No experience....but watching your reports avidly. I pay $180 a month for internet, land line, and expanded basic cable....intolerable!! I will be doing something very soon!!

Gosh, Gina. You make me feel so far behind the times. It's fitting that I'm about half through rereading 'Babbitt'. :)

I've got a Sony/Google TV & love it. It was glitchy for the first couple months but Google has done 3-4 upgrades in the six months, or so, that I've owned it & haven't had a hiccup in the past 2 months. I've got Netflix, Youtube, etc. plus a lot I don't even know what they are but rarely watch them. Mostly, I read the NYT, visit the forums, window shop, etc.

I don't even own an iPad or Kindle although I did download the Kindle reader to my HP touchscreen desktop recently (hence, 'Babbit'). DH & I still play Scrabble in the evenings. lol We do enjoy The Learning Company though & I wish I could download to the Sony/Google TV for their lectures. The TV is in the bedroom & we're just about finished with an 83-lecture series on American History that would have been more comfy to watch in bed.

We just haven't created a need in our lives for all these gadgets yet. Don't know if we will - we don't even text.

We did lose our land line a couple years ago so, maybe, we are being dragged into the 21st century! rofl

Have fun with the new toys.

/tricia

I appreciate the report. I'm moving to California in a couple months (YAY!!! :-)) and since my satellite provider doesn't service the West coast, and I'm going to have to pay some enormous early termination fee, I'm thinking of dumping cable altogether. I actually like the interface on the Roku, although the connection between the remote and the Roku is spotty, and since I'll probably have more than one TV, I'll need to noodle it all out. I've wondered whether I could get a Mac Mini- I saw some pretty affordable refurb ones- and just set one TV as its monitor. I haven't been too impressed with Netflix streaming, either, but I do like Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime. I would also like to be able to record stuff off the air, and don't know how to do that yet (VCR? :-))

Thanks, Gina. I don't understand everything you said, but I sure need another option besides full-on cable. I pay the same as Linda for the three services. It's just ridiculous, especially considering what is actually on cable tv. Right now I will switch from Comcast to Verizon Fios for a two year introductory offer. that will cost just over $100 and I don't know if i can do much better.

I think I could save even more if I go to Direct TV but I don't really understand it and I don't want one of those ugly dishes in my roof. I could put it on the back of my garage roof and then the neighbors would have to suffer with it!

I have to learn more about set top boxes.

I dropped cable 4.5 years ago. I do not have a landline and I pay 50/month for internet. I don't miss TV and I don't miss having a landline except for the occasional person who uses fax. I am completely out of the habit of watching TV, even the occasional movie. It's peaceful.

Eileen

Cable wasn't available here, I had DISH satellite TV and it never worked. I switched to Direct and it worked well until my contract expired. Suddenly, every month the price went up until I was totally disgusted. When I called to complain I was told that the monthly "deals" were reserved for new customers only. Elery bought a Roku box and we have Netflix and I find I don't even use that. I also do not miss it at all.

When the Food Network became nearly all challenges, I quit watching that. Late night I'd watch the horse training videos on RFD TV and on Saturday I'd watch America's Test Kitchen on PBS. I figured I was paying $79 a month to watch television for an hour and a half a week, or a bit over $13 an hour. I cancelled.

I do have a landline telephone because I hate cell phones and they don't work here in the boonies so well, not enough towers. My telephone/internet connection is $49 a month. Elery has Amazon Prime so he can get videos/movies but I've never used it. The Grandkids like to use Netflix to watch things like "How To Build A Bulldozer". I never watch it.

In fact, I am painting the living room now and the television is unhooked and in the bedroom. (shrug) Elery bought me an iPod for my birthday last May and I've never used it either I've never, to my knowledge, used the Roku box either, because I've never bothered to figure out how to turn it on. Boy, Bud and Makayla sure learned how to use it though! I also don't text, twitter or Facebook and I keep the speakers turned off on the computer.

I've threatened to get an antenna, my neighbors have one and they get quite a few channels, including two kind-of-local PBS stations, which I did enjoy watching sometimes.

Annie

I pay $210/mo for Comcast triple play, that is internet, cable TV, and voice (landline phone), plus some cable TV upgrades.

I'm thinking of dropping one of the TV upgrades ($10/mo) and the phone service. From Comcast's published rates, it seems like dropping the phone doesn't save you much, but I was told that most of the taxes and regulatory fees and other charges on the bills relate to the phone - so actually dropping it does save you a lot.

I'm also told that the Internet phone services (like Vonage) work fine and are a lot cheaper. I haven't verified any of this, or actually done it, but that's what I'm thinking about doing anyway.

