Everything you need to know about how to watch TV without cable or satellite.
Truthfully, I use to be so in love with my cable TV (this was back in my non-frugal days). I remember telling my friends that, “I could never live without my DVR!” I didn’t even know how to watch TV without cable or satellite.
Well, years and years later, I am here to tell you that I CAN actually live without cable (go figure 😉 )!
Five years ago we decided to make some big cuts in our budget. When the talk of whether or not we should cut out the cable I wasn’t super thrilled with the idea. But, I wanted to trim our budget and knew that this was a need, not a want. So, we cancelled it.
And you know what. There has not been a single day when I have regretted it. There have definitely been a few times when I have MISSED having cable, but I have never regretted getting rid of it. The amount of money that we have saved is so worth it.
If you are wanting to cut costs in your budget, I highly recommend cutting out the expensive cable or satellite television. I’ll share a few budget friendly alternatives below.
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Budget Friendly Cable Alternatives
Fortunately, there are so many frugal tv options available. It wasn’t even hard to find a few cheaper services for our family.
Free Streaming Apps
The first trick to saving money on TV is to download a few free streaming apps. Most of these will work on your smart TV or Roku.
- Peacock: Sign up for the basic Peacock plan and you will get access to thousands of hours of free movies and tv shows.
- Crackle: Crackle doesn’t have a huge selection, but they do have some popular tv shows and movies to watch for free using their app!
- Pluto TV: Pluto is a great streaming option because it offers live TV channels, including news, sports and more.
- Tubi: Another great free streaming app is Tubi. It offers thousands of free movies and TV shows on demand.
Digital Antennae
The next thing we did was buy a digital antennae. This was a one time purchase of $30 and enables us to get all of the public channels for free. The only TV we had for a few months was this digital antennae. If you are on a strict budget, this is the perfect option for you. It provides great TV with NO monthly payments. My kids love watching PBS Kids and my husband and I enjoy the news and a few favorite evening shows (I’m talking about you This Is Us).
Library
Did you know that your local library has hundreds of free videos available to checkout?? They do! If you aren’t using this great service, I recommend starting now. We love to stop every week and choose a couple of new books and videos while returning the old ones.
- Related: 10 Free Things At The Library
Streaming Services
Looking for more options than a digital antennae provides? Check out these affordable subscription services. They will cost a little bit of money each month, but not near as much as cable costs!
Netflix
Netflix is seriously one of the best inventions ever! They have just about anything you would want to watch, available 24/7! Documentaries, horror films, chick flicks, popular TV series, kids shows, and more! Everything is there!
With plans starting at just $8.99/month, this is a great budget friendly option for TV viewing.
Hulu
Another great streaming option is Hulu. They are one of the cheapest options available with the lowest plans only $5.99/month. One of my favorite things about Hulu is their huge selection of new releases and current TV shows. You don’t have to feel like you’re missing out on the trending TV series when you use Hulu.
Disney+
One of the newer TV subscription services available is Disney+. Our family have quickly became huge fans! We love all of the Marvel and Disney options. My teen/tween daughters especially enjoy watching the Disney Channel original series (they have never seen any of them before!). Plans start at only $7.99/month.
Amazon Prime Video
We all love Amazon (don’t we? or is that just me???). One of the awesome perks of Amazon is Amazon Prime. With their low price of just $12.99/month you are given access to stream hundreds of popular TV shows and movies, including a few Amazon Prime originals. PLUS! Amazon Prime offers access to music, books, two day shipping and more!
Paramount+
Another new streaming service on the market is Paramount+. I haven’t tried it yet, but have actually been really excited about it! It is very similar to Tubi, where it offers live viewing of news, sports and more. Plus it has thousands of movies available for on demand watching.
How To Watch
OK, so now that you now about the different TV streaming services, you might be wondering how to watch them! I will tell you! You can watch these streaming services on your smart TV, computer, or phone.
If you don’t have a smart TV I recommend getting a Roku. The Roku gives you the ability to access all of these subscription services in one easy place. It is a one time low price and very user friendly. There are hundreds of apps/channels available to add to your device, some of them are even free…no subscription required! Yay!
The Results
By only subscribing to a couple of streaming services and cutting out our cable we have saved $500 a year! This means that in the 7 years since we have cancelled our cable we have saved $3,500!
Just think about what you could buy for $3,500. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather spend that money on something other than TV. The little expenses always add up!
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