Frugality Blog

Cable has to be one of the most overpriced things on the market today, well besides razor blades and printer ink. Still, it seems like prices are always going up and packages are getting more complicated. In reality who actually needs 200 channels? I am not sure I know a single person. Most of the people I know watch the basic channels and then maybe 5 or 6 of the other 200 channels they have and that is it. That many channels hardly justifies the high cost with some people paying $100 or more a month.

I made the decision many years ago to cut cable and seek out an alternative. I found that some of the internet to TV devices work great! The first one I purchased was Roku. I like it when I first got it but quickly found that there were some limitations to it. When I wanted to stream from my computer to my TV I found that the quality of the picture wasn’t that great (disclosure: I had one of the first ones they made, so they may have improved).

After trying out Roku I moved on to AppleTV. It has Netflix and Hulu and it also streams from my iTunes on my PC easily and in perfect quality. I held on to my Roku after purchasing my AppleTV, but I have to admit I haven’t used it in the 2 years since purchasing the AppleTV.

One of the  biggest questions that I get about switching over to an Internet to TV  device is if I miss cable. I will be honest, yes and no. I do miss that I can’t watch things right when it is on television, but I certainly don’t miss the bills. I am not a huge television watcher anyway so I don’t really notice too much of a difference. For local channels you can get an antenna and still pick those up, then for shows on cable you have to wait. If you have Hulu Plus, most shows are available the next day. With Netflix they way until the whole season is done and put a season up at a time.

With these devices you do have to do some purchasing first. AppleTV and Roku will both set you back about $100 each. There is a new Google ChromeCast that is one the market for $35, but it is mostly based on streaming from your computer to your TV. To get shows you would probably need to subscribe to Netflix or Hulu. I have both and they set me back about $10 each a month. Much more cost effective than $100 a month for cable.

The ability for your household to cut cable and use some of these alternatives really depends on how much you use the TV and how big of a part of your lives it is. For me it isn’t that big of a deal so I really had no big issues with it. If you are a family that has must see shows and certain nights of the week revolve around your favorite shows that are on then this probably isn’t going to be a very painless process. If you must keep cable and still want some savings in that part of your life, I will be writing some articles on that soon, so stay tuned for those