What To Watch When You Don’t Have Cable

As renters, we always had cable and internet included in our rental costs. Now as condo owners, we have to pay for those services ourselves. And let me tell you, it’s expensive! I had no idea how much internet and cable costs were until April last year, and I wrote a post about that experience. The condo we live in is set up with fibre optics, which is faster, but it ties us to either Rogers or Bell as other ISPs can’t run on these fibre optics*. Our decision was to go without cable television and just pay for internet. When people find out we don’t have cable their response is “What do you watch??…” or “Do you have a TV?”. The answers are “Lots of stuff!” and “um.. yes (Duh…)” Just kidding on that last part. I used to think the same thing when I found out people didn’t have cable. So if you’re curious what we do at Casa Watson, here it is!

We’ve been subscribers to Netflix.ca (for about $8/month) since 2009… long before we knew anyone else using it and back when it was all grainy off-brand movies from the 90’s. It has come a LONG way since then. There are lots of lists online on what to watch, like this one by the Huffington Post. My husband and I are currently watching Orange Is The New Black season 3, but he’s watching a bunch of other shows, like House of Cards, and House of Lies. Also, the movie selections are great, as is Netflix Kids, but Benjamin is a bit too young for section.

YouTube has blown up in the last few years. I remember going on it and posting a few videos back in 2007 when there was a 3-minute limit. Now people have very successful careers being professional YouTubers! I watch a variety of channels from daily vloggers, to makeup gurus, to news-y reporters, to comic videos. If there’s something you want to learn, someone has made a video about it on YouTube. It is very easy to get caught up in a YouTube black hole. I suggest disabling the “auto-play” feature so that you have more control. Here are a few of my current favourite channels:

• WhatsUpMoms: Comedic shorts, DIYs, and recipes
• BuzzFeedVideo: Fun, inspiring, interesting videos. There’s also BuzzFeedYellow, BuzzfeedViolet, and other colours, but I’m not sure what the difference is.
• The Slow Mo Guys: They film cool stuff in super slow motion and it’s pretty wicked.
• Philip DeFranco, LastWeekTonight: news and pop culture topics as discussed by Philip DeFranco and John Oliver. Hilarious and informative.
• Jamie Oliver, The Domestic Geek : Food channels. Lots of dinner inspiration. Yum.
• Desi Perkins /Jaclyn Hill / Lauren Curtis: Makeup gurus. These girls are beautiful and can teach you a thing or two about makeup

 

A lot of people don’t know this, but tv stations have a LOT of shows available to stream (for free) on their websites. So in terms of Canadian stations, I’m talking about Global TV, CityTV, CTV, MTV Canada, HGTV, etc. Just look around and you’ll see what I mean. I use these stations to watch most of my cable shows that I’m “missing” by not having a traditional cable subscription. The only caveat is that you can’t watch them live. Sometimes they’re available the same day, but mostly I watch these shows the following day. Also, they’re not available online forever. Some only stay available for one week, some for a few weeks. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Using this method I watch shows like:

• The Social, on CTV (I watch this every day during Benjamin’s afternoon nap, some time between 3-5, and it airs live at 1pm, so it gets to their site FAST)
• The Amazing Race Canada, on CTV
• The Bachelorette, on CityTV
• When they’re back on in the fall, I’ll use this method to watch Big Bang Theory, Black-ish, Modern Family, New Girl, etc. 

DVDs

Kevin owns a few hundred movies on DVD. I have a few TV series on DVD. We watch them sparingly.

What We’re Missing..

Kevin loves Game of Thrones and sports. He’ll get GoT episode downloads from others and he watches sports at our parents houses when he’s there, but we don’t make special trips for it.

***Tip!***

My biggest tip to streaming online is to download an ad blocker. It has completely changed my streaming experience! I use AdBlock Plus and it’s available on Chrome and Firefox. I cannot recommend this enough as it removes all the ads at the beginning of YouTube Videos and all the commercials from the network TV sites. Even if you’re not streaming, this removes ads from other websites. I love it.

Additionally, I have a computer tower set up to our TV. Basically our TV is acting as a giant computer monitor, so when I turn on the computer the TV opens up to my desktop. I have a wireless keyboard and mouse so I sit on my couch to do everything computer related. It’s awesome. Whenever anyone comes over they think it’s a SmartTV, but it’s just a basic flat screen.

I hope this helps you expand your knowledge of tv/video watching options outside of traditional cable! What’s available in Canada versus the U.S. varies greatly (it seems like our options are more limited) so if you’re a Canuck and have another option I’ve missed here, please feel free to share it!

*After I finished writing this post, I read a news article that says the CRTC is forcing the country’s big ISPs to allow competitors access to their fibre optic lines.

Living Without Cable

and for a scary few weeks, without internet!

I have a confession to make: I’ve never lived in an apartment/house that didn’t include cable and internet. That includes my parents’ house growing up, residence in university, 2 university rentals, and 3 different post-university rentals. The cable and internet has always been included in my rental costs, except for an apartment that I had in university where the cable was just never disconnected so I had free cable for 2 years!! #opportunisticcriminal

As the move to this new apartment was so temporary, we decided to not get cable or internet while we were here. We figured it’d be 2 months (tops!) before our move to the condo. As it stands, the day after we moved in here, we got notification telling us to schedule our Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) for our unit. I was excited at the prospect of a move so soon following our move here (that meant we really wouldn’t have to unpack anything except bare essentials), but I was sceptical that this PDI would actually go through on April 16th, as planned. My pessimism was due to the facts that:

1. >90% of purchasers had their first PDIs cancelled
2. there was no permit yet for people to move in on our floor
3. we had taken our own private sneak peak at our unit and were missing things, including flooring, toilets, light switches, closet doors, door handles, etc.

