I did the unthinkable yesterday; I cancelled my cable.

Yesterday was the day that I actually took the plunge but I’ve been thinking about it for months.  I even prepped my husband a while back for this event.  I wanted him to get used to the idea slowly and not hate me for it.

When I think of what made me do it, a number of reasons come to mind:

I Felt Duped

When I first signed up for my cable and internet package, I was told it would cost $79 per month, yet each month I continued to pay upwards of $115.  No big deal, right?  I don’t know too many people who sit there and comb through their bills but lately, I have and it’s amazing all the little charges that add up that you don’t even know you’re paying for.  When I called to ask about these mystery charges, they brushed it off as “taxes” and “surcharges” so I left it at that but after continuing to pay a lot more than I was originally told, I got fed up.

We Don’t Watch TV

My husband and I don’t watch much TV to begin with.  We leave for work early in the morning and return after 7:30 pm on weekdays.  At that time its dinner, a quick story or play time with the girls and then bedtime.  The only TV we were watching was the nightly news, if we were even still awake at that time.  Then again, I’ve made a conscious decision to not watch or read hard news before I go to bed. Sure, on the weekends we lounge around with the TV on but if I had to watch my husband get caught up in one more Rocky marathon I was going to lose it.  Besides, when we do sit down to watch TV we’re more likely to watch Netflix.  Currently, we’re binging on House of Cards!

I Can Monitor My Children’s Content

I’m not a big fan of the shows that are on TV that are supposedly for children.  In my home, we don’t use the words “hate” and “kill”, words that my daughter was often caught repeating after watching these programs.  I also don’t find there to be too many positive role models for young girls on TV.  The only show that we actually watched, and I quite enjoyed watching with Olivia, was Full House which was one of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid, so that was special.

I Want To Save More Money

After cancelling the cable and just keeping my internet, I’ll be paying $50 a month.  No more mystery charges and no more being confused each time I go to pay my bill.  Anyone that’s tried to cancel their cable knows how hard they try to keep you as a customer (it just so happened that there was a promotion I could take advantage of) but I just wanted to be done with it.  I’ll be saving around $60 that could be put to better use.

To Spend Quality Time With My Family

This is not the first time we’ve cut cable. After Olivia was born, we didn’t have cable for almost a year (one of the cutbacks we made so that I could stay home with her as long as possible).  To be honest, we never even missed it.  We watched movies, listened to music, had real conversations, cooked, took walks together and just enjoyed each other’s company.  It’s amazing how we can get so caught up with the TV and its “programming”.  I’d much rather enjoy my family’s company than watch TV.

Have you ever gone without cable?  How did you make use of your time instead?