Several months ago – about 3 to be exact, the hubs and I decided to put the ax to our cable tv. This decision came after hearing my co-workers rave for months about their Apple tv’s and how much they preferred them over cable, and not to mention talk of how much money they were saving. The thought of saving $220 per month (ouch) on our cable bill was a bit too tempting to pass up, and we decided to take the plunge and go cableless. So after about 90 days – give or take – of finding new ways to get my tv fix in, I thought I’d share my thoughts and a few tips for being cable free and reclaiming that bill money for yourself! Because, lets face it – spending money on shit you want for yourself trumps spending moolah paying bills any day.
Apple TV vs. Roku – I cannot tell you how many hours I researched and went back and forth between the Roku or an Apple TV. Eventually we decided on a Roku for a few different reasons, the biggest of which being that the Roku comes equipped with more channels ie. apps than the Apple TV. And since we weren’t going to have cable anymore, access to the widest variety of content was important to us. I do love the Apple feature that allows users to stream whatever content they’re watching directly to their tv’s but overall I’m happy with our choice. I watch anything in my iTunes library on either my iPad or Macbook, so again not having access to Apple’s direct to tv streaming wasn’t a deal breaker.
How do you keep up with all of your favorite tv programming? Keeping up with most of my favorite shows took some getting used to, but I’d like to think I have it somewhat down to a science now. A couple of things – we subscribe to Netflix, Hulu and Sling TV. We already were subscribed to both Netflix and Hulu before we ditched the cable, and we added Sling TV to the bunch after the cut. I’m able to watch mostly any prime time show I’m interested in on Hulu. The most current seasons and episodes of Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, The Bachelor, etc. are all on Hulu, and with Sling TV we get live access to AMC, ABC Family, HBO and other channels so we can watch our favorites like The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and one of my personal favs – Pretty Little Liars. Oh, and the hubs can watch ESPN and sports via Sling – win, win all around.
Pros and Cons. Well, I definitely don’t miss our $220 monthly cable bill, so huge pro there. And there are definitely a few cons, but not enough to make us want to go back to cable. While most current programming of my favorite shows is available on Hulu, a few shows that I like to watch such as KUWTK and RHOA, aren’t immediately up to date. It sucks to have to wait for the most current season to be available, but I could also do with less trash tv if I’m being honest here so I do my best to deal. If I really get desperate, current seasons and episodes can be purchased from iTunes or Amazon TV, but I honestly haven’t gotten that desperate yet, neither do I find myself missing these as much as I thought I would.
So, is going without cable worth it? In a nutshell, yep. Cutting the cord hasn’t mean sacrificing my tv watching, and has only fostered my newfound binge watching habit. In the past 6 months alone I’ve binge watched Making a Murderer, Lost and Narcos, and watched countless movies. I actually prefer the method by which I tv watch now – more binge watching than jumping randomly from show to show, and I can’t believe it took us so long to come to our senses. We could always go back to cable if the going got touch, but for right now the hubs and I both are loving being cable free. Cord cutters, unite.
