Still Cable Free

About once a year, I love sharing an update about how my family has been 100% cable free for years. Back in 2011 we noticed we were watching less and less of our cable shows and more of watching TV though our Roku player [ read more about our decision here ] We decided to wait 6 months before, making it official and cutting our cable cord, happily with the decision to cut the cable cord also came with saving money each month on a service we no longer used. I love sharing our cable free household updates because its great reminder to elevate how your watching television [ can your household cut the cable cord and save money? ] I also like sharing our breakdown and what channels we pay for, along with sharing a few shows you simply must check out [ see here for a few recent favs ]

As I mentioned above we watch TV though our Roku player, which is streaming device for playing various channels by using your WiFi. Once Roku is connected to your WiFi network, your able to subscribe to several channels including: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and many many more. Some channels are free and some you pay a monthly subscription fee for. Currently we pay a monthly subscription to Netflix [ been a member for pretty much forever ] Hulu and Amazon. We also subscribe to a few free channels that have a few movies & television shows on them. My favorite free channel is PBS, its where I watch the latest Masterpiece Classics & Mysteries including: Downton Abbey [ boo only one series left ] and Grantchester. The channels are setup your television just like apps are on your phone.

Personally, Roku has been a huge game changer in my household and really changed they way we watch our television & how we think of television. I now watch TV shows when I want to vs. when their on, no more sitting around on Thursday nights waiting for shows to come on. I can binge watch my favorite shows and watch them on weekends or whenever I have time.

In addition to Roku, they are several other streaming devices now on the market including Amazon Fire and Apple TV just to name a few. For our household we love our tried and true Roku Player. Thanks to an app with have our phones, we never have to worry about losing the remote control, we can just use our phone.

I love how intuitive TV watching though Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu is, they recommend so many shows based on my family's viewing habits. For me they're always recommending British TV Show or Movie. I've seriously discovered so many amazing shows thanks to Netflix and Hulu, which can be dangerous since I LOVE binge watching lol. And its not just new TV shows I've discovered its older ones too, that are in their 4th season or so and I've just recently got hooked thanks to the recommendations they've given me based on my viewing history.

Here's a quick breakdown of what we pay for, Internet $55 [ via Comcast a service we'd pay for even if we had cable ] Netflix $8.99, Hulu $7.99 [ they now offer Showtime as an add-on amount ] and Amazon Prime $100 per year [ Amazon Prime membership also includes FREE shipping - the amount breaks down to $8.33 a month, can't beat that plus free shipping!! ] So roughly we pay around $ 25.00 a month to watch TV which includes a ton of movies, and a huge catalog of foreign TV shows and old shows that are still good to watch.

My Hulu view

As for kids, I love that Avery can watch a slew of shows [ when we let him! ] including old schools favorites like Sesame Street & Reading Rainbow. Do you remember Reading Rainbow? Its such a good show and perfect to help spark kids love of reading. Our oldest son watch his movies and a few ABC Family shows, but mostly he's in his room being a teen. We have two Roku players in our house, on in the living room and one in our bedroom. Tabari uses his Wii U in his bedroom to watch Netflix [ but during the school week! ]

As for a few good shows to check out, I highly recommend these UK shows found on Netflix , Hulu & Amazon Prime: Happy Valley, Doc Martin, Scott & Bailey, Outlander and Broadchurch....trust me, as Bruno Mars would say 'don't believe just watch'

Now for my favorite, what's your thoughts. Do you have a love / hate relationship with cable? Is your home cable free or do you have both cable and a Roku [ or other streaming device ] ?