My First Week of Watching TV Without Cable

I was the last truly frugal hold out on earth who still had cable.  When I would teach coupon classes and tell people I still had cable they would always look at me astonished.  I mean when you are trying to cut bills cable is the first thing to go right?

For me it wasn’t.  All the years I was couponing just to keep my head above water I had cable.  I had very basic cable and I set a budget.  As low as Cox kept the bill for both cable and internet below that budget I never cancelled it.  Every June I would call before my bill went up and renegotiate to get below that number.  And that worked until April 2018 when I got my bill and it had gone up $10.  I called and they wouldn’t work with me anymore so cable is gone.

Don’t miss out on 10 Painless Ways To Save Money!

That was on a Saturday night.  When I got home from Easter dinner on Sunday my cable was still on.  So I turned on Jesus Christ Superstar to watch.  Right in the middle of Hosanna the picture went out.   My cable was gone.  The TV was more empty than I had ever seen it.

Watching TV Without Cable

So now I had no cable.  I needed to try to set myself up for success so that Monday wasn’t horrible.  I already had my Amazon Firestick up and running!  Here is what I did:

Netflix: I was already a master of all things Netflix so I had plenty of shows to watch (currently bingeing Person of Interest).  But now I needed to make arrangements for the things currently airing that I wanted to watch.

Hulu: So I logged onto Hulu.  I have access to the Hulu with no commercials.  I was able to go under my profile (different names have different settings) and add every show I watch onto my list except CBS shows and the one Hallmark Channel show I watch.  Then the next time I log in if new episodes are available they are right in front of me!

CBS: Unfortunately the CBS app is not free and has TERRIBLE reviews online.  So I decided I would risk the free option of just watching whatever I wanted on CBS.com.  I have watched every show this week I would have normally watched but just on my laptop.  I do have to sit through the commercials but it wasn’t too big of an adjustment.  I have heard this does not stream as well to televisions.

The only show I have not been able to get is When Calls The Heart.  At only $2.99 per episode if I find I miss it terribly I will be willing to shell out the money.

Future Plans

So far I have not had the need to get an antenna but I assume at some point I will want to.  I have begun doing some research but nothing of substance yet.  There are so many fraudulent reviews it is going to take a while to go through them all and find the one that I want.

After My First Week

After seven days I really haven’t thought much about not having cable.  This Tuesday I happen to not have my normal activity and it was weird not being able to watch my typical Tuesday shows but I just started Fixer Upper on Hulu and watched everything else on Wednesday.

It’s saving me $60 a month and so far I think it’s been worth every dime!  Plus I read more than usual and my house is a bit cleaner than it was before!