I gave up cable over a year ago, and I haven’t looked back

I spent many hours of my life yelling at the FiOS people. Many, sad, frustrating, why-is-this-what-I’m-doing-with-my-life hours. Mysterious charges of several hundred dollars would appear, and no one I talked to would have any explanation. Some promised it was a mistake that would get taken off, some told me it was legitimate and I had to pay it — yet nobody knew what the charge was. It took months and finally bitching on Twitter before I was able to get some answers. But by that time I was done. Why was I paying $150 a month for the privilege of spending hours of my life talking to clueless and/or rude customer service agents who cared not one whit about customer service, AKA two-thirds of their job title?

Around this time, I bought an Apple TV. Now I had an easy way to watch Netflix on my television, instead of my laptop or iPad. Then Apple finally released the Hulu Plus app, and I came to a realization: 100% of everything I watch is on DVR anyway, so at the very earliest, I’m watching it a day after — sometimes a week after. Plus, Hulu Plus had the majority of the shows that I watched available the next day. And it was cheap! And I didn’t have to spend hours yelling at people! So after a few months of hemming and hawing, I cut the cord and ditched cable.

Immediately, I started saving about $100/month. My cable and internet bill was around $150. For just internet, I started paying around $35. Hulu Plus is $7.99/month. I already had my Netflix subscription, but I was paying about $15/month for that. Plus I had the one-time $90 cost of the Apple TV.

After that, I was watching Community, The Office, Grey’s Anatomy … just about every network show I watched I could easily get. Plus, I was able to discover more. I became a die-hard Scandal fan after catching up with Season 1 on Netflix right before Season 2 started airing on Hulu.

Granted, I also used my connections to fill in some gaps. I kept up with Sons of Anarchy via screeners, and I caught up on Happy Endings via On Demand whenever I was at my sister’s house. Plus, since I was saving so much money, it was easy to justify some “important” purchases via the iTunes store. When Mad Men airs, for instance, I need to get right on that. So I buy that from iTunes. Considering that I already owned the first three seasons on Blu-ray, it wasn’t so much an additional cost as it was just pushing up an inevitable purchase. As we speak, I’m currently downloading my season pass for Breaking Bad‘s final season.

I’m certainly not alone in my frustration. I come across more and more people every day who have made the same switch, and contrary to popular belief, we’re not downloading shows illegally.

I am more than happy to pay $22.99 for Breaking Bad because I get it delivered to me and can watch it on any of my devices with very little effort. I spend more time on the elliptical at the gym because I can catch up with last night’s episode on my iPad. I can lie in bed and watch my favorite shows. I can keep up while I’m out of town. There’s a convenience factor that cable doesn’t offer, not to mention the freedom of only paying for what I want to watch.

Of course, not all shows are available, and there are some I’m definitely missing out on. Walking Dead, for instance, has been sacrificed due to its lack of a presence on Hulu, and the fact that only the first two seasons are on Netflix. Same thing with How I Met Your Mother. I stopped at season 7, as that’s the last set of episodes Netflix has. However, I’ve also started watching shows that I didn’t watch when I had cable. In addition to the aforementioned Scandal, I just binge-watched the first two seasons of Revenge. I watched the first two seasons of Downton Abbey, and was able to watch the third via the PBS app that allowed me to stream the show from my iPad to my TV.

This isn’t even getting into the fact that Netflix is making its own high-quality shows that stand up to anything currently on TV. I fell in love with House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, and of course, immediately devoured Season 4 of Arrested Development.

Last week, I injured my knee and went over to my sister’s house for a few days, as she has fewer stairs that I would have to navigate. She also has cable. I was briefly excited, thinking of everything I could catch up on that I missed during my self-imposed cable hiatus. I turned on the TV, flipped through the On Demand menu, and … nothing. There wasn’t a single show that I wanted to watch. Nothing that I missed that I desperately needed to catch up on, just nothing. In the end, I did end up watching Showtime and catching up on the first few episodes of Dexter. I’ll catch up on a few more next time I’m over there. And I still have absolutely no desire to re-subscribe to a cable service.

Have any of you made the switch away from cable? Is there anything you miss?