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            Each month I get the phone bill, which includes our television bill, and I consider cutting the cord.

            We have one of those bundles which includes Internet, SaskTel Max and unlimited North America long distance, so I’m not exactly sure what the TV bill is. Our bundle comes in at $146.85 a month, the bulk of which is television. That includes the movie package that has been on the chopping block for a long time, but the axe hasn’t swung yet.

            There’s another $36 for CraveTV, high definition, DVR and three set top boxes. When you add it all up, the total is $243.92 a month. Add another $225.61 for two cell phones on high usage plans, and equipment financing, and our total bill to SaskTel starts to rival the grocery bill.

            A few months ago we finally got fibre optic activated, which dramatically increased our Internet speed for the same price, but I haven’t noticed much of an improvement on the quality of the TV.

            I probably haven’t noticed because I hardly watch TV anymore. It’s usually Netflix, YouTube documentaries or one of our never-ending stack of Blu-rays, often with digital copies.             The only time we collectively watch something on the 50-inch big screen is during supper, or when Big Bang Theory is on. Otherwise, each of us is usually content to have something playing on our individual tablets or computers.

            My go-to TV channels – History and Discovery, have largely become full of reality TV crap. Katrina wanted to watch something historical on history last night. We turned it on, and it was a reality series about guys forging knives, because apparently knives and blades were used way back when. The Food Network is not much better.

            We usually watch the evening news on the TV, but this past week I noticed that the local TV stations are now running livestreams on Facebook. I caught a Global supper newscast the other day because it appeared on my Facebook stream.

            We are prodigious users of the PVR. If it’s a show someone wants to watch, it’s almost always done via PVR and not live broadcast. If we cut the cord, that means no more PVR, and that would be a problem, but we could get by.

            My wife is a NASCAR fan, and she likes to watch it on the big screen, usually live, but sometimes on the PVR. So that’s one argument to keep it.

            Several people I know now have those livestreaming Android boxes, which is another way of saying Napster in the 21st century.

            As a producer of copyrighted material myself, I buy all my content, and don’t steal any of it, so the idea these Android boxes is unappealing at best.

            There’s also the question of keeping the landline phone. I use it, and the long distance package, an awful lot for work. I also enjoy having hour long conversations with friends and family without watching the clock, like I did when long distance was charged by the minute.

            But my cellphone plan would now cover that, so maybe I could get rid of the landline?

The problem arises with the kids, however. I am totally unwilling to pay for cellphone packages for 10 and 13 year olds.

            When Katrina’s looking after Spencer, they need the ability to call someone in case there are issues. Indeed, soon Katrina will be babysitting for other families, and that very issue has come up. What does she do where families no longer have a landline and take their cellphones with them?

            TV, and telephones, have gone through a strange evolution. It used to be there was one unit of each in the house, attached to the wall, and they were for communal use.

            Now there are often multiple, large screen TVs in households, more spectacular than could have been imagined by science fiction, but people instead watch their small, individual and mobile tablets. Single landlines have given way to individual wireless phones.

            We’re not cutting the cord yet. In any scenario, we’d still be paying for high-end fiber Internet.

            But I can see the day when the axe might come out. For many people, it already has.