It's going to be hard. Like epically hard.
When it comes down to it, I really strive to keep my family time and my training time separate. I will wake up early or stay up late. I will use every second of my kid-free time (school, play dates, etc) to train. I hate to make the girls or J feel like I am neglecting them because I have decided to take on a 140.6. This is my dream and while I need their love, support and help, I don't think they should have to suffer for it.
So, I do what I have to do. I train early. I train late. I train during school and play dates and practice. I try my best to keep everyone happy. Sometimes, it all goes perfectly. And sometimes, like this morning, it's a complete disaster.
Dizzle and Doodle had a two hour delay today (Dilly doesn't go to school on Thursdays). Knowing we had some flexibility, I fed the girls breakfast and had them ready to walk out the door before 8 a.m. Perfect. That gave me an hour and twenty minutes to run 45 minutes on the treadmill. I told the girls my plan and asked them to stay in the living room while I ran. They said OK, so I reminded them to behave, not fight and come get me if they needed anything.
The peace and quiet lasted for 11 minutes. At that point, Dilly had already come into the room I was in crying. I paused the treadmill and told them to come watch TV in the room with me so that I could watch them. All that did was move the fighting closer to me. Within minutes, Doodle was sent to her room. By the time I finished, there was complete chaos and I was left thinking, how the heck am I going to do this all Summer?
Snow Day - This morning's dramatic episode aside, our little snow vacation from school was pretty awesome. The girls and I had a blast hanging out with each other and after the three hours it took for us to put on all our winter gear, we spent our morning in the snow.
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| it was kind of bright out there ... |
It's the moments like this that make me appreciate that I get to stay at home with these little buggers. Even if they drive me batty ...
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| my snow babies ... |
Cutting the cord - J and I are seriously considering cutting our cable service. We pay a fortune, have a zillion channels we NEVER watch and we know there are better options out there. Currently, we have DirecTV and have for nearly a decade. Our current home does not have cable jacks, so if we go with a non-satellite option, we would have to have them installed (even if we went with FIOS, which we have for internet and phone). Oh, and we don't have a HD TV, meaning that Apple TV is not an option for us.
Anyway, I (since I am the one doing the research) am leaning towards a Roku box and getting Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime subscriptions. If I am calculating this correctly, aside from the purchase price of the boxes, it's going to cost us $271 a year for streaming video ($8/mo each for Netflix and Hulu Plus and $79/year for Amazon Prime) or $367 a year if we also decide to add the DVD rental option to Netflix. That's a $900-$1000 a year savings. Seems crazy to me to keep what we currently have.
So, I want to know, have you cut the cable cord? What do you miss? Do you have any recommendations on boxes or subscription services?
23 comments:
I try to have my big races early in the summer, so I can do most of my training while the kids are in school. It is SOO hard in the summer. Best of luck!!
We cut the cord YEARS ago! We are using 15 year old tvs. We have netflix through the wii (no discs) and we bought the HD converter boxes with slightly nicer than rabbit ear antennas. We get PBS (kids) and the local channels and that is all we need. I say do it and don't look back! You save money AND your children are less dependent on the tv. I know, counter-intuitive to this post since you will need the tv for training but we don't regret it at all!
We have no cable/satellite, etc and we do not miss it at all. WE do not even do Netflix or Hulu plus. It has been good because we have really stopped watching any TV . . . it gives us more time to read, etc.
I didn't have cable for a few years and it was fine. Now, we have it, and we watch practically NOTHING live, almost everything is DVR'd. We do have Netflix, which I barely use. If it came down to it, especially during the summer, I could live without it.
When we moved into our new house in early December, we never hooked up cable and just use Netflix through our Wii for $8/month. There is more than enough on there, and the only thing I miss are my HGTV and DIY shows. I only wish the internet didn't cost so much as well.
This whole cutting the cord thing is VERY intriguing to me. PLEASE keep us (or at least me) updated on how it goes and what you decide. I know nothing about Hulu, Amazon Prime or Netflix streaming.
You and the girls look like you had fun on the day off! :)
I understand the struggle to fit your time in so it won't impact others. I try to do the same...occasionally my 4 year-old wakes up early and finds me hiding in the basement on the treadmill. She loves to get on it so I have to negotiate with her...let mommy run 2 miles and then you can have a turn...and so on! My sister cut her cable and they use a Roku box. They like it so far!
We stopped our cable about 2 years ago, and we don't miss it!
We do have Amazon Prime, and my boyfriend has some upgrade with his Xbox, that allows him to watch movies and some sports events. Anything else is watched on our laptops.
