I always watch tv at night.
I love redbox!
any tips without cable for deaf?
I personally think that going without is a good thing-My family tried doing that for a couple of months, but they couldn’t do it. I was completely fine with it though because I usually watch all my shows and whatnot online.
We bit the bullet back in 1983!!!!! Hubby was unemployed; cable seemed a luxury we couldn’t afford. In our rural area, nothing comes in without cable, so it was absolutely no TV! It was rough the first couple of weeks trying to find things to do with our time especially at night. But, we finally got use to it. The children grew up without the boobtube and teachers often commented on their attentions spans and maturity. We read, played games, did crafts, went on picnics or visiting people. Their education did not suffer from not having educational tv. Didn’t get a computer till the older ones had already graduated from school. I would never go back and change the no tv…I do believe it improved them in many ways compaired to their peers. Good for you. Keep it up. We eventually did get a video player and began screening movies for a weekly family night of movies. We all really enjoyed that time together.
Same here no cable for us, for the most part. We actually had it once in 1994 and it was 60.00 a month and we couldn’t afford to keep it on so off it went and we have never missed it! we just don’t watch tv if theres nothing on. We would rather be outdoors doing something…we are fine with having just an antenna. No netflix or Hula, Dont even go to the movies much or rent them, does this make us weird? LOL Dont answer that:)
We have just the basic cable (first 16 channels), but it is only because otherwise our local channels would not come in clearly and it is only a few dollars each month. Ironically, we only watch the channels that would be free anyway. A note to Katey- my father is also deaf so I am accustomed to watching tv with closed captioning, even though I am hearing. We have found that most network shows are closed captioned and many tvs now have a caption option so you should not need a caption box either.
oh really?? you mean when I join my laptop to tv and there will have CC? how I can join my laptop to tv? what it calling plug laptop to tv?
thank you
I could live without cable but I don’t think the rest of the family could.
We don’t have cable either! It was a ridiculous amount of money to spend every month, so we canceled it. Now we use the internet & netflix to watch shows & movies. It works out well & saves us a lot of money!
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