A Week Without TV

What a depressing life, eh? I kid. I kid. TV is not our life, although we have spent some serious quality time in front of the TV in the past year.

Just before we left for Michigan, the manfriend finally cancelled cable. You may remember that we had bumped up to extended cable so we could watch the Tour de France and then the Olympics. But finally, enough was enough.

We quit cold turkey! 

It's now been a week since we've been home from our midwest vacation and I thought it would be fun to check in regarding how we're fairing without TV.

The TV still sits in our living room and serves as a vehicle to watch movies (we still have Netflix, thank the lord), but otherwise, it remains off.

Instead, we've been listening to streaming radio more - the manfriend likes Dan Patrick so now we listen to the talk radio version instead of watching the show while getting ready for work.

I'll admit, while the manfriend probably initiated more of the TV watching, I love me some HGTV, Keeping up with the Kardashians, college football, Grey's Anatomy, cooking shows, etc. But I didn't think I'd get sad about not having TV.

That is until Saturday afternoon when the first Duck game was on and we couldn't freaking watch it (or any other game for that matter). In my world, Fall = Football and Brent Musburger's voice (and boots, pumpkins, skinny jeans, changing leaves, etc). But in all seriousness, I got a little depressed. It felt like we were completely out of touch with reality. 


In the end, we walked down to the neighborhood bar and watched a bit of the Michigan/Alabama game and followed the Duck game stats via smartphone. Not exactly, ideal, but hey, it's $70 cheaper per month!

We'll see how long this lasts... How much time do you spend watching TV per week? And if not, what do with your time in the evenings? I imagine there will be more book reading and project doing in our household this fall.

Comments

Tasha Malcolm said…
You can do it!!!! I have survived since June and that is huge for me.
Hulu will become your best friend :-)
Amber said…
We didn't have cable all summer but we recently got it again thanks to a smoking deal offered by Telus (we got a Free PVR AND tablet out of the deal!) I don't watch it very much but I know Eric really likes to.
Elizabeth said…
Every time I live solo I don't have cable. The hub and I had it but he transferred it when we separated. I do have Netflix for movies...but I definitely zone out less without it and this summer it would have been a waste of money anyway. I'm not a huge sports watcher though SO that might have something to do with it! :)
Raquelita said…
We do have cable because my spouse is addicted and dvrs many, many shows. Aside from football season and Mad Men, most of my time in front of the tv is watching Netflix.
Danielle said…
Did you consider just over the air TV rather than cable? You can get a converter box if you don't have digital. It's about $50-100. That's all I have. And you're more than welcome to watch Call of the Midwife or Downton Abbey with Stef and I this fall/winter :)
I do not watch very much tv... I used to watch a lot but after studying for the first level of the CFA, I really broke that habit as I didn't have time to keep up with the ridiculous number of shows I used to watch! Now I rarely watch tv live - I DVR a couple of shows (top chef, HIMYM, and Project Runway). I put the news on in the morning for background noise, and that's about it. Cable is included in my rent since the condo association pays for it and my DVR is only $7, so I don't think I will ever get rid of tv, but if i had to, I think I could! But I can see how it hard for sports fans!!!
Sounds like you are doing well so far! I think that you can get most of your TV shows on Netflix; it will just be a bit late...or many of them are online the day after they air, either on the network channel or on Hulu. I think. I don't really watch TV. I will catch Greys online sometimes but I don't really watch it week by week. I would say per week I watch about 1 hour.

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