February 4, 2013
That’s the day we will no longer have satellite or cable. We will have Netflix. The Superbowl is February 3, 2013 and that’s why we’re waiting til February 4.
It is no secret how much I dislike TV. I’m not saying it’s wrong for everyone or there’s a problem if you enjoy it. I just do not like it. For years Vince would say he liked having TV so we had TV. Recently, maybe since moving out here, he’s begun to see what a time drain it is. Typically, he would come home from work and turn on the TV. It stayed on til he went to bed. Often he was flipping through channels or falling asleep in his recliner with some hunting or fishing or pawn shop show on . . something I didn’t want to watch. No . . I did not want my own remote . . I wanted the TV off!
He is finally in agreement with having the Dish turned off and I think he’s actually looking forward to life without the TV on non-stop.
Again, please don’t think I’m putting down anyone who loves the TV but I don’t feel the need to be entertained. I’ve never felt the need to watch train wrecks that too many of these shows glamorize. I don’t care to see “reality” shows where people yell at their kids, fight with their husbands. Leave it to Beaver, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres .. those shows would be much more entertaining for me. Now that you see the types of shows I like, you see why there’s not much on today’s programming that interests me. There’s so little “sit down” time around here, when I’m just sitting, I’m knitting or reading.
We pay $75/month for the Dish plan we have. We don’t miss $75/month, nor will having the extra $75 make a big difference in our lifestyle but . . 12 months at $75 is $900/year and over a period of ten years, that’s $9,000. That’s a heck of a lot of money to me to sit and watch things that do nothing to improve our lives.
We pay about $9/month for Netflix and if I do the math, that $1,080 would buy a lot of yarn! 
Seriously, since we’ve been watching Netflix, I’ve watched more TV in the past few months than I have in many years. We’ve watched what we want to watch . . what we enjoy watching . . when we enjoy it. We started watching Hart of Dixie and loved it. We’re now watching the Friday Night Lights series and I think there are well over 100 episodes that we haven’t seen. Depending on how much time we spend outside in the evenings, we watch 1 or 2 episodes each evening. We love sitting down together, watching a show we both enjoy, not having commercials, turning the tv off when the show is over and in general . . spending quality time together without the distraction of the TV.
Almost all the college football games that Vince likes to watch can be streamed through the internet. If there are a few games he cannot get and feels he must watch, we can always go stay in a hotel and watch the game. A few nights in a hotel is still less expensive than paying for Dish for the whole year. I doubt this ever happens but it’s an option.
Many have asked how we feel about missing the local news. It’s been almost 16 years where we lived where there was a “local” channel. In Kentucky, Evansville, IN was the “local” news and they were about 50 miles from us. In Missouri, the “local” channel was Joplin, also about 50 miles away. Here, the “local” channel is Abilene, which is about 100 miles away. We get the weather forecast from the internet, get the “news” from the local newspaper online.
When the satellite is turned off, if Vince finds he can’t stand not having it, we can always get it back.
I think this is FABULOUS! I wonder how many others will be inspired by you having your dish turned off & who will then turn theirs off? It’s true that there are so many other things we could all be doing – reading, sewing, cooking, getting outdoors, playing with our kids and/or our pets. The possibilities are endless! We also have Netflix and I love it! My favorite are the documentaries.
Enjoy your TV freedom!
BLM
Judy, I agree with your take on TV. Talk about the dumvbing down of America! I spend much more time watching Netflix, Masterpiece online, and/or Amazon Instant Video than satellite. DH must have it, but we could live without it and get so much more accomplished with our time.
My DH could not live without it. The tv in the bedroom goes on when he wakes around 7:30-8 am. He watches in there for an hour or hour and a half. When he comes down for b-fast the first thing he does is turn on the tv. It is on all day whether he is watching it or not. I dislike tv, tho I once in awhile watch HGTV or The Food Channel when I am cooking. I must admit that I would not miss this years Superbowl – I am a die hard 49er fan. A TV – I could certainly live without. I do not enjoy the Ice Road Drivers, the loggers, gold miners, pawn shop etc shows he watches. I try to be nice and go in to watch with him but usually I fall asleep. I get up around 5 am and get on with my day. I am tired by 9-10 pm at night and I don’t always sleep well (he snores). What is a girl to do!
There are a few TV shows that I would miss, but I would get SO much more accomplished if I just turned the TV off. My son loves to come over and watch my big-screen TV, though. When I want the up to date breaking news I go to my computer, not the TV.
I also despise commercial tv, the programming and the commercials. If I could get all my PBS stations on my computer I would disconnect the cable. I do so enjoy Netflix and its flexibility. If you haven’t already tried them, check out the Ted Talks. Most enlightening.
We haven’t had satelite or cable in months. We can watch the local news on the internet and we have hulu. About the same price as Netflix only difference is we can watch anything on hulu that is on the satelite 24 hrs later.
