I lived without cable for quite some time. As my dear friend Megan once put it, "Let me get this straight: I give the cable company money, and they take away my free time. How is this a good deal?"
Then, somehow, J and I became cable subscribers. For the past 7 years (give or take), we have had cable and enjoyed some fine programming.
Earlier this week, I recieved a bill from our cable company. This bill seemed rather outlandish in its size and hugeitude. After several tense moments of reviewing the bill, I realized that Comcast had charged us for a month of premium channels, even though they had assured me that the premium channels which we were only receiving 3 months worth of for free would go away on their own after the said 3 month period was over.
Of course, that wasn't the only change. The bill seems to be bigger each month, with no real explanation for why we are sending more and more of our hard-earned money Comcast-ward.
So, while I had the customer service representative on the phone to clear up the HBO issue, I asked him how much we would save if we were to drop cable, and only keep the phone and internet.
$80.
$90+ with taxes.
To recap--we are currently sending these folks about $150 a month total. Ditching cable would save us 60 bucks per month, which is nothing to sneeze at.
Rather than jumping at the chance, which is probably what I should have done considering the fact that it is highly unlikely that any other customer service rep will be able to offer us the same price when I call back, I gave it a second thought.
"What about The Daily Show?" my second thought whispered.
I told the customer service rep to please send me that price via email so I have proof, which he did not, and I said I'd discuss it with my husband.
When J came home, I saw a similar Jump at it/On second thought reaction from him. 60 bucks is 60 bucks, but we can't seem to get his favorite show Archer on Hulu or Netflix.
Which means, J and I are choosing to spend $720 per year in order to watch a show that has 7-episode seasons about once every two years (Archer) and a show that airs four days a week for about 32 weeks of the year (The Daily Show)...
Yeah, I think I need to make a phone call.
