Cutting Cable
We finally pulled the trigger. A few days ago, I called the cable guy to discontinue our TV service.
It was an easy decision. And it was something we should have done a long time ago. My wife and I have been thinking about it for while, ever since reading this,
Why we didn’t do it earlier, I don’t know. We have been gradually decreasing our TV-watching to very minimal levels anyway. Maybe a part of me was too lazy to call the cable company. Maybe I wanted to always have the option to watch sports at home. What I do know is that it was painfully agonizing to watch the Dodgers lose the World Series.
But back to the topic. We pulled the plug on cable and it feels great.
Why Cut Cable?
By cutting cable, we hope to gain the following benefits.
Saving Money
This one is obvious. In our case, we will be saving $90 just by cutting cable.
Our cable, internet, and phone bill had been creeping up in the past three years. When we first moved into our house in 2015, we had signed up bundled package for $128. In the most recent three months, the bill was $178. Because I make automatic payments, I didn’t even notice the bill had increased!
In addition to cutting cable, we also cut our telephone land line. Since we don’t own a land phone, there’s no point to having this service.
With only internet to pay for, our bill is now $88 a month. It’s still pricey, but we have fairly fast internet and I think it’s worth it.
$90 a month is a lot of money. It equates to $1,080 of savings a year. That’s definitely nothing to scoff at. Using concepts like the “401x rule” or the money multiple, that amounts to a lot of money that could have been invested in the long run. I would need an increased nest egg of $36,090 just to comfortably support the monthly cable bill!
No thank you. Instead of wasting away watching cable TV, I would rather thrive and watch my $90 dollars a month grow into something valuable in an investment account.
Simplifying Finances
Not only does cutting cable save money, it also simplifies our finances.
It’s one less bill we have to pay for and worry about.
No Screen Time For Baby
Limiting screen time for our baby daughter was one of the main driving factors in our decision to cut cable.
Multiple studies demonstrate that screen time from TV and mobile devices impair child development. The effects occur in a dose-dependent manner. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, it is especially important to limit screen time in children less than two years of age.
Unfortunately, some parents let their babies watch quite a bit of TV. I’ve seen babies stare at the screen like zombies. Who can blame them? The flashing and overstimulating artificial colorful lights are so attention-grabbing. Of course a baby is going to look over and stare! And with TV screens jumping from one scene to the other in rapid sequence, it’s no wonder that many kids these days have a hard time maintaining their attention. That’s definitely not what we want for our baby.
Instead, my wife and I try our best to personally interact and engage her. Real life human interaction is much better for child development than anything passively watched on a screen.
Our goal is to not let our baby watch TV. That’s why we almost almost never have it on when she’s awake.
Cutting cable makes it easier for us to achieve this goal.
Fostering Better Habits
We are hoping that limiting screen time now will foster better habits that will result in less screen time for our daughter in the future.
Children are always modeling their behavior after their parents (or whoever is taking care of them). This is true as early as six months old or younger. How can we tell our daughter not to watch TV when my wife and I are doing it? We need to lead by example. “Do as I say, not as I do” is probably not the best recipe for effective parenting.
In addition to TV, we are also consciously limiting our social media and screen time on mobile devices.
By following our lead, hopefully our daughter will model our behavior, develop good habits, and not rely so much on artificial screens as a primary source of entertainment.
We are not alone in our thinking. Even the folks in Silicon Valley who create and design these devices feel the same way. Of all people, I guess they would know how addicting and hazardous screen time is for children.
Lowering Anxiety
A lot of what is shown on television (especially cable TV) is designed to play with our emotions. This is by design.
Stoking feelings of fear, anxiety, and excitement keeps us watching more TV, which generates profitable ratings. A prime example is the 24 hour news cycle on cable TV. Most of it is highly sensationalized. Some of it can even be inaccurate or fake.
The stuff they show can make people anxious and depressed. For this reason, we avoid watching the news. Cutting cable makes it easier to do.
Hopefully this leads to decreased anxiety and increased overall happiness.
Decreasing Our Exposure to Advertisements
Did you know that roughly 28% of what’s shown on TV is advertisements. Sounds like a lot, right? Believe it or not, commercials are shown on an average of 16.5 minutes for every hour of TV watched.
If you watch five hours of TV a day (like the average American) you’re essentially watching at least an hour and fifteen minutes worth of commercials telling you that your life sucks and that buying some magical product will make you happier. Ain’t nobody got time for that!
In general, my wife and I try to ignore commercials. As conscious consumers, we actively try to avoid the influence of advertisements since conspicuous consumption isn’t really our thing. However, when I do pay attention, I notice that there are a lot of fast food commercials and advertisements for pharmaceutical drugs. “Eat the baconator! The McRib is back! Take this drug to treat diabetes. Ask your doctor about the little blue pill to improve your erectile dysfunction.” Umm… No. I don’t eat that crap and I don’t need those drugs. I’ll just stick to my frugal, healthy diet thank you very much.
Now that we have cut cable TV, we don’t have to endure such ridiculous marketing ploys anymore!
Final Thoughts
It’s been a few days now since we haven’t had cable TV. It’s a very liberating feeling. We certainly don’t miss it.
Not only will it save us money, cutting cable will help my wife and I be more present for each other. It will also help us be better parents, allowing us to give our baby the time, energy, and attention that she deserves.
Are you thinking about cutting cable? Have you cut cable already? What kind of benefits have you noticed? Comment below, I’d like to hear your thoughts!
We cut cable a few years ago; first by going to a streaming service like Sling or Directv Now (only $20-$30 per month) and then by eventually getting rid of it all. The biggest benefit to us has been time. We didn’t watch a ton of TV to begin with but found that even watching 1 or 2 shows a week was taking up too much time. And now there is zero temptation to just channel surf and waste even more time.
