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Last year we decided to get rid of cable during the spring and summer months. We figured we could save some money and spend more time outside anyway. In our house, the tv is pretty much always on, even if no one is really watching anything. I guess we have it for background noise and something to catch your eye every now and then. Most of the shows we follow are fall shows and we watch football in the fall, so we thought it wouldn’t be too hard to give cable up for awhile.
I know that some people have luck using an HDTV antenna. We’ve tried several different antennas, but I haven’t found one that works for our townhouse development yet. I’ll be trying a few more before I give up. With an HDTV antenna, you should be able to pick up all of the local channels and all major TV networks free of charge over-the-air.
Other options include Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime.
We actually use our Panasonic Blu-Ray Player to access these, but you can also use your PS3, Wii, or Xbox 360.
I think Hulu Plus is pretty necessary if you want to watch the new shows. With most tv shows, you can watch them the next day on Hulu Plus. Shows that I make sure to watch the next day are Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, Parenthood, Hell’s Kitchen, all of my favorite ABC Family shows and so many others. Of course, with Hulu Plus we can also watch some of Charlie’s favorite tv shows that he used to watch on Sprout: Caillou, SuperWhy, Barney, and Thomas. Hulu Plus has movies, but I haven’t had much luck finding newer movies on there. I use it for tv shows.
Hulu Plus runs $7.99/month, but you can try 1 week for free!
Netflix has tv shows and movies. Netflix has tons of tv shows and they are constantly adding more. You can see my 10 Most Binge-Worthy Shows on Netflix here. Netflix carries a lot of Disney Junior shows as well as Disney movies! This is awesome because we were worried about missing Jake or Mickey! Not with Netflix! Like Hulu Plus, we can access Caillou, SuperWhy, Barney, Thomas, and a few other PBS/Sprout shows. They are constantly adding new movies, so you won’t get tired of the same thing over and over again. With Netflix, there’s something for everyone! You can set up profiles on Netflix so each person can see their own shows and get their own recommendations.
Netflix is also $7.99/month, but you can get your first month free!
Amazon Prime has tv shows and movies that you can watch. With Amazon Prime, you also get a Kindle book to borrow for free each month from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and free 2-day shipping on millions of items. Amazon Prime is the only one of these three options that has Nick Jr shows: Umizoomi, Bubble Guppies, Dora, Blue’s Clues, etc. Like the other two options, they also have Caillou and SuperWhy! Again, Amazon Prime is not just for the kids, there is definitely something everyone can watch! Most shows you can watch up to the previous season and will need to pay per episode for the current season.
Amazon Prime is $99.99/year, which breaks down to $8.33/month. You can get your first 30 days for free!
As you can see, they’re all pretty much the same price. What really matters is what you intend to watch. Go ahead and try out each one and see what you like best!
Do you think you could do without cable? Have you tried any of the above services?
Thanks for the info…I so wish I could do this. My sister does Hulu and Amazon and Netflix and loves it. My spouse can’t do without all the sports channels…so we can’t go without. So much I wish we could though:)anne
We got rid of cable, we’re putting that money into college savings fund instead. I love Sports too, and it’s hard, but the over the air HD free channels (CBS, FOX, etc.) have enough to satisfy. Especially after seeing how much we save.
so nice to hear a man say that it’s not that bad! Men always seem to say “I can’t live without my sports”. Where there’s a will, there’s a way! 😉
Getting rid of cable is a hard one for me since Mr. M enjoys watching MTV Jams channel which Amazon, Hulu Plus, and Netflix doesn’t have. But cable is really killing my wallet and keeps going up every year!
Even with cable we don’t get MTV Jams. I have no idea what it is. I can only imagine your cable package. lol
I have every channel except the movie channels, and also have the sports package.
We do still have cable, but also have Netflix. I have thought about getting rid of cable, but I am just not ready to make the plunge yet.
We’ve done the same. Well, we have local channels through cable, but it’s cheaper to have that then just internet. I think we might need to grab hulu+!
I watch Netflix way more than I turn on my cable box. I’m a huge fan of Netflix!
