Thursday, July 19, 2012

Dis(h)missed

Let me start by saying, I'm writing this post with a heavy heart.  You see, in our never-ending quest to worry less about money and enjoy life more, Mrs. K and I decided to cancel our satellite dish service.  I'm not going to lie, it was a difficult decision.  Satellite/cable service has been a part of our lives for the past 15 or so years.  I have to believe it's kind of like sending your kid off to college, you start saving money and only see them on the weekends(when we go to a friend or relative's house).

What spurred us to make such a crazy decision?  While we were looking over monthly expenses we saw that our satellite service was the third highest bill after our mortgage and groceries.  Back when we signed up for our last two-year contract it was only around $40 per month but now it was over $90.  Which may not seem like much, but that's more than $3 every day and over an entire year we're talking $1,100.  That savings is the equivalent of over a 2% raise for people making the median household income of $51,914.  And I like raises.  I like raises I don't have to work for even more.

We're still only a couple months into the no dish zone, but so far so (mostly) good.  Netflix has been great for streaming movies or TV shows using our Wii and it's less than one-tenth the price of satellite service.  Most of our TV watching is done using that now. We put up an over-the-air antenna in the garage attic space so we can watch local channels.  At times there can be frustrations since we live a little farther than the signal wants to reach.  But I can deal with missing a live show if the weather is bad.  Especially since most shows are available for streaming online.

At this point, I'd say we're happy not having our satellite service.  We're saving money, spending less time in front of the TV (although not much with Netflix filling in) and getting more accomplished around the house.  Turns out we have neighbors, who knew.

However, every week we now get a letter from our former satellite service company offering us more and more to come back.  So if you have service and aren't under a two-year contract, it might be worth canceling to see what they would give you.  The last offer I got was for a $200 debit card, free NFL Sunday Ticket and free movie channels for a year, plus a year of 50% off programming.  Tempting, very tempting.  If that offer is still around come preseason football, they may have me.  But I'll try to stay strong.

What's your satellite/cable/tv situation?  Have you tried or thought about canceling your service to save money or spend less time watching TV?


2 comments:

  1. Wow. That really makes me think. Maybe I could handle it not having a dish. Especially when the prices do keep going up and the channels keep going down. Talking points ...

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    1. It was definitely an adjustment after having one for so many years. But we've saved over $300 so far and are getting a lot more done as well.

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