We have the "Welcome Package" through DISH. We were paying $22 for plenty of channels (including all local) and DVR service. The price just barely went up to $27. It's not even listed online, they mentioned it when we called to cancel, and we decided to try it instead of going out to buy boxes and an antennae to get local channels.
We don't have cable. We have the equivalent of rabbit ears and Netflix through our Wii. My daughter is five and there is plenty on the Netflixs for her to watch. We only get two main local channels. It has really reduced the time of non-essential tv watching.
We have the Roku box and use Netflix often. We get the one DVD, but will probably cancel that soon since we rarely take the time to watch it.
We did have Hulu+ for a month, and I was unimpressed. They had less than netflix, and only one show I would watch weekly. Not worth it. I hear Amazon prime is great. We are still looking into that.
My fiance and I only have Netflix streaming from our Wii. We don't have a digital converter, so no local channels. If we desperately want to watch a show, my fiance streams it from online (not illegal, because we don't download!)
However, we are getting rid of Netflix at the end of the month. We realized we spend way too much time watching shows and not enough of doing other things, like cleaning, reading or exercising.
I know you have three kids, so maybe just get a Roku, stream Netflix and Hulu Plus. I wouldn't get any more than that (maybe an HD converter box.)
The ONLY thing I miss about cable is Bravo stuff - and those, I try to schedule gym treadmill time to catch up on, but I could live without it. Considering the savings (we've calculated $3,200 saved), it's worth it.
We cut cable over 3 years ago. We don't miss it at all. We started with just a Netflix option, but don't even bother with that anymore. I would maybe start with 1 membership to a streaming service and see how much you feel the need for more.
Try to do completely without first, then see what to add back, if anything needs to be added back. We still get basic channels, which is enough for us (and several friends who stopped service found the same thing!).
We went from Directv to local cable and their lowest package. We watch Netflix, which is a nice, cheap option. If we didn't like the Phillies (huge Phillies family) and watching the Eagles, TdF, we'd probably get rid of it. We don't really have any shows we watch regularly anyway, and the couple that we do seem to go on-line on the station's web sites anyway.
we only use netflix and free online things. i missed tv for maybe a month... been a year. now when we visit the parents and watch real tv, i find that i really don't enjoy it much anymore. and i am okay with that. i may not be up on sports and popular shows anymore, but that stopped bothering me long ago. happy to be slightly unplugged in this crazy world.
We have an antenna. We can get all 3 local networks (although channel 12 doesn't come into the back of our house.)We also get 2 PBS stations. Then there are some weird other local channels too. I live in Ashland, so our local channels are your local channels too. I rarely watch TV anymore. My kids are starting to grow out of PBS (ages 8 & 9)but the Disney tween shows are a major reason I won't get cable or anything else! Good luck with your decision.
We have DirecTV, but also Netflix (streaming and mailing) and hulu. Netflix used to be better, their online streaming is not very up to date anymore. You are better of renting a movie from the redbox for $1. Hulu is great, you can watch all tv shows pretty much the day after.
I hate cable. I would have cut it many years ago if my husband wasnt such a junkie. How in the world do you convince someone it is a huge waste? That persons argument is..."I like to flip channels"!!!!
Wrong gal to ask here, as I've never been a big TV watcher.
Living internationally now, we have zero TV service, and we pay for Amazon prime, plus the $2-3 it costs to rent a movie we might want to watch. (While some things are free with Amazon Prime, a lot still require payment of a small fee.) This is perfect for us.
Of course, we only sit down about once a week to actually watch anything...as I said, wrong person to ask. Or..erm...answer.
Way to go with the kid juggling, though. Massive kudos.
Love Roku-the only thing we miss is HBO. In order to have HBO go you have to have a cable subscription.
I love Game of Thrones and I was patient and ordered the S2 DVD. I may just budge and pay per episode this season.
You will have plenty of days like your Snow Day to remind you how awesome it is to have those three little buggers! I have complete faith in you making it through training!!
As far as cable, I've been without it for close to 9 years now. The only times I miss it are in Spring for the Boston Marathon and Fall for Kona replays. Other than that, I can catch things on Hulu (not Plus) or watch RedBox movies.
I always felt that the tv sucked me in as complacent entertainment, but when I finally peeled myself away from it, I never felt like it was a good time. I don't even plan to get it back; there's nothing on tv worth that kind of money. Plus, I don't have to worry about what type of TV I have. I just use my laptop.
ooh, i'm debating on doing the exact same thing. I watch a lot of tv but think it could be eliminated with hulu plus. I actually got the bf apple tv (for his bday tomorrow) and am going to use him as my trial. Now that you did the math for me, i could save a TON of $$ too.
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