Cable: more than basic?

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

We have basic cable service. DW likes movies, I usually don't. She wants to get a premium service like HBO. Our basic includes ESPN and the usual other channels.

I said hold off and rent your movies on DVD. I am happy with the sports we get, national news, and the occasional movie. I occasionally get busted watching mixed martial arts or Cops while surfing. We've been in this standoff for a couple of years.

She say, OK since you don't like going to movies any more (she's right - cell phones, $7 popcorn, dirty theaters, 12 moves in one complex) let's get cable. I change the subject.

Tonight she pulled out the big guns: Curb Your Enthusiasm in possibly its last season. All is lost, I am putty in her hands.

 

[W2R]

You are lost! It may be fun, though.

Right now I get bare bones basic cable due to LBYM. But I plan to retire on a somewhat larger budget. One of the luxuries that I am hoping I can manage would be the full digital cable package with some movie channels. Maybe everything they offer! I just think it would be so luxurious and decadent. And when I am retired, I'll have time to get some value out of it.

 

[Nords]

She wants to get a premium service like HBO.
Tonight she pulled out the big guns: Curb Your Enthusiasm in possibly its last season. All is lost, I am putty in her hands.

You could always threaten to have your budget supervision outsourced to wab.

I haven't priced HBO in years-- how much of a budget-buster is this? I've learned not to kvetch about a $48/month cable bill, even if I hardly ever watch it. My spouse's frivolous-spending habits are pretty minor through garage sales & Craigslist, and she lets me buy photovoltaic panels thousands of dollars at a time. I could probably even bring home a longboard once or twice a year without justification.

Is there a better selection than HBO? It seemed that every month on HBO was the same 2-3 movies beaten to death.

Our immediate-gratification kid is deliriously happy with her Netflix subscription. She fills in the cracks with an occasional library rental or even a purchase. It might be a lot cheaper to see how Netflix works out before your spouse upgrades to HBO and all the other "I want it NOW!!" channels...

 

[honobob]

I will look at what's on occasionally to see what I'm missing. It's usually some 1970's 80's movie I've already seen or some recent movie I've never heard of. After my Dad passed I dropped all cable and pick up about 5 local stations off the air. I did the Netflix thing for awhile. I liked being able to rent the HBO type series and watch a complete season over a few days. Eventually I started renting the same movie again by mistake and even tho I have a pretty wide interest I dropped it after it became harder to pick new movies. I'll probably sign up again for a few months to catch up with new seasons of Cable programs and some recent movies. HBO means viewing on their schedule.

 

[Achiever51]

We have basic cable -- ESPN, History Channel, Food Network, etc., but none of the movie channels or HBO, etc. Every now and then I'll watch the TV Guide lineup on screen and see what I'm missing...but so far, I haven't missed anything enough to cough up the extra $$ for more cable. Besides, I fear that if we had more channels to watch, I'd end up watching more TV!

So now, I'm watching the Sopranos and Sex and the City for "free" on A&E and TBS. OK, so culturally, I'm several years behind the rest of America, but I don't feel I've missed too much

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

You are lost! It may be fun, though.Maybe everything they offer! I just think it would be so luxurious and decadent. And when I am retired, I'll have time to get some value out of it.

Well, you're no help .

 

[Martha]

We just dropped HBO. The movies are not that great and not that recent. We are better off renting movies and renting is convenient with NetFlix if you are so inclined. I am really not a movie watcher--too impatient.

The shows we really liked on HBO are done (Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Flight of the Chonchords). She can catch Curb your Enthusiasm on reruns or rent the season when it is over. I am enjoying renting TV seasons--no commercials.

On the other hand, I like the show Big Love which will be back on HBO next spring/summer. We might crank up HBO again at that point. And then I can watch the reruns of Curb your Enthusiasm.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

We just dropped HBO. The movies are not that great and not that recent. We are better off renting movies and renting is convenient with NetFlix if you are so inclined. I am really not a movie watcher--too impatient.

The shows we really liked on HBO are done (Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Flight of the Chonchords). She can catch Curb your Enthusiasm on reruns or rent the season when it is over. I am enjoying renting TV seasons--no commercials.

On the other hand, I like the show Big Love which will be back on HBO next spring/summer. We might crank up HBO again at that point. And then I can watch the reruns of Curb your Enthusiasm.

Are you trying to confuse me?

 

[Martha]

No, but I did confuse myself.

 

[youbet]

We have basic cable service. DW likes movies, I usually don't. She wants to get a premium service like HBO. Our basic includes ESPN and the usual other channels.

I said hold off and rent your movies on DVD.

Refer to Twaddle's thread on enforcing budgets!

 

[toofrugalformycat]

DH and I have never had cable. There are about five local stations we pick up here. Most of our TV time is watching DVDs and videos we get free from the library.
Between them and the internet, it's already too big a part of my day spent sitting.
I'll save cable for if and when I am too stove up to play outside and too brain-dead to read.

 

[mh]

We have basic cable service. DW likes movies, I usually don't. She wants to get a premium service like HBO. Our basic includes ESPN and the usual other channels.

I said hold off and rent your movies on DVD. I am happy with the sports we get, national news, and the occasional movie. I occasionally get busted watching mixed martial arts or Cops while surfing. We've been in this standoff for a couple of years.

