Cut the Cord and switched to an Antenna for TV

[lman]

City limits and water/sewer bill not optional...

Monthly charge BEFORE a drop of water is used is $150... so $1800 annually.

Summer water can add as much as $300 month.

It is just not here but other places like South Lake Tahoe... 2000 gallons a year... yes 2000 gallons annual use last year and still $1300... having the service turned off means water company pulls meter... to reset meter costs thousands of dollars...

This is how the district keeps year round revenues when use is primarily Summer months.

Are wells an option or is the groundwater too deep to drill a well? In my area everyone not living in town has a well and septic tank with no monthly charge.

 

[ultrarunner]

Are wells an option or is the groundwater too deep to drill a well? In my area everyone not living in town has a well and septic tank with no monthly charge.

Not really... my brother spent 40k in search of water for the farm and came up dry... there is water in the area... he did the soundings, geo reports and sunk two wells... one went down 800'.

The only positive if you can call it is the expense is a business expense... his wife still reminds him of his 40k extravagance on occasion.

Since I sue so little water much of the year I was thinking of an RV hose from the neighbor... last year around this time I average 44 gallons a day...

The water company offers a free consult and that is what I did... the person came out with all kinds of leak tablets and charts and when it was all said and done said he has nothing to offer... as I use 44 gallons of water in a 3200 square foot home... the account and meter fee are sizable and required since single family homes are required after a certain date to have home fire sprinklers...

The real issue is the "Water" bill in Oakland CA has gone from just another bill to one that can be a budget buster.. I run into this all the time managing rentals here... people are often in shock when that first bill comes... all the fixed charges have nothing to do with water used... we go though the process and show if you had not used a single drop of water your bill would still be this much.

As for the 400 gallon daily water use in June-November it is just the cost of keeping the garden and fruit trees and a backyard lawn....

With tiered water rates a homeowner up the street found it was cheaper to fill his pool trucking in water than to use the hydrant.

 

[EddieWalker]

I never have had a Section 8 family without cable and a nice TV for the time... projection, flat and even curved...

Add the latest version of the I Phone, Laptop and latest fashion in what they are wearing along with a high end lease car to that list too. I used to deliver to some Section 8 housing units in the Hayward Hills back in the 90's, and it was amazing how many Mercedes and BMW's that I saw in the parking lots. Dell was one of our main clients, so I was delivering them all over the place. Almost every day, somebody in a Section 8 unit would get a brand new Dell computer.

 

[ultrarunner]

Cell Phone, High Speed and even Laptops are often free or little cost to Section 8/assistance participants... plus reduced utility rates and even the 10 cent grocery bag charge is waived... etc...

 

[TractorGuy]

Kicked DTV to the curb years ago.

Get the TV Listings & Guide Plus app for your phones. You can set it up for local stations and add or delete stations you want/don't want. We get some stations I don't want and I have deleted them from my channel listing on the TV and the app.

We just have a few stations and shows we actually watch which isn't any different from when we had 150 channels. We watch the news every day. I watch big bang reruns most every day at 7pm. We enjoy the Thursday evening comedy shows. Sunday Morning on CBS is usually good.

Sometimes I watch PBS shows when they aren't fund raising. I have donated to them before but they always want more. I get annoyed with their soliciting so I don't donate any more. If they would accept what I'm willing to give and not hassle me for more I wouldn't mind donating a little every year.

I pay the two connection rate on Netflix and share it with my daughter. She pays for Amazon Prime and shares it with us. Between those, You Tube, and OTA TV we don't want for entertainment.

Any sports or other program that want's to tie their broadcast to a special subscription besides the ones I mentioned doesn't deserve my viewership.

 

[ultrarunner]

PBS here always had telethon auctions years ago... they were fun and I bought a welder and other things while supporting PBS...

Sadly the auctions are just a distant memory... happy to support back then but now refuse to be an ATM

Sorry Eddie for going off topic...

One thing is TV... especially unlimited TV can take over a person's life... seen it happen until they had a revelation and booted cable to the curb.

 

[goeduck]

City limits and water/sewer bill not optional...

Monthly charge BEFORE a drop of water is used is $150... so $1800 annually.

Summer water can add as much as $300 month.

It is just not here but other places like South Lake Tahoe... 2000 gallons a year... yes 2000 gallons annual use last year and still $1300... having the service turned off means water company pulls meter... to reset meter costs thousands of dollars...

This is how the district keeps year round revenues when use is primarily Summer months.

I sold a house in the big city up here and while the house was on the market the base bill for no water unless someone flushed the toilet was $250 a month. Sewer, water, storm water run off. Crazy!

The lot was tiny, 63 ft x 150 ft and the stormwater runoff fee was $80 month alone if I recall correctly.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep... mom pays a lot for storm water runoff... the kicker is the storm water runoff from the neighborhood all drains to her land!!!

Not talking about natural flow but pipe storm drains, gutters and downspouts... she has two seasonal creeks on her property.

 

[goeduck]

Yep... mom pays a lot for storm water runoff... the kicker is the storm water runoff from the neighborhood all drains to her land!!!

