Saving Money with Roku {an update}

Better late than never I say since this post is two weeks late. Today, I’m updating about our Roku box. I love the fact we can choose what channels we want to watch that are GEARED TO WHAT WE LIKE. There are no forcing channels on us and we are NOT tied to a certain time to watch a show. Best of all, we are not under a contract to watch up to date TV shows and movies. We're saving money with Roku and I LOVE IT!

Saving Money with Roku {an update}

When we Ditched the Satellite Dish for a Roku box last year, honestly, I was a little skeptical because I didn’t realize there was so much to choose from with Roku (some of those channels have changed). While we lived without broadcast TV for years in the past, there was the large collection of DVDs being bought and rented and I knew the minor hassle we went through of hooking up the computer to the TV to watch shows we enjoyed. Over the years, many channels closed their viewing to only subscribers of cable and satellite. Without being a paying subscriber to a company, there is no watching a favorite show.

This past year, I noticed more and more cable channels coming to Roku. Many allow viewing of some of their shows and movies, but to get the whole ball of wax, they require a subscription to either a satellite or cable company. Others don’t give away any of their productions and require either a fee or a subscription.

In January, we decided to switch from Netflix over to Hulu Plus which is $7.99 a month. The reason behind this was because we liked the idea of having more TV shows to watch. With Hulu Plus, we get to watch the latest shows on demand as early as the next day. The only “local” channel that is not up to date with Hulu Plus is CBS. But, CBS does allow some open viewing on their website and they now have their  CBS AllAccess which is a pay subscription. Depending on where you live, this channel plays live. We live too far out from civilization to have the live feature, but we’re okay with that and we are happy with $5.99 a month.

Since I have caught up with all the latest season of our favorite CBS shows, I find myself watching many of their classic shows like Jag, Nash Bridges, I Love Lucy, and Perry Mason to name just a few.

As we all know, television and movie providers are all about making money, but you don't have to stay trapped in forking out the big bucks to watch recent televised shows. I love the freedom we have with this little box and we’re only spending $13.98 a month to watch television.

Saving $750 And Still Enjoying TV

In January, we decided to cut the cash flow to paying for television. It has been the best thing we’ve done in a l-o-n-g time. The main reason for this decision was to save money, but we also did not enjoy worrying about crude advertisements while watching TV. We're saving $750 and still enjoying TV very much.

Saving $750 and Still Enjoying TV

After being hounded by Nielsen for several weeks at the end of last year, I finally decided to fill out the diary booklet. After seeing what we watched on TV for a week, it was time for some decision making.  We watch less than 35 hours of TV a week, in fact, some days the power button is never pushed on the remote control.

I mentioned before, this was a decision we made together after trying to stretch pay checks.  We talked about a Roku box a couple of years ago and the whole idea went out the window. It took my husband sitting down with the bills and the check book to realize paying to watch the few shows we were interested in, was stupid. He even went as far as asking some of his friends who have mentioned on Facebook using Roku in their home. Everyone told him to go for it, he wouldn’t be disappointed.

When we bought our Roku box in January, I was a little skeptical of how long my excitement would last. Well, I’m still excited about it because we have more than enough programs to keep us happy. We have 24 hours of weather, ESPN, CBS Sports, and a plethora of outdoor and hunting channels for my husband along with many other favorite channels. I’m still trying to get through the old western channels and mystery movie channels. So far, the only thing we are paying to watch is Netflix.

Since January, we have saved right at $700 and we have cut a bill that was hanging over our heads every month. That gross feeling we had when we went to the post office box and saw the Direct TV envelope, yep it’s gone.  I even kept the last copy of the satellite bill that read NO PAYMENT DUE.

Yes, there are TV shows we miss, but we are willing to sacrifice those few shows until they hit Netflix.  If some of the shows are on a channel that still allows viewing on their website, we hook up the laptop to the TV to watch them. While we’ve added a few DVDs to our collection, we have also found some of our favorite shows on DVD at the library.

It’s nice knowing we will have saved $750 this year by cutting one thing out of our lives. It’s even better knowing there is no bill hanging over our heads every month.

Do you not pay for TV? If you use other methods than a Roku box, leave me a comment, I'd love to hear about what you're using.

Our Favorite Roku Channels

If you missed my post about Ditching the Satellite Dish, you'll want to read about why we chose to stop paying to watch TV and switched over to Roku.  I'm SHARING OUR FAVORITE ROKU CHANNELS today since everyone has their favorites.

There are literally hundreds of channels to choose from on the Roku box. Over the past week, we have spent much time checking out any channels that looked interesting. While some were duds, others were pots of gold. Roku offers channels for children, families, movies, recipes, sports, weather, you name it, it is probably on there.

These are just a few of our  channels that we have added:

Netflix is our pay subscription. We love it, we've been members for several years and are happy with it.

PBS has a channel and I'm loving it the most because it picks up our location in Montana, which means we can watch Backroads of Montana and learn about our state. For my Georgia friends, this show is very similar to Georgia Traveler.