Oh, and Elery has Magic Jack, he paid $10 a year, I think. works fine. I guess now you don't even need a computer, when he signed up you did.

We're also going to switch to one of those pay as you go phone things for the cell phones. He uses his but I never use mine and it's seldom charged. We have thousands of minutes that have not been used, neither of us text or tweet and I have used the cell phone 3 or 4 times in the past 18 months. I did get a text once, but couldn't figure out how to read it so I just deleted it...

Elery does have the iPod touch that I got him two years ago and his son showed him how to use "Face Time". He did that a couple of times, then the fun wore off, LOL.

Annie

I would like to dump Time Warner cable, but there are several channels I like a lot and would definitely miss if we did not have them: Bravo, TCM, HGTV, E, Style, and Logo. I also like Antenna TV, but Kevin gets that in his bedroom with an antenna - it is local channel 5.2. I don't get it in my bedroom because I'm on the opposite side of the house, and his bedroom faces the TV broadcast towers.

We have a new X-Box that I bought so that we could get Netflix streaming, but we never watch that. I'd like to find another use for the X-Box, and I know it supports Hula and some other things, but I haven't had time to explore it. In addition, we have over 800 DVDs, and Kevin gets more Blu-Rays every month from Sony, and so we have more than we can possibly watch. Also, I've been recording movies from TCM and putting them on DVDs for our mother (and keeping copies for us), and we never have time to watch those either. DM only gets local TV channels because DF would never allow her to get cable. That could change if he gets into a nursing home, however - I think she would need it at that point.

We still have a land line, and I have no intention of dropping that - I do not even have a cell phone at this point. We tried to go to Best Buy last Sunday to get one, but there was no parking, and so we left. I might have to get one at Office Depot where the phones are slightly more expensive although the monthly options are the same. I'm not even sure what kind of cell phone I want to buy. I know I do not want to use text, and so I won't need a keyboard, and I do not think that I want to get email on a phone, although I have not been keeping up with that on my home computer either. I bought a laptop last December at a Sony sale before going to Texas, and I used it there but hardly at all here. My astrology program is not compatible with Windows 7, and neither is my version of AutoCAD, or Photoshop 7. At some point, I am going to have to look for affordable alternatives these expensive programs. The laptop is good for Skype, however.

Lars

I have a pre-paid cell phone plan. I rarely use my phone. I spend about $100 a year on my phone and even then I probably don't use all my time. I am not ready to get rid of my landline. I've had the same number for 38 years and I don't want to give it up.

I like Skype for overseas calls. My friend was in Slovenia for a couple weeks and we chatted almost every day for free. Hate looking at myself, so sometimes I turn off the video.

The number of options out there is overwhelming and trying to put it all together in a way that suits your needs is mind-boggling. Maybe I'll do whatever Gina does.

I live way out in the country and can't get cable. At first we had the super big satellite dish for years then went to the small dishes. We have had Dish and Directv and both are a rip off if you ask me. The monthly charge just keeps going up. And like they say, 400 channels and there is nothing on.
Clare

Clare, that's because there aren't really 400 channels. There are 150 channels of music, another 50 channels of infomercials. There are 75 pay per view channels and another 50 or so are in foreign languages.

Now we're down to 75 channels and some are weather channels and some are news channels. That leaves about 25 or 30 actual television channels. Ugh. Nope, I don't miss it, there was never anything on worth watching anyway...

Annie

What Annie says. The onscreen "guide" actually lists 1513 channels! Since I don't pay for HD, I don't see the HD channels of course, or other packages such as the sports package. However, of all the hundreds of channels I get, I watch maybe 10 of them. Some of the channels are ridiculous., such as the Fox Soccer Channel. How about the Game Show Network which at the moment is showing reruns of The Newlywed Game? Or The Music Choice Throwback Jamz station?

Ye gods. We are fools to pay for this stuff. Go Gina.

What prompted me is that when I lived in my condo, the HOA had a deal with the cable company so that we only paid for the box rentals. When I moved, the cost of cable et al was amazing to me. I got basic cable and internet, a DVR and one regular box, and paid $5 extra per month for National Geographic! The internet service was slow and not good when you went further away from the wireless router.

So I planned to dump it when my contract was up. We also didn't get a landline when we moved here.

I still have some fiddling to do on the media/entertainment front. Just managing and updating music on ipods and such is a hassle - so time consuming.

I think Amazon Prime just added some National Geographic content!

Just saw this comment on FB and had to share:

"Paying for cable TV is like paying for a toxic waste pipe to your brain"

Ha ha. So true.

