Cableless: One Year Later

Some people refer to this as the slave box.

It's been a year since we cut the cord with Rogers for our cable TV service. In that time, we've saved at least $500 ($538.04). While it's not a lot of money, it is if you consider the fact that we were essentially throwing this money away since the channels we watched were being broadcast over the air for free!

Aside from not watching as much television, what other benefits have we seen?

Well, wifey and I are more active now. We ride our bikes more often or take walks around the neighbourhood. With the in-laws away, we're not biking as much this year to get groceries. We have picked up some from time to time. If we run out of milk, or want to pick up something that is on sale, we'd pedal our way to the grocery store.

What other benefits are there? Well, I've read a lot more now that TV isn't an option. The library is a good source of reading material. I couldn't even tell you how many books I've read since we first visited the library earlier this year. In addition to borrowing books from the physical library, I also have the option to borrow e-books from the library portal online. I've used wifey's iPad to download and read numerous novels and non-fiction there. Recently, I've stopped going to the library in order to read some novels a co-worker lent me. When I'm finished, I'll return to the library to borrow more books.

In addition to exercise and reading, I've also spent more time outdoors gardening. With the father-in-law away, someone needs to do the yard work. Cutting grass is easy. Just need to push the mower around. Wifey wants to get a motor one, but I find the manual push mower suits our needs. The only problem is the grass near the wall or fence. I need a way to trim this grass. Currently, I'm just ripping the grass with my bare hands (gloved hands). We have a trimmer thing of sorts, but the blades are dulled so I need to take the time to sharpen the blades. Weed pulling is a different monster. There's just so many weeds, it's hard to get a handle on it. The worst part are that the roots are so deep sometimes you can't get all of it. So you really need to dig deep. Easily, you can spend a few hours outside gardening without even realizing it. Aside from cutting the grass and digging up weeds, we've also worked on repairing the lawn and tended to our vegetable garden. Already, we've harvested some snow peas. It's still early, so we're expecting a lot of them in the coming months. We also planted some cucumbers, red and yellow bell peppers, spicy peppers, and tomatoes. I still have more tomato seedlings that need to be planted, but I'm still waiting until after the 30 day mark.

The snow peas that are popping out

This is not to say we've completely stopped watching television. With our HD antennae, we still turn the TV on to watch the news or a sporting event (like the Women's World Cup). When I'm busy reading or playing video games, wifey turns on the TV and watches whatever is on. If nothing interests her, she'll use the Chromecast and stream something from the CBC player website to the TV (like Coronation Street or Fool Canada... only 1 episode, but she's watched it a few times already).

I talked with wifey about this the other day. I told her that it's been one year since we cut the cable. She told me that she hasn't noticed much of a difference from before to after. She still watches the same channels as before. She also watches MORE sin

Of course, the best benefit are the looks I get when I tell people we don't have cable. It's like I'm telling people I'm from the stone age. They look at me like I'm certifiable. I don't care, though. I'm not the one spending $70 a month for premium channels I don't watch.

Happy Canada Day everyone!