I really wish I could say I just wanted to get rid of cable. I really, really wish I could say, “Let’s get rid of our TV all together. It would be better for the kids. It would be better for us. It’s a time sucker and it‘s all just a bunch of junk anyway.”
But I can’t. I’m not addicted to TV by any stretch, but I do have a few shows I like to watch. I don’t let the kids watch every day, but it really can be a lifesaver when times are rough. Like when the kids recently took turns staying home from school with fevers and colds — “Little Einsteins” and “Special Agent Oso” were livesavers.
I love my DVR
I like to say that when I die I want to be buried with my DVR. What else can cure the woes of perpetual laundry than knowing you have a good show to watch while you fold it? We don’t rent movies; we don’t even do Netflix anymore because I say our money goes into having that DVR instead.
All that being said, I still wish I could tell myself to just get rid of it all and save us the $50 every month. I really, really should be able to do that. But so far, I can’t…
So when our DVR began giving us problems, we decided to get it checked out. Actually, it’s been giving us problems since day one for awhile, but that’s how lazy we are little importance we have placed on watching the tube on a regular basis; we just never got around to calling.
So the guy comes out with his little “satellite buddy” (his words) and goes up and takes a look. Turns out, a bolt was loose. Has been the whole time. As in, since we got it two years ago. So every time the wind blew — or thought about blowing — and every time it rained — or thought about raining, the dish wobbled more and more and — you guessed it, no signal.
It got to where the signal would go out whenever a bird flew by.
So the guy got it fixed. And the good news? It was all still under warranty. So no service call fee.
Warranty? What Warranty?
Actually, the good news is also the bad news. Because I didn’t know we were paying for a warranty. Apparantly, it came free of charge for the first 90 days, then it was up to us to cancel it.
Only I didn’t know we had it. Or remember. Who knows. We had just moved here from overseas, people; I had other things on my mind.
I reckon we’ve paid about $126 for this warranty since we’ve lived here. I asked the guy how much it would have cost him for his service call, and he said it’s $60 just to get him in the door — but the company automatically charges you for two hours worth of labor (so, $120?). Either way, I figure we break about even.
It’s really annoying, though; if I’d known we’d been paying for this I would have had the guy come out a long time ago.
To Pay or Not to Pay
Now the question is, do we keep paying the $6 a month for the warranty? By my calculations, that would come to about $120 for the time we have left in this house.
How much do you pay for cable? Do you have cable? Do you have Tv? Any why doesn’t anyone answer these questions I ask? (Other than my sister — thanks, Carmen!) “Is anyone even reading this? Tap-tap — this thing on?
And check your statements, people. Make sure you know what you’re paying for.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh my gosh, Anne, you are so right on the money. Pun intended. I think if we had high-interest non-mortgage debt, or if my husband lost his job, cable w/b the first to go. At least, right now that seems to be my barometer.
I will say that hulu is a great way to go with a big screen. I tell myself that we will do that someday… Only now hulu will start charging next year, so I guess I'll be interested to see how much they charge for a subscription. It will still probably be better than cable.
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We don't have cable. We used to have HBO, DVR…the works, but we cancelled it about 8 months ago. It took us about a year to finally make the decision, but once we did we never regretted it. Sometimes we miss ESPN, but that's it, and we really miss our DVR. But we could get a Tivo if we really wanted to. I thought I would DIE without having Bravo or HGTV, but I don't even care. We have netflix and a nice computer with a big screen to watch HULU. Now that we don't have cable, I wonder where the $100/month to pay for it was coming from. Now we've convinced all our friends to cancel their cable! Now it's kind of my barometer of debt/money issues. Like…if you are paying for extended cable, you can't complain about not having money, ya know?
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I have a TV, so does my roommate. When my moved in, I didn't have cable and she asked for it. Since I pay $45 now for internet/cable/dvr (1 DVR box, 3 tvs with cable, wireless internet) and when I was in the apt by myself I was paying about the same for just internet, no cable, I'm okay with it for now. We'll be done with this apartment in May though and I'm not going to keep cable. I can watch most of my shows online so it's not really worth the money for me, I guess.
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