I had the same issue. Here is what I did:
Dumped DirectTV, was paying $115 a month for "choice". I was literally paying for 100's of channels that I never watched - so unhappy with their service on renewal so I dumped them.
Could not get with DISH TV. Some major screw up on their system verifying my credit. I have excellent credit, just could not get through the verification process with their reseller.
So I bought an XBMC box (Apple) for $65 off Ebay and also a $35 long range antenna from Amazon and hooked them up using the existing cable from the old Direct TV system. I suddenly had 25 channels of local TV to view for FREE. And the XBMC box gave me access to Netflix and RFDTV and other shows but was frustrating to use as it required tech savvy to find anything using a keyboard/mouse. BF could not use the system. (and I heard about that daily). So recently Amazon offered Fire TV for $84. I bought it and installed it, handed him the remote and whalla, 40,000 videos to watch FREE if you have Amazon prime for $99 a year. So my basic TV costs went to a monthly internet connection for $45, RFDTV yearly at $90 for the membership, and Netflix which I'm really not that happy with - Amazon Prime offers the same amount if not more of titles and is easier to use. I am dumping Netflix. So my costs are 52.50 a month for *ALL* access including 'net and TV and movies. I also have the Kindle FIRE and can view the same content remotely and control my Amazon TV account from that if needed. Wonderful solution! Saved me $750 a year going this route. Try Amazon FIRE TV.

I got rid of cable about a year ago, and have never looked back. I pay about $50 a month for Internet service. Works for me. I have a pair of rabbit ears for the TV that I can bring out if I want to watch something on local channels, but I rarely do, as I really enjoy the silence. I think the last thing I watched on TV, was 60 minutes. And I watch the Super Bowl. For the commercials.The last time I spoke to Time Warner cable, (the other day)they tried to get me back to TV mode. It was very surreal. They made me feel like I was an oddball… Even asking me well how do you get your news? TV news is so far behind the Internet, that it would be my last choice for up-to-date, accurate news. They also told me, I'm assuming with a straight face, that more and more people are going back to land lines. I questioned that and he said it was in the script. I can't think of a single person who has gone back to a landline.
Jo

I'm coming full circle.

When we moved to Portland 8 years ago, I got Comcast triple play (voice, TV, internet) for $115, it was such a good deal!

Well, over time it went up and up and last year, when it was $230 or so, I dropped voice and replaced it with a $12 extra line with our cellular carrier. That took the Comcast bill from $230/mo to $130/mo

This weekend I dropped TV, something my kids have been telling me to do, since we hardly ever watch cable TV. That takes my Comcast bill to $95/mo for just 50 MB/s internet. I will also drop my TiVo service at $15/mo.

I can reduce it to $85/mo by downgrading to 25 MB/s internet, or I can drop Comcast entirely and get internet from our local telco. They charge $80/mo for 40 MB/s, but there is a 1 year introductory $30/mo price, and I'm told they extend that for another year if you call and state your intention to drop.

We are paying for $16/mo for Netflix and Hulu Plus. I might subscribe to an online sports streaming service for another $10/mo. In the summer, I might pay $30 to watch the Tour de France online.

TL:DR version -

"I was paying $245/mo for Comcast + TiVo, I am now $123/mo for Comcast + Netflix + Hulu + a cellular home phone, and I can get it to $58/mo for telco internet 1-or-2-year deal + Netflix + Hulu + cellular home phone."

I will spend about $200 one-time for a used modem, Roku, cables to connect Mac to TV, maybe an OTA antenna.

We are still figuring out the limitations of Netflix and Hulu. For example, my son asked how he could watch the current season of Doctor Who. Turns out that BBC UK streams it but only to the UK, and by going through a free proxy server in the UK, you can watch it in the US.

This is an interesting ride. Getting entertainment from multiple platforms and services instead of the old way where it was TV and radio of the highway. I'm not sure why the cable business model seems to be a gazillion channels of carpy programming and tons of commercials. It is driving so many customers away. It's only monopoly and backroom dealings that seems to be keeping this dinosaur feeding on us. TV could bring us back if they let us pick the channels we wanted to pay for. Not sure why that isn't happening.

I've been a "cordcutter" (cable free) for almost a year. I do have a laptop with an hdmi cable to my television. So basically, my tv is a big 42" monitor, with a bluetooth mouse. We have 24mpbs internet and allows everything in HD, Netflix, a few "illegal" streaming sites for television series and sports, YouTube (great stuff on there, news, entertainment, live shows even). We could pay for Amazon Prime but don't, it's basically Netflix. HuluPlus sucks, why pay for commercials? Our bill dropped from $160/month to $70.