The History Channel, who'd a thought it? There are some interesting shows, but not many that we watch since THC has followed many others and now requires a TV service provider to watch many of their shows.

The Smithsonian Channel,  quite a few educational programs. They also provide 1-3 minute videos on certain subjects. You can learn a lot in those few minutes.

AllFitness TV, every imaginable type of workout is on this channel.

Pilates has its own channel.

Gooseberry Patch shows short videos for recipes that are published in their cookbooks.

BYUTV, has family friendly programming. You will have to know their schedule to watch any favorite shows. I like to watch American Ride, and Wind at My Back. I can't wait for the return of Granite Flats.

Radio Classic Broadcast, I enjoy listening to these when I'm in the living cleaning or just knitting.

Pandora, my husband was quick on the draw for this channel and added his account before I could add mine. So needless to say, I added some of my favorite Pandora radio stations to his, so I can listen. :)

iEducation, has  short videos on math, science, economics and other subjects.

Innovative Language, is a month paid channel, but they also have individual foreign language channels for $ .99 a month. At the beginning of March, I'll be subscribing to a foreign language channel for Jamie, to give it a try. Hopefully, it will turn into something good for school.

The next few, if you can look over their crazy timing loop for ads, have some very good classic shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, The Lucy Show and Bonanza. Family Fun Flix, Classic Western, Saddle Up Western, Pop Flix. 

For those who LOVE the outdoor/hunting/fishing channels. You are in luck, because there are several to choose from. Bowhunting.com, WildTV (paid), Wired Outdoors, Demand the Outdoors (paid), Heading Outdoors, TMP Outdoors, WildADRENALINE, HUNT365TV, MyOutdoorTV (paid), New England Outback, and TEAMKILLZONE Outdoors (paid).

Let's talk about advertising for a bit. On regular TV, there is NO CONTROL over what is aired. Truthfully, the same thing goes with the ads that are aired on some of these Roku channels. But, I have NOT seen anything questionable. Most of the ads are "As Seen on TV" items and prescription medicine lawsuit ads and cell phone ads. The FoxNow Channel also airs previews of their shows  Nothing out of the ordinary or questionable. ~ What a relief!

Roku also has private channels that are not listed in the channel store. While many are free, there are also some paid subscription channels. I'm still learning why there are "open" and "private" channels.

At the moment, my husband and I are not willing to spend any more money on watching TV.  Maybe later on when we feel the need, we will be a little adventurous and try one of the paid channels.

Any time, I sit down in front of the TV now, I get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing, I do not have a contract over my head with a dreaded monthly statement landing in my post office box, nor am I paying to watch any of it unless it is on Netflix.

Like I said before, cutting the cord to pay TV is not for everyone. It is something you HAVE to WANT to DO and ARE WILLING to take the PLUNGE.

If you are a Roku watcher, what are some of your favorite channels?

Ditching the Satellite Dish

The day I called Direct TV was a huge mistake! When we first moved here, we really thought we needed local channels because of the weather. Yeah, right! Our "local" channels were Bismarck channels and by the time any weather was heading towards Bismarck it had already moved from this area. Yeah, so local channels were not so local.

In the past, we cut the plug to pay TV and lived happily for several years. We were able to watch all of our favorite shows, just a day later online. We subscribed to Netflix and watched many full running series of shows we missed by not paying to watch TV. We were happy! We had extra money in our pockets! We even added to our DVD collection and we were happy ~ we had new things to watch when we wanted and extra money in our pockets. We were very HAPPY! We had TOTAL CONTROL over what was being aired into our home.

Before we moved here, we thought about buying a Roku box because of all the FREE channels they have to offer and then we moved and the idea left us until last fall. When I think about all the money we threw out the window, I could just kick myself!

After spending an average $75 a month for almost a year, we were READY to cut the cord to the satellite dish. After doing some minor calculations and planning we knew just when it would benefit our pockets to disconnect from the ever looming contracted monthly bill. Yes, we terminated our service early. Yes, we had to pay a fee. But, that fee was a TINY percentage of the $750 we would be paying to not terminate. Confused?... Simply, we are saving 78% by terminating our service before November.

After owning our Roku box for three months, it will have paid for itself and all the viewing of shows and movies will have cost us nothing except for our $8.00 a month for the Netflix subscription.

Saving money was the MAIN reason for cutting the cord to pay TV. Taking control of what is coming into our home is something that I have tried to do for years and it was the SECOND reason why we choose this route. But, as long as commercials are being aired, THERE IS NO TRUE CONTROL.

There is a lot that can be written about making this change, but I won't because it is something that is a personal preference and it does take sacrificing. If someone is not WILLING to sacrifice a little, then making this change is not going to work.

I'm working on another post about the Roku channels that we have added and are enjoying. Be watching for it, because if you are a homeschooling family ~ Roku has some really neat channels for students and children that are quite educational and they are FREE.

***Here's my post called Our Favorite Roku Channels.