Update on the Cable-Free Household

As Karla wrote earlier this year, we canceled our basic cable service because we found we weren’t watching it. We discovered early in our marriage that we both have a strong—almost irrational—dislike for any kind of wasted money. We established our trash service with Austin City this month, and Karla noticed we could save $4 a month by trading down from our cavern-sized trash bin to smaller receptacle. It took her 15 minutes on hold and some patience explaining to the city folks why we wanted to do this when the larger bin was “such a good deal”, but she persevered, and we’re $4/month the better. That’s my girl. Hence, you can imagine how we felt when we realized that canceling our seldom-used cable could save us over $40/month.

We’ve had a DVR of some flavor for many years, so neither of us has indulged in the channel-hopping ritual in a long time. (When we were in corporate housing, sans TiVo, last summer, I thought I’d turn on the TV, old-school style, “just to see what’s on”, but I quickly fled from the incessant commercials.) So our viewing schedule each year followed the same pattern:

1) Start out recording and watching 6-7 interesting shows as the fall season gets underway

2) Continue watching the 2-3 of them that make it through cancellation after the first three weeks (I seem to have a real knack for liking shows that end up on the chopping block; I guess I’m just out of step)

3) Gradually turn away in dismay as the plot lines for 1-2 of those promising shows devolve into determining which of the lead characters will be shacking up with each other

4) Continue faithfully watching that approximately 1 show per season (e.g., Lost, 24) that is truly exceptional and well worth our time.

Once we realized we were paying $40/month for, at most, four episodes of really good TV per month, it was a no brainer. (It was sad to lose Jeopardy!, but I can’t imagine ever paying anything just for the conceit of correctly answering every geography question in a round, or mocking Alex for chiding the contestants for their lack of trivial depth (“yes, I’m quite surprised that none of you gave the correct response today; everyone knows that Tanzania’s top export in 1987 was cashew nuts.”)

All of this to say that we really haven’t missed cable TV very much. We make very good use of our Netflix account to catch up on past seasons; at least in this fashion I never waste time investing in a show that will be canceled after only 3 episodes, since they need a full season to make the DVD set. We also enjoy films, of course, since we’re unwilling to subject our 1 year-old to the overpowered “THX” monstrosity sound systems in movie theaters. (I could write another blog entry on the damage being done to little hearing systems, to say nothing of the lack of consideration to other theatergoers, but I won’t.) We also enjoy documentaries. For me this is kind of an extension on my fixation with history and biography books, since so many of the documentaries are about historical figures.

In fact, the only real disadvantage to this extended time-shifting of TV and movies is the occasional media blurb that may spoil something for those of us that have to wait for the product to arrive on DVD, many months after its premiere. This results in the type of exchange I had with Karla yesterday, while both of us were sitting at our computers:

K: “Oh no!”

D: “What?”

K: “Yahoo has this thing about Lost! It says—”

D: “I don’t want to know!”

K: “There’s a picture of—”

D: “I’m not listening” [covers ears, shouting] “I can’t hear you! I can’t hear you!”

K: “I’m not going to tell you—”

D: “I can’t hear you!”

[Baby wakes up from all the commotion]

As you can see, we make our own entertainment. Who needs the cable company?