Opting Out

For the first time in our lives, Steve and I are paying our own utilities. While perusing cable and satellite rates, we became disgusted. No way were we going to pay those rates for a bunch of channels we don’t even watch. So we elected to go “back to the future.”

First, for the blast from the past part, we purchased a small indoor antenna for our little television in the upstairs bedroom. Then, we acquired a much more substantial outdoor antenna for the entertainment center downstairs.


We are able to get local network channels and public television quite clearly.

To watch our favorite cable shows, we are employing a combination of iTunes and free programming from various websites. I actually prefer this to the package cable or satellite model because we are directly supporting the shows we enjoy. They can see what we are purchasing and downloading and know what shows we value.

We should recoup our start-up costs (for the antennas and a converter box for our older non-digital TV downstairs) in just a few months based on the cost of a basic cable package. So far, it’s working marvelously and helping us save at least a little bit of money.