Goodbye Cable, Hello Slingbox!

Do you find yourself questioning the real value of cable in your life? Ever wonder how you can eliminate that pesky cable bill from your monthly bills? I have the answer - spend a little bit on a piece of technology and then let someone else handle paying the cable bill. "Yeah Right, TMac!" you say. I say "Hells to the YES!" Read on friend!

Last month Lazy Man of Lazy Man and Money posted about cutting cable TV out of his life by switching to an antenna and over the air channels, but upon further analysis he noted that there were a few channels that were not available over the air like ESPN or FX.

When I was reading this, I got to thinking - How can I get rid of my DirecTV? Lazy Man discussed utilizing Slingbox technology or getting an antenna for over the air channels. Upon inspection of my TV watching habits, I know I like a couple of channels that are not available over the air like Food Network, Discovery Channel and TLC. So with that realization the over the air antenna option was gone. Slingbox was left.

In case you aren't familiar with Slingbox it is a device that hooks into your cable connection and streams your TV channels onto the web so that you can watch TV on any PC anywhere you have an internet connection. Best thing is this technology is COMPLETELY LEGAL. So the next time you are on a trip and you can catch the latest episode of Scrubs and LOST! Pretty neat huh? I think so too. Here is my initial plan on replacing cable with Slingbox (utilizing my parent's cable plan):

• Convince Mom and Dad that the Fancy Thinking Box that TMac is hooking up to their cable connection is a good thing.
• Buy the Slingbox and install it at my parent's house in Boston.
• Stream their cable connection down to Virginia via the web. (Make sure they keep paying for internet after all the kids move out. I got a couple years at least!)
• Connect my computer to my TV via S-Video output.
• Enjoy my favorite cable and New England based programming! (It pains me that every year I miss out on the Yanks/Sox matchups as well as pretty much all the New England Patriots games)

Assuming this hair-brained scheme to covertly mooch off of my parents technologically works, financially it is a no brainer. It will take me six months to break even after cutting ties with DirecTV to recoup the costs of the Slingbox.

After six months I will have an extra $67/month to help with other aspects of my finances! Now all I have to do is convince mom and dad to upgrade to HBO!