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December 9, 2011

Cutting the Cable

So I mentioned in my last post that we cut the cable.  It's true.  We had a bundle of TV/phone/and internet.  I switched the phone to Vonage's most basic plan since we mostly use or cells anyway.  Then I took back the HD cable DVR box.

It's not like we don't watch anything.  I got a new Blu-Ray player that streams so I have Netflix streaming and Amazon Prime videos plus whatever I feel like renting from Amazon (my daughter and I watched the Muppet Christmas Carol on there for a couple bucks last weekend).

I also still get Netflix discs in the mail.  I upped our account to three-at-a-time.  I know a whole gob of folks got their panties in a twist about their price hikes and such, but I still love them.  I didn't sign up with them in the first place for the streaming and when it came for free it was nice, but not that robust.  Of course they would up the price so they could get more content.  What they probably should have done is split the companies before the price hike, then it would have made more sense to people. (But that whole "Quickster" thing was plum dumb.  Just keep "Netflix" and call the other one "Netflix Instant" or something.  Sheesh.)  I don't know what's going to happen to them now that the mail service will be slowing down.  Guess they'll definitely be pushing more for the streaming side.  Which seems to be constantly improving, by the way.  We definitely like their new "Just for Kids" area.  And no commercials!

Whatever.  We did it mostly for cost reasons but it's had the added benefit of us cutting back on television watching.  We have to actively decide to sit down an pick a show.  No more just "seeing what's on." I've also been playing more Wii with my daughter.  (She beats the snot out of me most of the time.)

And more time for reading! Many nights if we've sent discs back and there's nothing in mind to watch that night we'll just read out loud longer before the tuck-in and MLB and I will just knock off early to read.

Still pay for the cable internet, though.  Gotta have that, especially now that we're all carrying around more wi-fi devices all the time!