Life Without Cable – 10 Things We Noticed After Cutting the Cord

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We cut our cable over a week ago, and it looks like we are going to survive. Not that my wife or I were concerned that life without cable was going to be a big deal. After-all, we still have plenty of food and water, a warm roof over our heads, and much more.

So far, things have been great. Even our 3 kids have adjusted nicely to the switch. I will point out that we didn’t completely go cold turkey and have Netflix, Hulu, and Sling TV as a cable alternative.

The most important benefit of cutting the cord is the monthly savings. Estimates show we will save at least $70 per month on the switch (or $800+ annually) alone. I am licking my chops thinking about the next dividend stock that we will buy with these monthly savings!

While saving money was the motivator for ditching our cable, we have noticed several other benefits from dropping our service.

Here is a list of 10 benefits of dropping cable other than saving money.

1. We Talk More

Not that our communication was all that bad, but my wife and I have had more conversations lately. We don’t have the television on as much as we used to and as a result have been talking a bunch more lately about our day.

The kids have also been a little less zombie like now that that television isn’t on as much as it once was.

2. Less Noise in the House

I love the minimalist benefits of living without cable. There is less noise in our home since the television is not constantly on. The kids still watch shows on Netflix from time to time but not as much as they used to with cable.

Here at the Money Sprout, we believe that adopting a more minimalist lifestyle is a critical step you must take to achieve financial independence. What better way to start than by cutting your cable?

3. More Hours to Build Income Streams

Another huge win for me is that I have found a bunch more time to work on building new income streams. Life with cable meant that the television was always on – which caused distractions regardless of what I was doing. Now, I can find an extra hour every evening where I can focus on creating and building new income streams.

Even if building income streams is not your thing, I am sure you can find something productive to do instead of watching television.

4. Kids Play More Outside

It could be that the weather is getting warmer, but I have noticed the kids are outside a bunch more now. They don’t constantly ask to go inside and watch television anymore. Instead, they prefer to stay outside longer and longer which I absolutely love.

5. Earn More Money

This list includes the benefits of dropping cable other than saving money.

I never said anything about being able to earn more money though. Yes, we are going to save at least $840 this next year by dropping our cable. Guess what? Those dollars are going directly into dividend stocks which will … earn us more money.

It may not be a ton, but we should earn around $35 per year in dividends by investing this money.

This is how wealth is built!

6. Get More Sleep

Sounds simple, but yes I have been getting more sleep. The television is not on as much at night and I can actually go to bed with fewer distractions. Go figure!

I still don’t get as much sleep as I should (7 to 8 hours per night), but I have gained some sleep back.

Note – I want to point out that while this is technically a personal finance site, we also discuss healthy living here from time to time. In order to be fiscally fit, we believe you need to be physically fit too!

7. Let’s Cut More!

I don’t know why, but there is something about cutting back on our spending that makes us want to do it again. To be honest, it is a little addictive and we are already looking for our next big cutback.

For example, we started looking for ways to cut our landline and figure out a cheaper alternative to high speed internet. My wife even talked about cutting out one of the streaming services that we just signed up for.

If we plan to reach our goal of investing 20% of our income, we are going to need to ride this wave!

8. Location Independence

One of the characteristics of the Money Sprout Blueprint is to build location independent income streams. While we are not directly building new income streams by cutting cable, we are relying less on the location we live. No more cable boxes and hardware. Now we just have our Roku boxes, Amazon Fire TV Sticks and a couple of streaming services.

We could pick up tomorrow and leave our home and not have any issues. No long term contracts anymore. We can even watch Netflix and Hulu remotely – say from an iPad.

9. Watching Past Seasons

I don’t want to act like we don’t watch television at all anymore – because we still do. However, it is a ton less than with cable.

One of the unexpected benefits that we have discovered is watching past seasons of our favorite shows. This is where Netflix (and Hulu to a certain extent) can come in handy. We can go back and watch the first couple seasons of our favorite shows which is a nice benefit of no cable.

Note – I will say that Netflix can get a little addictive and you need to be careful of getting hooked at binge watching shows.

10. No Television Ads

No television ads for our kids to watch!

I love that when my kids watch shows on Netflix, there are no ads to watch. No commercials advertising unhealthy foods and other toys they don’t really need.

The Hulu package that we have does have commercials but it is a lot less than regular television. We could opt to spend another $4 a month to get the service without any ads.

Conclusion

My wife and I had been talking about cutting our cable for several years now. When our cable company decided to raise our rates again at the first of the year – we finally had enough.

By switching to a cable alternative, we are saving over $70 each month – which will give us more money to invest.

Just in our first week of life without cable, we have noticed that not only are we saving money – there are also other hidden benefits that we never realized.

Having more time in our day is just one of these extra benefits that our family has started to enjoy.

Have you cut your cable? What other benefits have you seen that don’t include saving money?

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