No More Cable

So, we did it. We cancelled the luxury of cable. (I should be more accurate and say that we reduced our services--we only get basic cable now instead of "Expanded Basic" cable. We have about 20 channels now instead of 72.) We did this for a variety of reasons, but all fall within the same category: Simplifying. When we first got married, we couldn't afford cable--we shared a house with 5 other people and had it then, because everyone was chipping in 20 bucks. But once we were living on our own, we were without it. And we stayed without it for 2 years or so. When Peter changed jobs and we had a little more income, we got it. And we've had it ever since. 5 years now. But, we both made the decision that once the kids returned to school, we would reduce it. Without it, our lives will be much more simple, with less distractions. It will improve the time we spend together as a family. And we were both so tired of all the advertising on cable TV (esp Nickolodeon, Disney, and Cartoon Network). We decided the only real way to cure it was to just get rid of it. So we did. Of course, it was a financial decision as well--we are now saving 30 bucks a month by reducing our service to basic. Another reason is simply just so we will watch less TV. This is going to be a good thing all around!

I must admit though that there will be some things I will really miss: Intervention, Secret Life, Food Network, random movies on AMC and TNT, and CNN--but with the Internet (HULU!!!!) and Netflix I can watch most of them anyway. But, I am trying not to fall into that trap, because then I will still spend just as much time watching TV--even if its via the computer!!!

Looking forward to what happens with this precious time that was wasted in the past. :)