Vince may find that he doesn’t get a good signal without Dish, we only have it because without it we only get 2 network channels .For the first 16 years we didn’t have Dish but we had about 6 channels with our antenna. Once Obama changed the broadcasting rules we could only get 2 and that just wasn’t enough I agree it sucks to pay for the crap that is on now.
Hubby and I finally did this about 5 months ago – and we haven’t regretted it a minute – there’s one show our 7 year old wanted to watch – but we just waited a few months and then the entire series was out on DVD -for much less than we would have paid for just ONE month of cable!!! Netflix and the public library DVD collection is plenty for me.
Gotta say I understand your point of view… just couldn’t handle not having my TV. Love PBS and news channels.. HGTV, cooking shows…. I read a lot, enjoy quilting,sewing, knitting, crochet, gardening, cooking and my.family. Still love the TV and my newspaper…
HOORAY FOR YOU!!!! I wish my husband would agree to this same ideal! I get so irritated listening to the pawn show stars bickering back and forth that I have to tell him to turn it down or off, it just rubs my nerves raw!! I hadn’t thought about the games thru the internet, and movies thru NETFLIX, Maybe I can use your ideal to sway my husband to listen. Thanks
Are you kidding……Lynn would miss the wrestling!!!! lol We have been married 43 years and it is on right now. Luckily I can tune it out and find something else to do.
I think I could go no TV and live off Netflix but my DH needs his sports. He is a TV on when he’s relaxing person. Fortunately he is mostly out & about and I enjoy the quiet
.
This has nothing to do with TV, but there is a retirement village in Florida names “The Villages”. It is betwwen Ocalla and Orlando just north of Leesburg. They have village centers with restaurants, shops, movie theaters, etc. They just added a third village center and named it BROWNWOOD!! How cool is that? You can check it out by going to their website. thevillages.com
Just thought you would get a kick out of that!!
Oh boy, I could not LIVE without my TV. It’s only me and I guess partly it’s company. I usually have 3 TV’s on so as I move from room to room, I don’t miss anything. I do sometimes watch oldies like my dad used to watch–Gunsmoke, Big Valley, Rifleman, Bonanza. Love those old shows but there are new ones I enjoy, too. I guess my fav is Amazing Race!!
Have you thought about buying a Roku? It’s a little box that uses your WIFI to stream Netflix and other internet tv. I put one in my sewing room, because I can’t run cables there. The free content on Roku isn’t very good, but I bought amazon prime and love watching movies and tv that way. Good luck pulling the plug.
I have Roku too and love it. I watch Bonnie Hunter on quilt-cam all the time. Maybe we could talk Judy into doing a quilt/can/cook/chicken cam. That would be fun. And a Vince-cam. He’s hilarious.
We do have dish, but about 90% of the time its tuned to an all music station. We get something like 70 music channels, so basically its continuous music without the ads etc. If we do watch TV its usually Discovery or a wildlife show.. Mostly just have music on though.
I find it funny you would talk about cutting TV today of all days – I just phoned and had my cable taken to the lowest level (and I only did that because it is my phone and internet as well). The only channels I think I will miss will be A&E and the timeshift channels from the east coast, but that is what the PVR is for!
We got rid of our satellite service earlier in the year and invested in a Roku to watch Netflix on the television. For the most part, we are happy with the decision with the exception of being able to watch NASCAR and PBR events. We have been talking about getting cable just to be able to watch the races but haven’t made a firm decision yet.
I like having the tv on as background noise when I am knitting or sewing, so being able to watch whatever I want on Netflix has been great for me.
Since getting highspeed Internet over 10 years ago, we haven’t turned on our TV… not once! If I want to watch a show, I watch on the Net…commercial free! I enjoy quilting and reading and blogging so I don’t miss TV one little bit!
We only have netflix, anything else we want to watch on tv we can find on the internet (youtube/hulu)
lol…we did without it for about four months and i just went with dish tv…i can tell everyone that you have to threaten to change after your contract is up and they will “give you a deal”…i tried netflix and then went to hulu, but it seems a little harder to navigate…i can live without it buy les likes the weather channel and texas country reporter….
My husband is a real sports fan. I wish we could get a package that just offered sports and I think he could survive. Most of the TV we watch today besides sports are old sit-coms and TVland. We do watch a few programs on RFD-TV, but could live without. I like to watch some of the sewing and quilting programs, but I could get that information off the internet. Oh there is the problem. Our TV, internet and phone are all bundled together. We can’t get cell service nor satellite. We can get internet via dial up, but it is slow and limited. Guess we will keep the TV.
I don’t dislike TV, but I managed pretty well with only netflix and hulu for four months last spring and summer. I hope Vince can, too (i figure you won’t miss it at all.)
