I just got my latest cable/internet bill. Arrrgggghhhh. Total due: $93.00, for one month. It seems my discount for broadband has expired after 6 months (like they said it would). This is the second time I’ve received the discount and the woman told me that they wouldn’t be able to lower it after the last time because I’d received a full year of internet service at $29.99. So, now, I’m paying full price for broadband, and paying $44 for basic analog cable service (with the few extra channels like Discovery, ESPN etc). This just feels like highway robbery. $93 a month feels so high and I know I’m not paying as much as many other people.
Quite honestly, it’s tempting to call them and lower the cable down to just our few local channels. I’d love to do that for the price, but I just can’t bring myself to give up the key channels that we watch: Discovery, TLC, Comedy Central, TBS etc. While we are watching some local channels, we do spend a lot of our time, or I should say, our Tivo spends most of it’s time, recording channels farther up the dial.
So, what to do, what to do? I guess, for now I’m going to suck it up and try not to pay attention to it. Maybe I should just set this one up on autopay just so I don’t have to see it. Yeah, I know. That would be kind of ignorant of me to avoid looking at my expenses. Anyway, I just had to rant a bit about it. There are so few options to get out of paying this that I guess I shouldn’t sweat it. It still doesn’t make it pleasant though.
This is a tough one! I know it’s rather cliche, but have you considered doing satellite? I just signed up for an extended package with my roommate and we’re on our first round of the intro deal. What did you have to do to get another period at the trial price?
I do the Cable Internet thing and pay $13 for cable (bottom of the barrel package) and about $44 for Internet. I get Discovery, TBS, and MSNBC. Most of the stuff we watch comes on regular TV (Grey’s, 24, DH, and Boston Legal). We use the old VCR to tape the shows so we can watch after the chillin’s are asleep. Seems to work for us…
I’m with trip… my most basic cable package is $16/mo plus $45 or so for internet. I don’t really miss the channels I don’t have. I’ve gotten used to it, and when I do watch TV, I find something.
We rarely watch the big networks…I am totally feeling your pain here. Got our bill today and what had been a (temporary) $13.95/mo for shotime somehow has morphed into $19.95 for “digital vision” bet ween bills. Um….WTH?
Lucky you. Another cable price increase and we’re up to about $100 month for TV/internet. And that isn’t even “digital cable” or any premium channels. I’d think about switching, but we have no competition here. There is DSL, but then I’d have to pay extra for a phone line (we ditched our land line) and I’m not confident the speed would compare. I’m really hoping the FCC will eventually force cable companies to offer the a la carte channels and it will lower the cost.
I agree, total ripoff. I have cable, broadband, and VOIP with Cablevision and right now it is something like $110, but that is only going to last a year. God only knows what I will be charged after that. I looked into Satellite, but the price is roughly the same, probably not even worth the hassle of changing.
I don’t love the idea of a la carte cable either, because sometimes my TiVo catches something I like on a channel that I would probably not get if I didn’t have to. I just wish that cable were cheaper or at the very least they didn’t up the rates so often, it is getting ridiculous.
I never thought I could live without cable, then I moved and never got around to hooking up cable.
I bought rabbit ears and I get CBS, ABC, NBC, WB, UPN, FOX, PBS and some spanish channels.
I thought I’d miss HBO, Comedy Central and Adult Swim on Cartoon Network but I don’t.
I watch Lost, O.C., Office, Las Vegas and Arrested Development before it was cut. That’s more than enough time spent on TV per week. My wife also watches The Housewives, American Idol and 7th heaven. I also get all college football and college hoops games that I care about.
The only thing now is that I won’t be able to watch Monda Night Football because it’son ESPN, but I will just go over to a friend’s house and watch it there.
Also my kids watch PBS shows during the day like Bob the builder, Barnie etc on PBS.
Now when I travel and watch TV in the hotel I realize how little there is on cable TV.
I saved 50 bucks a month for the last 3 years which is cool 2000 bucks in my pocket.
Another thing is, have you checked your local library for DVDs? I was shocked to see they have the latest DVDs and they’re free :-)
Good points REB. My wife actually rents a movie from the library once in awhile while she’s there with out daughter for story times and activities (all free). She was late taking one back once and incurred a $.20 overdue charge. It didn’t exactly break the bank!
Hazzard
Great blog! For some reason you are blocked by the firewall at my office, but most other PF bloggers are not. I can’t obviously figure out why though.
I’m with REB. Ditch your cable completely. I don’t own a TV. I used to do Netflix, but I’m so busy that I don’t even watch DVD’s on my computer anymore. I find other things to occupy my time that cost me a lot less than cable TV. I advocate tossing away your TV completely. Excuse me, selling it on eBay for some return on your sunken cost.
Having broadband is great. I do spend a lot of time in front of the computer blogging and what not. I get broadband through my telephone company. I even got $3.95 credit for it this month for no apparent reason. If you live close to a Central Office, you can get pretty good speeds too. Cable modem is still generally faster for downloading because it’s ADSL, but I don’t really have a perceptual difference for most page loads with pictures, nor does my signal degrade when the entire neighborhood is using their cable TV. Think of the old ‘web hog’ ads by PacBell in the late ’90’s, your digital cable provider probably has a signal shared out to your whole neighborhood which degrades with each user ‘stealing’ bandwidth because you’re all sharing.
Really, you don’t need cable TV. $45 or less for telecom based broadband access and a $20 3-at-a-time Netflix subscription and you’re already beating your cable bill. TiVO? Now that’s just mighty excess. Don’t even get me started on a service that records more TV than you could possibly watch on your free time during any given workweek. Burn it all to DVR’s and cancel it too.
all these telecom bills-cellphone, high-speed internet, and cable tv, probably costs a person $1-1.5k a year in addition to all the other costs. Problem is everyone thinks they need it but 20 yrs ago everyone was fine without it.
I’d also echo REB sentiments. We haven’t had cable in years and haven’t missed it at all. We get two PBS channels and they’re usually enough to keep us entertained. And as librarian, I’d like to thank REB for advocating renting from your local library. You may not have to wait too long for your system to catch up with the latest technology, either. According to an article in the Rocky Mountain News, Denver PL is going to offer downloadable movies in starting in March. Pretty sweet.
My cable (well, DirecTV) plus DSL plus land line phone service comes out to $99 per month with all the taxes. $93 for just cable and internet is high, IMO.
When we first moved in we didn’t have cable for months, and I didn’t get DSL for about a year and a half (for a total of two years without internet! It was brutal after four years with a T1, but I adusted quickly.)
Be on the lookout for IPTV in your area. It is a concept similar to VOIP phone service, and will allow TV to be delivered through your internet provider. I would assume, similar to VOIP, the service will cost less than traditional Cable/Satellite.
i always get donwloadable movies from emule and some forum sites have direct links too.:;