 By Carlos Scarpero |
How
My Family Saved Over
|
A little over a year ago, I was one of the thousands of people that decided that enough was enough with outrageous fees to the cable company. Our family was looking for ways to cut our bills and cutting cable seemed like an easy way to save some quick cash. As I've told more and more of my friends about how we did it, I discovered that many people out there don't know how easy this is. This whole strategy I'm going to outline with you is super duper simple and you can do it too.
Step 1: Get your local stations
The first thing that you will need to do is find out how to obtain your local stations. If you have not used "rabbit ears" for a while you will be absolutely SHOCKED how clear the signal is now. Since the digital transition happened last year, ALL the local stations come in crystal clear. Free over the air TV even comes with a channel guide just like cable TV does. A lot of stations also do multicasting, which means that one station actually has several signals broadcasting several things at once. Here in my area (suburban Dayton, Ohio) we get about 15 stations for free.
Our local CBS affiliate, WHIO TV 7 has a 24 hour weather channel simulcast and Channel 16, our PBS station actually simulcasts 5 PBS stations at the same time.
You will need to get a TV antenna. Here's a list of some
top
rated TV antennas
Step 2: Get the Roku
SD Player
You might be thinking that you will be super limited in
your viewing with just your locals. Yes, you're right! The next step is
to get the Roku
SD Player
All you need to do is log in to your Netflix account and
add movies and shows to your instant queue. Then, go to your TV and turn
on your Roku SD Player
If you don't currently have a Netflix account and want to find out if your favorite programming is available in the instant queue, why not get a Netflix free trial account and take a peek around the site. You can always cancel it before the first billing and you won't owe anything.
Step 3: Sign up for Pandora
If you're like me, you may be wondering if you are going
to miss the awesome Music Choice thing that comes with most cable packages.
The answer is NO! That's because the Roku
SD Player
Setting up Pandora is super easy. You enter in your favorite artists and Pandora will not only find them, but it will also find artists that are a similar style of music. They use a very sophisticated algorhythm to figure it out and I must say that it's pretty darn accurate.
Step 4: Link your Roku SD Player
If you have photos on Flickr, you can link it to your Roku SD Player
Step 5: Link Roku SD Player
Roku SD Player
Step 6: Get a free Hulu account
Did you know that most shows that are on cable TV are posted for free online? Sign up for a free account on Hulu.com and watch them all you want for free.
There you have it! As you can see, you can save a ton on cable TV with a very small up front investment and only a $9 monthly investment for your Netflix account. It's quite a bit better than paying $60+ a month for a bunch of crappy channels that you aren't watching anyway.
Resource list
Here is a summary of recommended products to cut your cable TV:
Other Options to Stream Netflix Content To Your TV
You do not need to get a Roku
SD Player
Internet
Connected Blue Ray Player