Not talking about natural flow but pipe storm drains, gutters and downspouts... she has two seasonal creeks on her property.

They should be issuing her a credit :laughing:

 

[Oaktree]

Speaking of ROKU, some of my savings gained from the antenna goes towards buying batteries for the ROKU remotes, particularly the ones paired to the sticks. I have never seen remotes gobble batteries so much. AAA batteries. We set them on solid surfaces because I read they were motion activated, but I do not know that for sure.

I've had a Roku for a couple years and I think it's still got the same batteries it came with, what are you doing that drains them so fast? We bought it when Spectrum started requiring cable boxes at $11 and change a month for even the "lifeline" ultra basic service we had. Turns out there's a Spectrum ap (clunky, but does the job) for Roku so we get the channel package we subscribe to without the box. There's quite a bit of free other programming available, but most of it's free for a reason. :thumbdown:

Eddie, depending on your Roku model, you might have volume control on it. Check the right side of the remote for volume buttons.

Mine has it, but it doesn't seem to work with my tv. Then again, we run the line outs of the tv thru a stereo amplifier for better sound...the remote may not control them.

Yep... mom pays a lot for storm water runoff... the kicker is the storm water runoff from the neighborhood all drains to her land!!!

Not talking about natural flow but pipe storm drains, gutters and downspouts... she has two seasonal creeks on her property.

I'm not even going to ask why they're charging her for storm runoff (I totally don't "get" California), but do they actually meter the storm drains? Are you responsible for any storm drains in front of your property even though they're technically on public property?

 

[goeduck]

I'm not even going to ask why they're charging her for storm runoff (I totally don't "get" California), but do they actually meter the storm drains? Are you responsible for any storm drains in front of your property even though they're technically on public property?

Not sure about CA, up here they do not meter it and I am sure they do not down there. They charge you because we own land and they can charge you, even in addition to county property taxes on the same land. Double taxation as I see it.

 

[MossRoad]

The volume buttons on the side of my Roku remote are for controlling the volume on the headphones that you can plug into the remote. Never tried them for volume on the TV.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm thinking about getting a LG soundbar for better sound. My current amplifier is still very nice, but it's beyond me to figure out how to get sound to work from it with the cable from the antenna going straight to the TV

 

[s219]

I'm thinking about getting a LG soundbar for better sound. My current amplifier is still very nice, but it's beyond me to figure out how to get sound to work from it with the cable from the antenna going straight to the TV

No audio output on the back of the TV? That will be the place that the audio is split out from the TV signal and made available for hookup to a stereo, powered speakers, etc.

 

[MossRoad]

I'm thinking about getting a LG soundbar for better sound. My current amplifier is still very nice, but it's beyond me to figure out how to get sound to work from it with the cable from the antenna going straight to the TV

If you post the make and model of your TV, we can probably find a manual on-line, find a pic of the inputs and outputs, and figure it out with you. If you get a soundbar, you're gonna have to hook it up to the TV as well, correct?

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm not even going to ask why they're charging her for storm runoff (I totally don't "get" California), but do they actually meter the storm drains? Are you responsible for any storm drains in front of your property even though they're technically on public property?

It is a fee based on square footage of the parcel... so 5000 city lot is one thing... acreage adds up...

 

[goeduck]

I sold a house in the big city up here and while the house was on the market the base bill for no water unless someone flushed the toilet was $250 a month. Sewer, water, storm water run off. Crazy!

The lot was tiny, 63 ft x 150 ft and the stormwater runoff fee was $80 month alone if I recall correctly.

I looked this up and have to correct myself. It was a 2 month bill. So $125 a month for zero usage. Still a lot for a base rate on a tiny lot. The bill had water, sewer (a function of water usage) and stormwater runoff.

 

[TractorGuy]

I'm thinking about getting a LG soundbar for better sound. My current amplifier is still very nice, but it's beyond me to figure out how to get sound to work from it with the cable from the antenna going straight to the TV

I have the Vizio sound bar with the sub woofer and surround speakers. I really like the sound quality connected to my Vizio TV with the optical cable. The sound bar connects to the sub woofer via bluetooth but the surround speakers are wired to the sub woofer. Cuts down on having long wires between the sound bar and woofer/surround speakers.

 

[ultrarunner]

We have a city fee of $40 for the city owned mains... a treatment fee... account fee, flow fee and tiered usage fee... oh, I forgot the save the Bay environmental fee...

The last house on my street IS on septic... one of a handful in the city... built in 1940 and more than a 1000 yards from a line...

There is also another home on the road coming up that is one well water... predates city water but is on sewer when it came in early 50's...

Oh… if you have well with city water there is annual backflow device testing added...

 

[goeduck]

I also owned a house that had a septic tank that was originally in the county, then annexed to the city. The city did not have a main run down the street since they took it over from the county but forced all of the houses on the street to pay sewer fees because that was the policy/law. I was an out of town owner so I could not very well fight it other than by letter and phone. The neighbors went to the city council meetings but got nowhere. Promises to look into it, but nothing happened. Bureaucracy. I since sold the house.