February 04, 2006
A Farewell to Cable
I decided to drop down to basic cable last month. I decided that I was wasting too much time on frivolous TV watching, and that there was plenty of content available through Netflix for my video entertainment needs. I'll let other people serve as my filter for what is and isn't worth watching, and then I'll rent the DVDs of the shows worth watching. By doing this, I'm saving about $40/month on my cable bill + $10/month on my ReplayTV service. So I'm going to save about $600/year. Not bad.
I also cancelled my membership at the JCC . I don't need it anymore, because I can now use the fitness facilities at Carnegie Mellon (one of the perks of Apple moving into a building on CMU's campus). That's going to save me another $600/year.
Combined, I'll be saving about $1,200/year, or, as Mark Cuban likes to think about it , I'll be earning the equivalent of a 12% return on a $10,000 investment. That's pretty hard to beat.
Posted by Dirtae at February 4, 2006 12:56 PMFunny you should mention that. When Ricci moves in we're planning on dropping down to basic cable as well. He does have a 42" flat screen TV, but as you know from when you've visited, there's not enough HD content to warrant $10 a month. About the only thing I've watched in HD is football and of course the season is all but over now. The handful of shows I watch regularly are all on network TV, Comedy Central, and FX. I hadn't looked into how much we'd be saving yet, but it sounds like a good chunk of change.
I haven't decided yet if I'm going to drop my ReplayTV subscription. I really wish I had bought the lifetime activiation. But at the time I figured, "There will definitely be something better two or three years down the road, and I'll want to upgrade". It's probably been about 5 years and there still isn't anything better. I probably will end up dropping ReplayTV since I'm usually around for most of the things I want to watch and if I miss something, there's always iTunes and Bittorrent.
Posted by: Jason Marr at February 4, 2006 01:26 PMNice nice. :) The building's real pretty looking.
Anyways, I'm going to be back in Pittsburgh on the weekend of Feb 17th. Just seeing if you want to grab coffee or something.
Hope everything is going well and I love the pic of your cube decked out in Steelers gear. :)
I've been denouncing the evils of television for years. Welcome aboard! :)
Posted by: David at February 5, 2006 10:55 PMI've long said that the next time I move into an apt by myself I would have absolutely no use for cable.
Problem is, ever since I've started saying that I've been living with roommates who cannot do without. Grr.
Posted by: Josh Staiger at February 19, 2006 07:13 PM
