Since I quit my job and realized that my life will be mostly spent at home with a baby in 8 weeks, I started feeling like maybe, just maybe, I was actually starting to miss having real TV. See, we canceled cable about one and a half years ago because we were sick of paying Verizon $300 a month for TV with crap repeat shows and insane cell phone bills. So we got $20 cell phone plans and an antenna to get the main news channels for free, but we also have a Roku with subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, all of which are still way cheaper than what we were paying for with cable. And we use Brian's mom's log in for HBO Go so we're pretty much set with movies and entertainment.
But it was just recently where I was like, you know, I really sorta kinda miss HGTV, TBS, ABC Family, and fun familiar shows that play on channels like those. But what I missed the most, and this is such a first world problem I could slap my own face for sounding so spoiled, but I seriously HATE having to flip through hundreds of shows and movies on these apps and take an upwards of 30 minutes to find something agreeable to put on in the background when all I want to do is crochet or clean the house. The decision to find something to put on stressed me out unnecessarily. How silly is that?! Decision making isn't a strong suit of mine anyway. So I just mainly missed having TV so I don't have to make a choice lol.
Anyway, fast forward to last weekend, Brian and I decided to sign up for a free trial of Sling TV, which is another app for Roku, but it streams live TV and with all those channels I missed! I was so happy. This would totally solve my pathetic first world problem. It's $20 a month and you get 20 channels. And the first week was free to try it out, so we signed up. Well, it's only been a few days into our free trial and I'm already sick of it. It made me realize just why we got rid of cable in the first place: the majority of shows are old repeats, they are played back to back like 4 in a row which is boring to me (I'm all for binge-watching, but not on just any show), the commercials are long, and I just don't care to watch a million old episodes of House Hunters or New Girl.
There is a promo going on where you can get a free Roku stick after 3 months of using Sling. And Brian really wants to get that for our upstairs bedroom. But once that's over we're cancelling. And I won't miss it.
Anyway, I hope I didn't come off as elitist or anything, because that wasn't my intention. I'm just glad that I realized I don't miss TV as much as I thought I did and we don't have to go back to paying out of our butts for mediocre entertainment because of it.
Wow! I thought $150/mo that we were paying was insane -- $300 is downright thievery! The cable and satellite providers are horrible. We just got rid of cable when we moved to our new house a week ago. We got cable internet, but no TV. I did get an antenna for local stations. (This sounds silly, but I was really worried about being able to see the Macy's parade and football games on Thanksgiving -- because, tradition -- ya know?) We have an Apple TV with Netflix, Amazon, and Showtime (I'm binging on Master of Sex right now). So far I haven't missed cable, but I also have been so busy unpacking and such that I haven't watched much TV in GENERAL. I think I'm going to miss HGTV and the Food Network a little bit ... but honestly, any time I'd turn on those channels it was like potato chips for the brain: just feeding myself mindless crap because I was bored. I'd much rather be productive and I'm hoping that not having the option to sit in front of the TV like that will discourage lazy TV watching. We shall see... :)
ReplyDeleteI'm with you completely. I haven't had cable for a bit more than ten years now, and I really don't miss it. When we go on vacation or something, I'm always excited at first about being able to watch cable things, but boy does the novelty where off quickly. Commercials are the WORST. I can easily say I'd never go back to cable!
ReplyDeleteTotally. I thought I'd miss it too but now when we go back to our parents' houses and watch their satellite channels we definitely know we made the right choice.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! I haven't had cable in years, just Netflix, a DVD player, and more recently Amazon Prime. I never really run out of things to watch, either.
ReplyDeleteI think that endlessly scrolling through movies and shows on Netflix is the streaming equivalent of flipping through channels. ;)
For me, Sling's sole value is access to sports. I would never use to watch standard TV shows.
ReplyDeleteI stream all content from Hulu ad free, Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube, among others. I don't use free apps that load up on ads because part of the reason I cut the cable was my annoyance at being bombarded by advertising. So I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee for my viewing content, as long as the content good and ad free -- something cable can no longer provide.
Oh yes... Since cutting the cord, I save $95 a month, and actually have far more to watch.
ReplyDeleteYes, there certainly is much more to watch!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I'm waiting for a device that will let you upload your dvds so you can watch them on demand and not have to get up to put it in the player lol. i'm so lazy.
ReplyDeleteyes, it's very reassuring.
ReplyDeletei HATE commercials. especially when it's around election time and all they ever play over and over again are the same 2 commercials. i have to mute the tv it's insanely irritating to me lol
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