We don’t have cable, and haven’t for the entire 8 years we’ve been married. We do have Amazon Prime, though, and watch a lot of stuff on it.
We don’t have cable and only use netflix. We get by just fine…until the internet stops working 😉
We have television through FIOS and love it. We also have Netflix.
I know a lot of people tat are choosing to give up cable, satellite, etc and go only with streaming. – Jenn @ The Rebel Chick
I can’t even remember the last time I actually sat and watched cable TV. Ever since we go Netflix I have been completely consumed by that! There really hasn’t been a need to browse through regular cable channels.
If I could get over my need to have instant gratification on certain shows… I could make this work!
I love, love, LOVE Netflix! I recommend it to anyone with cable or not. The on-demand feature and huge variety of shows and movies makes it worth the price. We closed our Dish Network account two years ago and haven’t regretted it one bit! I want to try Amazon Prime soon too.
I will definitely look into these. My stupid cable bill runs $150 or more a month and I barely watch TV
There are so many other options these days other than cable. If I didn’t have cable I think I’d get by just fine!
Awesome tips! And same here, our TV is always on but nobody really watch. My family go on Netflix more than the TV. I think we need to get rid of cable too!
This is a good post. We’re not big TV watchers, but we do still pay that atrocious satellite bill ea. month anyway. Silly, huh!
We cut the cord quite a while back and have Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime and we are doing pretty good. The only one that ever fusses is my husband because he can’t watch live sports.
I could go without cable without problems but I know my husband couldn’t. I don’t really watch much TV, especially during the day. He had Direct TV and couldn’t live without it.
The math is what sold me. The $100 / month is enough, if saved from birth, is enough to put a kid through state college (or at least a lot of it).
True Cost of Cable:
$100 / month, at 8% compound interest return, for 18 years = $48,535.
For 40 years = $335,000.
We have cut back. I am hoping to do more cutting back this year. Our big thing is sports.
We just signed up for Netflix a month ago and use it for our primary entertainment. We also love to get movies from Redbox occasionally!
We got rid of our cable a really long time ago. We just have Netflix. I honestly feel like anything I am missing out on is not a big deal. Shows we really like we watch seasons of later on dvd.
We’ve been living this life for about three years now. I used to pay for two Netflix subscriptions to accommodate all of our TV’s but now they offer a 4 screen option for just a little more than the 2 screen option. We also use an antenna which gets ABC so we can watch our local news as well as some of my favorite shows without having to wait until the next day to watch on Hulu.
We’ve thought about going cable-free. With the services you mentioned plus so many shows being available the day after they air online, it seems like it would be easy. The biggest reason we haven’t is because of wanting to watch live sports.
We dropped our cable and don’t miss it at all! Great choices out there for much cheaper!
There are a lot 9f alternatives to expensive cable plans that will allow people to remain entertained.
we got rid of most of our cable, kept very basic local channels. I don’t regret it. With Netflix and Amazon Prime I have everything I need
Between Netflix and Prime it’s hard to run out of things to watch. We still have basic cable, but honestly I find that we are using it less and less as time goes on.
We got rid of cable for a year. My hubby loves his sports so we got it back. But I’d get rid of it in a heartbeat.
We got rid of cable tv, but kept the internet part. I watch everything on HULU anyways, so it made sense. Of course, hubs is still trying to find ways to get the regular channels. Mainly for news. That is what I miss right now. Being able to watch the news and drink my coffee while doing blog stuff in the mornings.
We got rid of Satellite when we moved and started using Netflix , We too bought the HD Antenna and was only able to pick up like two channels. So we decided to get Cable back , but i’m not too thrilled we were paying 7.99 a month for netflix and now pay almost 70 just for cable and still pay for Netflix too …. guess which one we watch more? That’s right , we are turning our cable back off soon…. Thankfully there is no contract . Netflix is definitely the way to go.
We love netflix. It makes family movie night so much better without the large movie charge.
RabbitTVGo is also another great alternative to cable… Described as “The World’s Largest Entertainment Guide,” Rabbit TV features all free, PPV and live media found on the Internet for an affordable price of $10 /year.