I totally agree with you on the advertising thing. If I am at my parents or some other place watching TV I cringe at all the ads telling people to spend, spend, spend.
Sports are still tough but I can usually get a free week on a streaming service to watch certain games ( usually championships) and many of those are still on over the air channels.
Hey, Dragon Guy. Thanks for stopping by! You’re absolutely right. TV is such a time sink and I’m sure most people don’t realize how much time they spend watching TV.
We cut cable a few months ago, but we signed up for Youtube TV ($40 per month) so my husband can watch his sports. With the addition of Youtube TV, we aren’t actually saving much money at all. Although he says we are going to cancel it when the sports are over. We just got a promo from the cable company for 10 channels of our choice for $22 per month, which might be cheaper for us.
If it were up to me, I’d love to just cancel it all! We have so many small subscriptions it all adds up, and it’s hard to track.
Ohhh. YouTube TV. I have heard of that (from the advertisements on TV 😂).
I considered YouTube TV too because I thought I would miss watching sports. But I realized I mostly just watch the playoffs and championships. Still, it’s hard to give up so I don’t blame your husband 🙂.
Impressive. I don’t watch as much TV as I used to (thanks Blogging! LOL), but I still have guilty pleasures of watching Reality TV etc so probably won’t ever cut the cord on it (plus would probably have a riot by my 13 yr old daughter).
Glad it works out for you, it is a sizeable saving (in my household the TV satellite package runs around $210/mo.
Lol! You’re right! I didn’t watch as much TV because of blogging too. At least I feel better about creating content rather than mass consuming it on TV 📺 🙂
We cut cable and our landline almost a decade ago. Our kids were pre teens when we did that. It was no big deal due to the internet. (And yeah they watched TV when they were younger)
The only thing I missed initially was sports. Nowadays I almost forget when playoffs are.
Yeah! Internet has totally changed the game. With cable packages so expensive, I think more and more people are pulling the plug in favor of streaming media.
It’s tough to not let kids watch TV. But we’ll try our best to keep our kids away from screens when they are super young.
I have literally never paid a cable bill in my life. In school I was too poor and moved a lot, at least once per year. Since I was never used to having it I can’t miss it! We get all the media we can handle from the internet or Netflix (shared family account).
As kids, we never had cable too!! Il
Congrats, welcome to the club. I’m 6 years without it now and can’t even remember what life was like when I had it. The better habits part is key, you’ll find that you have so much more time.
Awesome! Yes, I am looking forward to developing better habits, especially for my children.
Great move! The baby will benefit from cutting out TV.
We still have basic cable. It’s the same price with or without it.
Our kid watches cartoons on OPB. They are pretty good shows, actually.
Someday…
🙂
Thanks for commenting, Joe! I always appreciate your thoughts as an expert SAHD 🙂.
Yes, we will let her watch cartoons when she’s older and understands the world better. Looking forward to watching them with her too!
I don’t watch it much either. I like Charles Payne on Fox because I follow his market news letter, and he has the best financial show IMHO, so about an hour a day if at all. When I brought home my kid from China she was sitting on the floor in the family room I turned it on and there was this little baby with this big TV staring down on her. I turned it off and that was that. She found plenty to do. She was way more into classical music than any other media
It make sense that she was way more into classics music. No wonder she became an accomplish pianist!
We never had cable or a land line to begin with. Never missed them. I am quite sure that many people are cutting the cord. Why subject yourself to unnecessary telemarketer phone calls when you can just have a cell phone that goes everywhere with you and has way more capabilities than a land phone? Why waste time flipping through TV channels when you can go directly to what you want to watch on YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc and there are few to no commercials? With the internet, people can have a more focused screen time. You can read about the news and watch the shows you want in your own time when it’s convenient for you. If there is a game you have to watch, it’s an excuse to go out to a sports bar (speedzone?) or hang out with a friend… it’s good to go out once in a while especially for sports related events because it’s fun, you get social interactions with friends or strangers, and you may have a sense of camaraderie
With that said, the internet brings a slew of other types of advertisements that may actually be more effective since it plays to the things you like to look at. And though there may not be channel flipping, there is definitely surfing and browsing and surfing.
So when it comes down to it, some people may just be saving money by cutting the cord. The screen time may even go up! Well not for the baby, but for the parents!
I personally have a phone that allows me to set limits on how much time I spend on it and the various apps I have. This helps me to be mindful of my screen time. You’d be surprised how many time people look at their phones everyday and how long they spend on it each time they look at it.
Ok, I just spent maybe 30 minutes typing this response so I think I’ve had enough screen time. 😛
Thank you for the comment! I need to set my phone so that it sets limits on how much time I spend on it too. I need to be mindful of my own screen time!
As much as I relate to this post, i have to admit, i have been slacking on this pretty bad lately. It’s almost like my self discipline has taken a nose dive.
I cut cable almost a couple years ago now, but i find myself watching a lot more YouTube and Netflix, amd still get a lot of those same results.
Like wasting time, anxiety, and exposure to ads that make you want to waste money…. well that part doesnt work, but you get the point. I need to try one of those No phone after X o’clock challenges. That will really test my will power.
Anyway, i do enjoy saving money by cutting cable 🙂
Yeah! Cable is so expensive! It’s definitely beneficial to not use the phone after a certain time (like 8pm) but it’s hard! I need to do better too 🙂
I’ve managed to live with a couple of streaming services for the past year. Couldn’t see myself doing anything else now.
Yeah. Streaming services are great. You get to watch whatever you want and not have to go through the hassle of channel flipping!