2+ Years Without Cable: How We Survive
I'm somewhat shocked that we have lived for nearly two and half years without cable and DVR. It seems the further technology comes along, the easier it is for us to live without cable. Netflix, Hulu and other means of digital streaming have made it easier than ever to watch your favorites shows and movies without paying for traditional monthly cable or a satellite dish. Of course, this doesn't mean that it's always easy to watch your favorite shows. Obviously in the grand scheme of things, missing a show or missing out on a game isn't the biggest deal, but sometimes I do miss the convenience of having cable and DVR.
What I Miss About Cable/DVR
- Olympics: I know the Olympics (summer and winter) only happen every four years, but man, in 2008, when we first got DVR, we recorded all the Olympic coverage we could and spent our evenings rolling through the coverage. It was awesome! We missed that in 2012, and were subject to watching the horrible NBC primetime coverage (two hours of equestrian???).
- Sports (mainly football): I miss being able to record a football game and then fast forward through all the commercials. With antenna, we rarely get to watch my team (Iowa Hawkeyes).
- Anything after 9:00 pm: I am an early bird and usually wiped out by 9:00 pm. Lame, I know, but I get up at 5:00 am six days a week.
- Commercials: Most of the time when we're watching TV, we're also on our laptops doing blog work. But sometimes we just want watch a show and fast forward through commercials. Other times, it's kind of fun to watch and enjoy the marketing genius that goes into the creation of advertising.
I usually whine about these things for about 10 seconds and then move on to something else. But, for those times when we are looking for some entertainment on TV, we use the following:
How We Watch TV
- Netflix: We have an Apple TV that we use to stream shows, movies and documentaries. Currently, we watch 12 minutes of Curious George each night with Rooney as part of her bedtime routine.
- Redbox: When we are looking for a current movie, we go to Redbox and often get them for free.
- Internet: When we miss Parenthood or Modern Family or other shows on major networks, we hook up my laptop to our TV to watch. (Blog work does NOT get done during these shows. They're our favorite!)
- Antenna: We used to have an indoor Terk antenna, but it just wasn't performing very well. We could get a few local channels in great, but ABC wasn't coming in and we would have to move the antenna around and stand on our heads to get it to work. So, recently when YesComUSA asked us to review a product, I thought an outdoor antenna would be a perfect item. We often just turn on our TV in the evenings for some background noise and casual watching while we blog, but it's super nice to have an antenna that doesn't need to be moved to a different spot in our house to get a clear signal when we change the channel. It's an outdoor antenna that's actually indoor right now until I can figure out how to mount it to our house and run the cable inside...
Do you have cable? If you do, do you think you could live without it?
P.S. We've saved $1,809.08 in 28 months by canceling cable and DVR service!