We finally did it. After years of discussion and debate, Mac and I cut the cable (umm, satellite?) and no longer have a traditional TV provider. And doing that saved us well over $200 a month.
We’ve kept an eye on the different TV streaming options that have popped up over the years. As a military family, one or both of us winds up being a displaced sports fan. We were reluctant to switch to a TV service that didn’t offer the sports we wanted to watch. When we moved back to Fort Gordon, we had the option of WOW Cable or DirecTV. We had WOW during our first stint in Augusta, and we knew just how horrible their service was. So we defaulted to DirecTV. When we moved in, we signed up for a deal that included HBO, Showtime, STARZ, and NFL Sunday Ticket for free. We also upgraded to a bigger sports package and added a channel bundle that included Smithsonian Network.
But then the new customer deals expired. Our bill soared from about $150 a month to over $260 a month. We sat down and had a good conversation about our financial goals, and we realized that we were wasting hundreds of dollars on a service that we weren’t getting our money out of. This led us to researching the streaming services available in our area. We already had Hulu, so we opted to try the free week trial for Hulu+. We’re also considering trying Sling.
So far Hulu+ has been good. We chose Hulu with Live TV and No Commercials, so our bill is $43.99 a month. This includes the Hulu service we already used, so we aren’t paying twice. We do watch a few premium channel shows (hello, Outlander and Game of Thrones), so we plan to purchase those channels on a monthly basis through Hulu or Amazon Prime (get a free 30-day trial of Prime!). We use an XBox One in our living room and Amazon Firesticks for our other TVs. We’ve had a few issues with the quality of the streaming, but we’re pretty sure that has more to do with our Internet. The channel interface isn’t ideal, but I’ve realized how little I actually watch TV. We didn’t need to spend over $260 a month to watch a handful of shows on a handful of channels.
If you are interested in receiving a two-week free trial for Hulu, leave a comment with your email or send me an email at extrablackolives@gmail.com.
Have you made the switch from cable or satellite to a streaming service?
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This is something we have talked about multiple times and we just can’t seem to cut the cord. Maybe one of these days we will do it haha.
I totally understand. It took me years to get around to it. But it’s finally worthwhile financially for us.