She say, OK since you don't like going to movies any more (she's right - cell phones, $7 popcorn, dirty theaters, 12 moves in one complex) let's get cable. I change the subject.

Tonight she pulled out the big guns: Curb Your Enthusiasm in possibly its last season. All is lost, I am putty in her hands.

i dropped hbo etc.. and went with a netflix subscription.
a much better value in my personal opinion. i believe it ended up being
cheaper also..

 

[bright eyed]

What's the cost difference rich?

our cable now has On demand which is a nice feature, you can watch current and old series when you want! you could deny the rentals in place of the HBO if the costs come out close to even. then you can see if it's a "want" or a "need"

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

What's the cost difference rich?

our cable now has On demand which is a nice feature, you can watch current and old series when you want! you could deny the rentals in place of the HBO if the costs come out close to even. then you can see if it's a "want" or a "need"

Point well taken, but I can tell you without doing the math that it's a want, for sure.

Curb Your Enthusiasm, OTOH, is a need.

 

[kcowan]

When our cable introduced a whole raft of new specialty channels, we opted for digital cable to make surfing easier. 4 movie channels give us the best of HBO. About 75 channels plus PPV, VOD and 40 music channels.

Along with high speed internet, with taxes $110/mo.

 

[Moemg]

I am also a movie lover so instead of HBO which has older movies on I did Blockbuster.com. Similar to netflix but you also have the option of going to the store .I do one at a time unlimited monthly rentals for $9.95 .I've been very happy with it .

 

[tryan]

Dropped the cable box after the kids got addicted to cartoon network. Nick (Spongebob, fairy odd parents ...) were BAD enough but the death and destruction on cartoon network made our decision a no brainer.

Miss the comedy channel the most ... then HBO (for the series ... not the movies).

Got burned during the MLB playoffs ... FOX had the finals and world series (no problem there). But the first series were missing (forget the channel ... we didn't have it).

 

[Texas Proud]

My sister goes and rents the movies out of the 'box' at the supermarket for $1 each... get to see what you want, when you want and don't worry if you hold it over for another day...

I am useless in this discussion as I don't have cable.

 

[Danny]

I cancelled Dish this week.
Got a HD Receiver and atennae for just the locals over the air.
Little pricey but no more monthly charges.
Only seem to watch PBS anyway...Not getting sucked into the TV every night...freeing up time for other activities - priceless

 

[justin]

I'd say consider blockbuster.com or netflix. For about $20/month you can get a couple of new releases every week (or more if you can time it just right). Not sure how the blockbuster service still works, but they used to give you 2 free in-store rentals plus the 2-3 at a time mail order rentals.

The cost is probably close to HBO's cost (if it's like my system here where you have to upgrade to digital, then pay extra for the HBO suite). The convenience is hard to compare - if you don't mind waiting a day or two for most things or a few weeks for new releases, then the netflix/blockbuster might be better.

 

[Dawg52]

I have a $50/mo version of cable. No HBO but does have ESPN, Golf Channel, History, A&E, and AMC. AMC does the job for me as far as movies are concerned.

 

[CuppaJoe]

I see the entire fifth season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is available from Amazon.com for $27.99 (free shipping). Assuming later seasons will also be available and (this is a bigger stretch) assuming that money is the main issue: Consider that when I switched from expanded cable (which did not include HBO) to basic cable, the savings was $30.00 a month. Voila, you can buy a new video every month for the difference or better yet a bouquet of flowers.

Every time SO grumbles about what's not on TV, I say we can't watch that game (the Rockies may tumble...[not]) because we have an extra $30.00/month.

 

[TromboneAl]

I remember this from back when we had full cable: Flipping all the way through fifty channels (or however many we had) and saying "I can't believe that there are fifty channels, or however many we have, and there isn't anything that I want to watch!"

We have basic $10/month cable, and currently have a backlog of 20 movies we've recorded but haven't watched. Granted, 18 of them won't be any good, but combined with the library videos, we rarely catch up.

 

[Danny]

I see the entire fifth season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is available from Amazon.com for $27.99 (free shipping). Assuming later seasons will also be available and (this is a bigger stretch) assuming that money is the main issue: Consider that when I switched from expanded cable (which did not include HBO) to basic cable, the savings was $30.00 a month. Voila, you can buy a new video every month for the difference or better yet a bouquet of flowers.

Every time SO grumbles about what's not on TV, I say we can't watch that game (the Rockies may tumble...[not]) because we have an extra $30.00/month.

Can also Netflix for 2 at a time for less than $15 a month I've watched Curb, Big Love, Rome, 6 feet Under, Dexter etc. this way

 

[Jeb-NY]

I'm also a Netflix fan (no cable). 3 at a time around $17/month and you can stream another 17 hours free from their web site. Last I checked there was about 5000 titles in their stream library, I think they are over 70,000 titles in their mail to you library. We have no problem turning a dozen+ titles a month around. When we are in a movie watching mode 4-5 a week is possible (we are close to a distribution center, mail back on Monday have new ones on Wednesday).

You can also setup multiple Queues. There suppose to be for multiple people but we have a movie Que (2 disks) and a TV Que (1 disk). 2 movies and 1 old TV show series at a time works for us most of the time. We also buy the Netflix movies that they are retiring after the initial demand drops off. $5.99-9.99 for those movies we know we will watch over and over through the years.

Jeb