Cutting The Cord

We've been contemplating getting rid of cable for a while now.  Our biggest fear was losing our dvr box, which we have become so addicted too.  We never watch anything in "real" time & are spoiled to the record, rewind, fast forward & pause options. However, once I added up how much money we were wasting on a perk we didn't use very often, we knew what we needed to do.  It's amazing how many services we pay for because we are told we need them.  Guess what...we don't really need them.

We rarely have our tv on.  We learned a long time ago, the vibe is much better in the house if we turn the tv off & turn the music on.  It never fails, if the kids are getting irritable & whiney, we turn the tv off and all chaos goes away.  I believe it's too stimulating for them & makes them irritable.  Honestly, it makes me irritable.  Also, I cannot stand all the commercials telling us to buy stuff & telling our kids "look what you don't have...tell Mommy to go buy it".  I especially hate the car commercials lately, that are showing the "cool" parents in the new car & the "nerdy" parents in the old car.  Seriously, what is happening to our society?  We're living in a time when car manufacturers are mocking parents and marketing to kids.

So we took the plunge and got rid of our cable & dvr boxes.  We were on a money saving roll & decided to get rid of our home phone too.  We are now saving $120 a month.  With the rising cost of EVERYTHING, that $120 will be much better spent in other areas. There is an initial investment of buying an antenna.  We bought a really good antenna and installed it in our attic.  The picture is great & I was surprised at how many free channels are available.  We also bought an hdmi cord to run from the computer to the tv so that I can watch my sitcoms on the tv.

We are now using Netflix for $10 a month.  It is great!  There are tons of instant streaming options and we always have a dvd to watch.  I was sick & tired of On Demand charging $5 for a movie & Redbox never had anything good available.  So we are loving everything about Netflix. 

The kids are happy about the cartoon & movie options {commercial free & on our own schedule}.  Allen & I are happy about saving money & still being able to watch our tv shows.  We have also been getting better sleep because we go to bed earlier!  We used to stay up trying to watch everything we recorded, but now we just turn off the tv and go to sleep. 

Once again, simplifying has made our life better.  With every day that goes by, I'm more and more convinced that taking it "old school" is the life for me.