Summer Nights + Why You Don’t Need Cable

When we moved into our new home we decided to give up cable. Really the only time we watched it anyway was in the mornings watching The Today Show (which I do miss) and randomly at nights when we didn’t have a specific show to watch. The majority of time though we were watching Hulu Plus, Netflix or Amazon Instant Video.

If you haven’t made the switch to no cable yet, let me fill you in on a secret – It’s totally worth it.

There will definitely be some growing pains. Like I said, I can’t turn on the news in the morning and listen to the top stories and hear the weather for the week. If there’s a show I really want to watch live I have to find somewhere to watch it (like PLL last week at my Mom’s house … #dontjudgeme.) I sometimes miss shows I wouldn’t stream like Wheel of Fortune, Duck Dynasty or House Hunters.

But let me tell you the biggest benefit of it all (besides saving money) – it will seem like you have so much more free time. Maybe you’re not like us, but before we gave up cable, this would be our routine: come home, turn on the tv, start making dinner, watch tv during dinner, watch tv after dinner. But since we don’t have that option anymore, we’re way more selective about what we watch. We don’t just turn on the tv to turn it on for noise. If we turn it on it’s to watch a show we really want to watch.

Now, let me remind you, we’re tv watchers – we have so many shows we keep up with during the season it’s a little insane. Then in the Summer usually we pick a few shows we want to start watching or catch up on that we don’t have time to watch during the year. Summer 2014 was Orange Is The New Black, but we finished that a few weeks ago and haven’t started anything else. Even though I get an itch every now and then to start a new show so we have something to watch, I’m trying to hold back. It’s like an addiction. We don’t need something to watch every night. We have plenty of other things to fill our time. Instead we’ve been …

playing ball with Olli in the backyard,
reading together on the couch or going to bed early to lay in bed and read,
sitting on the porch really talking about our days,
cooking dinner together,
cleaning up dinner together,
hanging out with friends,
going on walks

It’s really felt like Summer – long nights with seemingly unending sunlight. So I implore you, even if you decide to keep cable, maybe turn it off just for the Summer. (How many good tv shows are on right now anyway?) Or maybe just have specific no tv nights during the week.

I hope you will find it as refreshing as we have.
xo xo