Dropped Cable

In the last two months my cable /internet provider informed me my bill would go up to about 175 a month.  I could not afford this.  I called them to ask what they would do about it.  I got horrible customer service. Apparently they only want to get new customers and don’t care about keeping their current customers. 
In the past I’ve gone back and forth, argued, let them raise my blood pressure and essentially spent weeks being miserable at the thought of even talking to them on the phone.  I asked them what the cost of internet alone would be – they told me $45.  I looked at a different provider’s website for internet and the cost was $30. 
My daughters all have a Roku.  This is a device you attach to your tv and can access television shows and movies through Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and so on.  My one daughter also got an antennae for her tv so she could get local stations. 
We looked at the pricing and here is how it broke down for us:
            Roku (2) – 150 (one-time cost)
            Antennae (2) – 50 (we bought one for 10 and one for 40 which gets more stations – one-time cost)
            Amazon prime – shared with one of my daughters – my cost will be 40 annually
                        Since we are sharing the prime account, my daughter and I will be sharing the cost of shows we both watch
            Netflix – shared with one of my daughters – my cost will be 4 monthly
It took some getting used to but I’m finding I am not missing cable.  The DVR feature I liked so much is even better because the shows on Amazon and Netflix don’t have commercials. 
At this stage I’m estimating my costs will be roughly 50 a month for internet and tv rather than the $120 I was paying before they raised my rates.  The $200 investment I think will be worth it over time. 
I believe this will save me a lot of money, which is always a good thing for my overall budget.

5 Hours

Today I have to work five hours and then I’m on vacation for a week!!!  I cannot wait.  My plans – well if you’ve read my blog at all you probably know – are to write.  Okay so the weekend is for the family.  We are going to the carnival for lunch tomorrow.  I won’t wander but the rest of them can while I read a book in the car.  Then we are going to go see a movie, probably the new Transformers movie. 

Sunday I have a date with Ken and we are going to clean off our DVR.  Why?  Well we are switching carriers for cable and internet because Charter raised my bill by $60 and I can’t afford that.  This means we have to watch everything on the DVR because they come the week after I’m done with vacation.

After that I have no plans.  Ken will be home from work on Monday so we will probably do more DVR stuff.  There are also a few things around the house I want to get done.  It depends on the weather.  It would be great to grill out but again depends on the weather.

I’ve got four essays to polish up, an essay to get ready for submission to a pub I always submit to, a manuscript which is just crying for me to work on, and a pile of possible places for submitting my work to.  Other than that not a lot of plans… 🙂  Oh yeah and I want to wade through my books and get my spreadsheet updated and the books themselves organized.  Those are my primary goals for the week.  I have a secondary list but I’m trying not to over plan the week.

Now I just have to get through the last five hours of work and hope that it goes quickly.  I also have to hope that I can get done all the things that need doing before I go.