Cutting the Cord

This weekend will be one year since we cut the cable cord. Let me tell you, life go's on without it. When the decision was made, it was actually a very easy one. There was way too much money going out of our pockets for something that kept us in the house too often and didn't change whether or not we were a functioning person. To be quite honest, it felt really liberating. I was unusually excited the day that the cable was turned off.

Sorry Jim, we won't be needing you anymore!

When my husband called to cancel, the company almost lost their mind. They tried every trick in the book to keep us. Offering free superior channels, 6 months of lower payments, an extra DVR. The things they do to keep us are always going to end up costing us more money. We wanted to quit to stop paying out the ears for programming we didn't even watch! Now when I sit down to watch something, it is actually something I have been wanting to watch. If I am just bored I will scroll and scroll and eventually give up and do something else. When talking to others about our decision, I was surprised to find that we were not the only ones going this route either.

To keep us entertained we looked into what other options we had, which to our surprise there was a wealth of them. We have always had a Netflix streaming subscription, then we decided to go ahead and also use Hulu Plus. Added up they only cost $15 a month! A far cry from what we were paying on a monthly basis, and it was only going up from there. Now, we get to choose what we watch and when we watch it, nothing wasted on our ends. We also purchased a Roku box to get even more internet channel options, you can find the same one we have here. In our living room we use our Wii and in our room we use our Roku. As for local news we found an old school antenna at Target for only $25. When there is a storm in the area our connection never goes out anymore, which makes me feel safer living in tornado alley.

Every now and then I get a little curious to see what it would cost to go back to cable, the prices alone are enough to scare me off again. Since having a baby that money is now used for things she might need. I could buy a whole stash of new cloth diapers for the price of two months of cable, I'd rather have the new cloth on Caroline. So if your family is trying to make the decision, just jump in and do it! Cut that cord! You'll be okay without 200 channels, I promise. There will be days of wanting to come back, but finally you will forget that you even have that option. One year later, we are one happy family. If you have any questions on our survival methods or how to fight off the companies drop a line in the comment box. -Alisha

UPDATE:

We have now been Cable free for over FIVE years. One of the best decisions ever. And the rest of our family is also cable free too. Instead as a group we all have subscription services on our ROKU's that we share. So we pay for Netflix, someone else pays for Hulu, and then another pays for Sling or something similar. We give each other login info and watch TV that we love, in harmony. If two of the family members are already using the subscription services, we just use the other ones until they are done. We rarely run into any problems. As well we have upgraded to a Roku stick, I will put a link here to check that out.

The newest addition to our Roku family.

 We still have our red Roku, that is now in the master bedroom and our Roku Stick is in the living room. It still is a choice we never regretted and was so much easier than we thought it would be. If you are on the edge, just jump in with two feet. Use the money instead for a fun family day together or pay off some debt. It will be a decision you won't regret.