Good for you! We haven’t had tv in at least 6 years….nothing good on and too much else to do. We have our netflx and that’s enough
We currently do not have a television, but we are paying for cable. It came as part of the package deal for our internet and it was cheaper to get the cable than it was to skip it. Weird cable providers. My husband is hoping to buy a television next month and then we’ll see what it’s like to have cable again. The last time we stayed at a hotel, we flipped through 70 channels and decided nothing was on. Like you, we don’t care for much of the modern television. We do have Netflix, though, and love it. We watch a lot of foreign dramas and American classics, plus the occasional old sitcom.
I really hope that when we get the television, we don’t be wasting our time with it. I like the “watch an episode on Netflix and turn it off” attitude we currently have. We’re getting the tv so that we can watch movies and hook up Netflix through our Wii (which we do miss playing since getting rid of our 20 year old tv right before we moved).
Anyways, long comment to say, “yay, Netflix! Boo modern television programs!”
I like tv. I watch tv.. We have Antenna and Me tv if you love the old stuff. I watch some. It’s a comfort w/ insomnia and when I am sewing. I justify it because I am NOT a shopper so not at Lowe’s and Wally World (except for groceries), and quilting and reading are my only hobbies. I have the library and my Kindle w/ free books for that through the library. Every man to his own poison…OH and I dn’t cook that much any more so don’e need all the aparatus/pans/jars/stuff not needed.. Hallmark Channel junkie too. Nope for me but I”m happy. Oh and TUrner Classic Movies.
While I have satellite, TV, I do not have local channels. When we got the dish, the local CBS channel would not give us a waiver to get one of the national channels (NY or LA), so I don’t have any CBS channels — but, I do have East and West Coast for the others (NBC and ABC). For awhile it was nice — if we missed something on East Coast, we set the VCR to record it West Coast – or depending on how late it was, we watched it West Coast ‘live’.
Because the Super Bowl had an agreement with CBS for a long period of time, anytime we wanted to watch “THE” sporting event of the week/month, we either went to a friend’s home, or to my Mom’s. Now, she didn’t watch the football game — and normally, we didn’t either — except to see the commercials!! Once Mom passed, we started going out to a Sports Bar to see the ‘event.’
So, if you’re up for a night in a bar (in PA, the majority of bars are “smoke free” (HOORAH!)) …. that’s an option instead of a hotel room. With drinks and food, it would probably still be cheaper than a hotel room — not that the price matters.
There’s also the camaraderie.
When my husband and I moved into our house 4 years ago, we couldn’t get a satellite connection and the cable company wanted $500 to come up a short driveway. So much for TV! The only thing I miss on TV were the National Geographic specials that we saw occasionally. We have an extensive movie collection courtesy of the $5 rack at Walmart and Target. Neither one of us are Sports fans so we don’t miss the games (we watch the superbowl at a friend’s if we are inclined to do so). And from the little bit I’ve seen, the current crop of TV shows wouldn’t entertain a rooster. My step-son thinks we are in the dark ages because we don’t have cable or satellite and enjoy books, talking to each other, watching the sunset, gardening,…..
Congratulations! I find I’m much happier not hearing any news. =) I get a little on the radio, and I can always look it up, if I want to know. Thanks for the recommendations. I’ll try them out. I lived in Odessa and my mother is buried there. You would probably like Murdoch Mysteries, and maybe Psych. I enjoyed both.
I haven’t had TV in almost a year now. The only things I miss are craft and sewing shows on PBS and football games. I’ve gone to a friends house this season to watch the games, so that hasn’t been a disappointment. I had to drop cable because of the financial drain, but don’t plan to get it again. I have Netflix on the computer, and I get the DVDs, so I can watch what I want to as well. Have been taking some evening classes at the local small business center through the community college, so I’m glad that I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. That little bit of savings have given me more fabric, hehehe. Blessed be, hugs!!!
We are thinking about doing the same thing. We have had Netflix too for a while, and I just signed up for Hulu to see if we would like it. There are a few shows I like on there too, so I guess it would be worth it. Again, my husband likes sports, so he is the one that would really miss out, but of course we could re-up. We are temporarily living in 2 houses, (Hubs job is 2.5 hours away) and the 2nd place has no tv, but we have an Xbox, so we play games and can get Netflix on that. I just record everything anyway at the main house, mostly CSIs and the like, but I have watched them for years, and they are getting tiring (and GORRY). I love watching stuff on Netflix, all the tv series that you can watch continuously, it is just the best and we cant even keep up with those. Ours, is a pacakge deal with internet, for $100 a month. I think it is on the way out…
Ours was turned off almost 19 years ago. We recently (a couple of years ago) got Netflix. Hubby still watches too much TV and the TV is still on all the time, but at least we don’t have commercials! I haven’t missed it, but he has, although he agrees that we won’t turn it back on due to the expense.