Why we cut the cord...

If you are thinking about getting rid of cable this post is for you!

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After finding out we were having twins, it was pretty much a given that I would be quitting my job and staying home. We had always planned for me to stay home when we had a second kid, but we had no idea it would be happening simultaneously with the first. So, upon learning about the twins, my husband and I started looking for a way to make our lives work on one income. When we pulled up our budget we were looking for ways to cut extraneous costs and unnecessary expenses. I immediately suggested we get rid of cable.

Let me back track for a second, for those of you who don't know, I am practically addicted to network TV. Cutting cable was not something I suggested lightly, but I had grown very weary of my addiction. I felt like TV was becoming such a time suck - I would regularly prioritize my TV viewing schedule over pretty much about everything else. I honestly felt obligated to catch up on my shows whenever I got the chance. I would be late to things because I was just catching up on my shows and lost track of time. I fully recognize that this is ridiculous, that I am an adult and could very easily say no to TV, but at the same time... I'm almost positive I was by definition addicted to television. The TV literally controlled my time.  If television addicts anonymous existed I could be the president.

SO that brings me to my suggestion of "Let's get rid of cable". Surprisingly my budget savvy husband was not on board at first. Mainly because of College Football, how on earth would we survive football season without being able to watch every game? Then after some more research we realized by using a combination of amazon prime, netflix, hulu, and google chrome cast we could practically keep our cable and ditch the bill.

At first it was very strange, no TV... what do I do with all this free time?? I went through a withdrawl of sorts and binge watched a few shows on netflix but eventually I was able to cut the cord and Overall I'm very happy with our switch.

While all those options listed above do allow us to watch TV whenever we want, they are not as convenient as flipping on the DVR and they often include commercials (ahem...hulu) or charge per new episode (ahem... amazon). All of these options require a hook up to the TV and some sort of wireless set up or connection login. Sometimes I just don't want to work that hard to watch a show, so instead of watching TV I often find myself looking for other things to do at home - laundry, read, play outside with the dogs, blog, cook etc. I have found myself being much more productive since we got rid of cable. Honestly it's a really free feeling, I see updates for some of the shows I used to watch in Facebook and I can catch up on a whole season by reading an article. 

To Summarize - A few reasons why cutting the cable is a great idea:

1. SAVE MONEY - we were paying around $150 a month for our cable & internet service and it was about to double when the "promotional period" ran out. We now spend $50 for internet and roughly $12 a month for amazon prime. Not too shabby. That's equal to at least one or two pedicures and some extra Starbucks... Priorities ;)

2. FREE YOURSELF - from the grips of TV addiction. Seriously though, it will really free up your time and you might be surprised by how much time you actually spent watching TV in the first place.  Think about all the things you could do in that time besides hang out with fictional or even worse reality characters. 

3. ENCOURAGE AN ACTIVE LIFESTYLE - If you aren't watching TV you might be more likely to go out and do something else. Or if you have a gym membership that you never use (guilty) you might be more likely to go so you can catch up on a show while running on the treadmill.

4. ENCOURAGES NEW HOBBIES - Again with all the time you aren't watching TV you can start a new hobby. For me it is reading and sewing, for you it might be ships in a bottle or robotics. Whatever it is - find something that is mentally stimulating and fulfilling. Anything is better than living through characters on television dramas (guilty).