I’ve been thinking more and more about ending my monthly Direct TV subscription. These days I find myself watching less and less TV. On most days I only watch twice a day. After work I like to decompress with an old episode of Seinfeld and before I head to bed I usually watch Family Guy or American Dad. I also watch Lost once a week and the Hills, (yes I know I’m not 16), every so often.
The only exception to this rule occurs from November to March when I watch Maryland’s away games on TV. (Go Terps!) Oh yeah, and I always try to watch most of the ACC and NCAA tournaments, but almost all of these programs are on local channels. Besides the occasional need for ESPN or the Discovery Channel I really have no need for satellite or cable.
Right now my Direct TV bill is just over $80. $80 isn’t a ton of money, but it seems like an awful lot when you consider that I’m only watching two new episodes each week. I figured I could probably purchase the old episodes of Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, etc. on DVD at relatively cheap prices from eBay. It also looks like I can watch my occasional episode of the Hills right from MTV.com.
So do I really need to keep Direct TV? If you’ve given up TV or thought about giving up TV but decided you can’t live without it, please leave me a comment.
Cricket
Monday 21st of April 2008
I gave up cable TV about 6 months ago. It went pretty well until just recently. I am really missing my Discovery, History, Travel Channel....I used to nap to National Geographic channel programs, and I had DVR'd all my favorite programs on Comedy Network. I'm REALLY starting to miss it something terrible, so I'm going to try to fit Digital Expanded Cable in my budget again. I also really miss my digital music (no commercials). I feel good about giving it up but now that I've watched my entire DVD collection about 20 times I'm ready to get cable again. I guess "try it" and if, after 6 months you really really miss it, you can always go back!
Elizabeth
Wednesday 16th of April 2008
I tried to give up TV because I never watch it, but apparently my cable bill is $10 less because it's bundled. Meaning that if I cancel TV (I just have basic cable anyway and it's 8.60 or so), my internet goes up by $10. Sheesh .. therefore the TV sits unused, and has for months.
Fabulously Broke
Sunday 13th of April 2008
I JUST blogged about the True cost of owning a TV!!
I am so happy I gave it up completely, I don't even miss it and I watch everything I need online
Tom
Thursday 10th of April 2008
Don't forget, you can watch just about any popular TV show online. ABC.com has all the Lost seasons streaming in HD. The quality is great and it is free if you have a broadband internet connection. Checkout all the different networks' websites to see what shows are online. You may have to watch a show a day after it airs, but it's worth it, IMO.
One Frugal Girl
Thursday 10th of April 2008
Wow! Thank you all for your comments. I'm happy to read that so many of you have given up or cut back on cable and satellite TV.
In case we're not ready to cut the cord entirely it looks like we can reduce our monthly bill from $79.99 a month to $29.99 by downgrading to the family package. That is a great suggestion that will allow us to take baby steps toward the end goal.
Of course, after reading finally frugal's comment I realized that cutting out satellite means cutting out the Colbert Report. A show my husband and I watch on occasion.
So I thought about s.abott's suggestion and looked into purchasing those programs from itunes. It looks like the episodes are a day or two behind, but that will probably do just fine. For $1.99 an episode we could watch 20 episodes a month, (which is more than we'd ever watch), and still pay far less than we do for satellite.
My husband's going to do a little research into the Apple TV and in the mean time we're going to start renting some of my favorite shows on Netflix.
In a month or two I hope to report that we've cut out satellite entirely!