first off i am a tv addict!! yes i said it. I like all types of shows. some though i could live with out.

this is what i am thinking...Right now we have direct tv choice which is 49.99 per month plus 5 for another receiver and another 5 for tivo.

If we went to our local cable service we could get just the basic local channels (wihtout using bunny ears) plus tbs, and tnt for only 14.95 per month I would miss food network, tv land, bravo tlc and hallmark channel

We could go with dish network and get the 100 something which cost i think 32.99 plus 6 for local channels.

What to do?

We have the basic local channels, plus a few cable ones they throw into their "basic" package, plus we rent a digital box to get some of the local "digital" channels they have started offering in out area, all together it's about $17/month. We just got used to it and are happy to have reception at all, without cable or satellite we have no channels. (we've found that one of the perks of renting a digital box is we get the "on demand" feature without actually paying for a digital package) We save a lot of money by not having a larger package like we used to, the simple digital and satellite packages around here start at about $40.

Like liamsmom, we kept the digital box but went to basic cable. Sometimes I miss the Bravo but I don't think it was worth the extra money. I actually watch the Comcast On Demand free movies now and didn't before.

The channels aren't better. I still feel like watching is a waste of my time. Hubby won't drop tv altogether, but we may when we move into the new house. Internet will be dsl and a dish isn't high on our list of things we will need.

I don't think going to dish network is saving enough to go to the trouble.

If you want to wean yourself off of tv so that some future change isn't so painful, you could change your habits and live without tivo and a second tv. Sometimes when you limit something, it becomes more enjoyable in the little time you give it.

Cathleen

this is one of the things that just got cut from our budget. We decided to reduce to basic cable which is around $14 a month. It took about 2 weeks for them to turn it off.

That night my hubby was flipping through all the channels and he comes in and says "I've got good news- you still have the Food Network"- for some reason it still includes some of the higher channels.

alas- I will still miss TLC

but there are more important things than tv

jenetta

My dh and I talked about this. We decided cable and internet will be the last to go. Well, besides basic necessities. We have on tier with Noggin for the boys, but if we had to, we could drop that. We could drop cable, as far as I'm concerned, but I would miss a few things.

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Wendy~Self-proclaimed hippie momma to Bob and Jamie

We dropped down to basic cable 2 years ago and don't miss all those channels at all! My Dh thought he would just die at first, but he survived. We also went from 4 tv's to just one big one in the family room. The kids were much smaller and no gripes from them. We just have to put their movies on early so we can watch ours when they sleep. It does save us on monthly bills!

To be able to accelerate our debt snowball, we dropped down to basic cable ($12 a month) last year. Since there were very few channels left, I found I didn't watch TV more than a few hours a week so we made the decision a few months back to drop the cable altogether. Years ago we had purchased bunny ears and I thought we still had them stored somewhere, but they haven't turned up. So we don't even get local channels and I just get my local (and national) news online. My Chinese husband installed a big satellite dish in the backyard to pick up 'free air' channels so that he could get Chinese language TV. We have plenty of Arabic, Chinese, Korean and other channels to choose from, LOL. Most of the English free air channels we've stumbled across are religious but not necessarily in line with my personal beliefs and I don't watch them. I do however occasionally watch the English news or other shows on Russia Today! There are probably other decent 'free air' English channels, but I haven't bothered to hunt them out.

Now mind you I used to be a TV addict. Worse, my young daughter watched way too much TV before she started first grade this year (I work at home and needed to keep her out of my hair and so I used to let her watch a couple of hours of cartoons each morning which is NOT really good for a four/five year old IMHO). She is now much more creative about entertaining herself by reading, doing crafts, playing with K'nex and dolls, etc. So although I sometimes miss not being able to relax in front of the boob tube at night, or being sucked into the latest news drama du jour on CNN or Fox, I'm not sorry that we got rid of it. That's not to say we won't get it again at some point, but not until we are 100% debt free including the mortgage.

My husband and I are HUGE tv people. I finally got him to agree to get rid of all but the "basics." I am SO happy that we did. I am watching less tv and we spend more time together once the kids go to bed. I watch my cheesy Mtv shows online and if he has sports to watch we go to his mom's house up the street. If I were you I would go down to the basics for a month and see if you can live without all the extras..if you can't try to get a good deal and get the cable back.

We turned off our cable for good on Jan. 1st and I could not be happier about it! We get DVD's from the library and it is an "event" that we sit down and watch a movie and then turn it off ( because we get NOTHING)I feel this has made a big difference in out household..more time to play outside, read, clean (!), In my opinion, tv watching steals so many hours from your life......

We don't have cable and can live without it. We watch movies and spend time togethor. We are on the internet maybe a little too much. I am on it for increments at a time.

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I love hunting deals

Mom to Kellan 12-16-2000
Brooklyn 12-27-2005
Nolan 10-15-2007
Wife to Russell 10-14-2005