Two days beforehand, we received notice that our PDI was cancelled. At this point, I had gone 2 weeks without cable and internet. If you’re thinking, “oh poor you #sarcasm #firstworldproblems”, you’re absolutely right! I never knew before how much I depended on cable and internet! In an act of desperation, I called Bell. Bell and Rogers are both offering pretty sweet deals to the purchasers of my condo so I wanted to see if I could get any kind of deal extended to this apartment for internet service. The gentleman at Bell was very nice, and offered a great deal in terms of monthly costs for internet (about $30 for a crapload of bandwidth), but the start-up cost was $50 and we’d be locked in for 2 years. Um, no thanks. I’ll stick to my DVDs and browsing internet on my iPhone for now. This whole process has made me seriously consider not going with either of the two major service providers this city offers and finding an independent that will offer a better package at a better cost!

After talking to the Bell guy, I thought about the tenants upstairs. Before we even moved in, I wondered if I would have the balls to ask them (a retiree and her daughter) if we could share their wifi (if they had it) and split the cost while we were in this apartment. They are both very very nice ladies, but I’m a wimp and couldn’t bring myself to ask them. I didn’t want them to think we were trying to take advantage, but I did see it as a win-win situation – if they had a decent amount of bandwidth, we could supplement their costs for it for a month or two and it wouldn’t affect them at all. Makes sense, right? I just had to muster up the nerve to ask. Turns out, my mom (their landlady) ended up asking them for me one day while she was here doing maintenance and they were totally fine with it! They said have unlimited bandwidth (whaaaaaaaaat? I didn’t know such a thing existed!) and they didn’t want our money. We insisted several times, but they were adamant. Since we have a car and they don’t, I’ve offered to take them to the store/grocery shopping while we live here. I have a feeling they’ll never take us up on that offer either, so we’ll probably just end up getting them something to show them our appreciation before we move out.

How’s that for a feel-good story with a happy ending!? I now have internet and am a happy lady. I’ve been streaming TV, which feels like such a luxury! And I’ve learned that internet hands down beats cable. So much so, in fact, that I think we could actually do without cable altogether and save ourselves that added monthly expense!

Giveaway: iTunes Gift Card

Hey, guess what? It’s time for a little reader appreciation! I want to thank each and every one of you for reading my blog. Each comment and each follow makes my heart happy and I’d like to show a little thanks for the support

* * * * *

What’s up for grabs?

A $25 iTunes Gift Card!
An iTunes Gift Card lets you shop for anything at the iTunes Store — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Shop for music, movies, TV shows, apps, audiobooks, and more.

How to enter:

This contest is only open to followers of Not A House, But A Home. Leave one comment for each entry:

1. Leave a comment to let me know you're a follower. If you're not already a follower, it's easy! Click “Join This Site” on the right toolbar. That's one entry!
   
2. Bonus Entry: Tweet about this contest on Twitter: “I just entered to win a $25 iTunes gift card from @NotHouseButHome | http://goo.gl/jTvDJ | #NAHBAHiTunes”

Open to: Canada Only – it’s a Canadian iTunes card and only works on Canadian iTunes accounts…my apologies to the international readers!

Closes: Sunday March 11th, 2012 at 6pm (EST). The winner will be randomly selected and announced that week.

Good luck everyone!!

Note: If you don’t have a Disqus account, please make sure to check back or leave your email address in your comment for me to contact you. If the winner doesn’t provide mailing information within 7 days of winner announcement, I’ll redraw for a new winner.

New Computer and Windows Live Writer

A couple weeks ago, I reached my boiling point with my old computer. It’s refurbished (2006) and I’ve had it since my university laptop clunked out on me in Jan 2007… in the middle of my thesis no less! I bought this computer because it was the cheapest one at $400. I borrowed a keyboard, mouse and monitor from my parents for the rest of the term – I only had 4 months left of university anyway. In all honesty, it served me pretty well during our 5 years together, but I knew it was time for an upgrade when:

• I’d turn it on then go eat breakfast because it takes that long to boot up
  
• I’d wake up in the middle of the night because the fan would start whirring really loudly
  
• I couldn’t upload all the necessary upgrades to install Windows Live Writer, which I keep hearing over and over again will change my blogging life for the better.

I called my brother, who is a whiz with computers, to ask for his advice on what computer to buy. He asked me my budget and told me if I could wait a few weeks, he could make me a custom computer. SWEET! He lives in Ottawa, hence the wait – my parents visited him for Family Day/his birthday so they brought it back with them. Daniel took pictures throughout the building process – check ‘em out!


I now have Windows 7 (smell ya later Vista!) and Windows Live Writer! I’ve been tinkering around with it a bit and so far so good… well I guess I should save my judgement until after this post gets published…


Does anyone else use WLW? Have any tips or suggestions?