Probably the first half of our marriage, the TV was a constant battle. I understand that I’m the weird one but I do not like TV . . for any purpose. I get that Vince loves college football and having a way to watch college football is important.
Growing up, we never turned the TV on. Sometimes on Friday or Saturday there was a show we would watch and my parents watched the local news at 6 p.m. There was no cable or Dish Network back then. I just never developed an interest in TV and if you really want to torture me . . take me to the movie theater.
When we first got married, there was a TV in the living room, in the bedroom and in the basement living room. After a few nights of him falling asleep with the TV on, we had a discussion about the TV in the bedroom. I remember it got a bit heated but the TV in the bedroom was removed. Then one year he bought me a little TV for the kitchen for Christmas. What? I don’t think it ever got installed.
Vince would turn the TV on in the morning for 5 minutes while waiting to go to work. It wasn’t like there was a show he wanted to watch . . it just had to be on. He would come home for lunch . . walk over, turn the TV on, sit down to eat and leave the TV on. For many years, we had full cable with extras.
Probably five years ago, we cancelled Dish Network and I don’t think it was immediate but at some point, we subscribed to DIRECTV NOW. We got a scaled down package and didn’t have a lot of channels but Vince was happy with it. It was about half of what we were paying for Dish. It streams through the internet and at first, because we had awful internet, it wasn’t very enjoyable to watch anything. Now, we have better internet and it has worked fine.
This morning I got up and Vince said “I’m canceling DIRECTV.” I looked at him . . afraid to say anything for fear he might change his mind.
We’ll still have Amazon Prime. He also cancelled Netflix. We have Hulu. He called about getting an antenna but looks like it will be about $600 for “maybe” two channels.
I can’t tell you how happy I am to see him taking the initiative on his own to cancel these things and stop watching so much TV and having it off more and more.
Cheryl Lorence says
Good for you! I couldn’t care less about tv these days. Ours is rarely on except when my husband watches the morning news and I find even that worthless for the most part. There’s just nothing worth wasting precious time watching. We have an antenna in our attic so we can get the main worthless network channels but at least we aren’t paying for that. I’m even trying to get my husband to cancel Netflix but so far he’s resisting. I’m just pretty much disgusted with everything Hollywood. If all our TVs disappeared today, I would not miss them!!!
vivoaks says
If you can live without TV, I think that’s great! Most of us are not that smart… I do like my TV, and though I don’t “watch” it a lot, it’s always on. Always…. I listen to the programs more than I watch, but my sewing machine is now set up in front of the TV and has been since the last child moved from home. I don’t like quiet, so I could be in the kitchen with the TV on in the living room. I can still hear it (mostly) so it’s going to be on even if I’m not in the room. Of course, hubby has to watch his nascar races and football games. I put up with those so he’ll put up with my sci-fi/ghost shows. We both enjoy the reality shows from Alaska (we watch several) and things on National Geographic, Discovery and Animal Planet. We almost NEVER watch the big 3…we tend to watch the off-beat cable shows. I think I tend to watch shows that are more education-oriented, while hubby likes those as well, but also wants the races and football. My biggest issue with cable is the cost! It is so stinkin’ expensive!! If I could ditch it and still watch the shows I want, it would be gone in a jiffy!!
Linda in NE says
We cancelled DirecTV this past fall. The price kept going up, and really, who needs all those channels that never get watched. Then there was the issue of signal loss any time there were any clouds, plus every time we had strong wind (in Nebraska???) the dish turned a little & signal was loss. Then I had to go out and adjust it. Hubby and electronics don’t agree at all. Now we have Hulu with live TV, Amazon Prime and Netflix on a Roku. There aren’t as many channels available on the Hulu, but still plenty with the rest. As far as price, yes it’s cheaper than satellite, but Hulu is going up $5 a month and Netflix is increasing a dollar or two as well. Amazon Prime has edged up in price over the years as well. I don’t turn the TV on very much, but the Hubby sits in front of it for hours every night. I’d rather read or look up genealogy on the computer. We have 350GB of Internet bandwidth per month and I’ve had to dial Netflix and everything else back as much as possible because with his TV viewing habits we come very close to going over each month. I expect that when our current contract is up the price will go up for that too. Seems like we really can’t win can we?
Judy Laquidara says
So far, we have unlimited internet but, like you, a cloud comes over or the wind blows wrong and we lose internet.
Nelle Coursey says
I think all these social networks have taken the place of people interacting with other people. No face to face any longer and that is sad. You can learn a lot if you just listen to other people talk. You also learn those people may not be as boring or dumb as you first thought. Or Vice Versa! LOL
cassews says
Yep as soon as our Directv contract is up – its gone ! Tired of paying more and more, same with AT&T for our cellular. Not sure who we will go with but … hopefully they will save us money in the long run !
dezertsuz says
Wow, that’s huge! When I moved here, I gave up Dish because the trees blocked access, but I was ready to do it anyway, except for having a contract. I was happy to get out of that. I had Roku, and would watch some things, but then the Roku broke and for a year, I had nothing. I didn’t really miss much. My son recently put his Roku box up here, because he uses his X-Box for access. I’ve had it on Pandora more than anything, and days go by when I forget to think about it. I like that. We get into habits, but when we break them, we find we’ve survived! I missed the Olympics the first time, but I survived without it, and I don’t think much about it now. If Vince has made that decision, he’ll find that, too, I think. And if you are desperate for something, there’s Hulu and Prime. I’m more inclined to watch CBSAccess, though. =) This is going to make you happier! I do like movies, though, especial space opera!
JEAN says
We have not had any TV for over 4 years now. It’s not easy, but we’ve gotten used to it. It was a big savings!
-Jean ?
Twyla Starr says
This has to do with entertainment in general. I want to WARN everyone I can to be aware of the musical Book of Mormon is filthy and disgusting. I pulled up a review and it said basically a comedy that won 9 Tony awards.The F word was a prominent word used as in FU God. I got nothing funny about it.
patti says
good timing. we just got a notice from directv that rates are going UP. our package increases by $6 a month keeping it j.u.s.t. (and i mean just) under $100.
Liz Miller says
You can get an outside antenna from Lowe’s for about $100 for free channels. We use that when our satellite is out. I like the quiet myself.
Judy Laquidara says
The antenna guy came out yesterday and we can’t get a signal. We’re too far from the closest channels and there are too many hills.