Frugal Fridays With Jen- Ditching The Cable

We didn't have cable for many years- just the past two in fact. It definitely falls into the "want" category and not the "need" one.

Now that we've had it, and with the DVR to boot, we are finding it hard to give up. We have a Netflix membership, and I frequently use it for live-streaming of movies. Our son is addicted to Nick Jr on demand. Mr S loves his bad sci-fi movies. However, at $70 a month, isn't there a better way to spend our entertainment budget?

My in-laws were very generous and have bought us a Blu-ray player with internet software for Christmas. We can easily link to our Netflix account and live stream the majority of the shows our son likes to watch during his chosen TV time. Not only that, but there's a site called Vudu that allows us to live stream movies on demand- most new releases- directly to our Blu-ray without a subscription. Just pay to play like a Blockbuster or Red Box rental.

We sat down to figure out which shows we really would like to watch. Many of mine are older series available on DVD that I can get from Netflix. I don't watch a million shows, but I do like The Big Bang Theory, Project Runway, the Simpsons, and The Suze Orman Show. I found out I can download the 11 most recent Suze Ormon episodes to my iTunes (a Christmas gift from 4 years ago) for free. I discovered I can buy Project Runway episodes on iTunes as well (at $2.99 per episode- makes me think long and hard whether they are worth that much to watch). The other shows are available on network TV. There are plenty more new and classic TV shows to be found on Hulu as well, for free or a smaller subscription fee. Certainly less than $70 a month.

Mr S more often than not prefers to spend his lazy time playing computer games.

So why are we spending $70 a month?

Our plan, then, is to cut this from our budget by the end of the year. Cable, it seems, may be a dying entertainment media.