My wife and I have debated cutting cable for  some time now. We always got hung up on one sticking point or another. First, streaming services didn’t offer our favorite television shows. Then, we wouldn’t be able to get local news or broadcasted channels. In the end, our goal and hurdle to cutting the cord was how do we keep up our current lifestyle without cable.  This meant little to no disruption in being able to watch our regular shows which we normally recorded and viewed days later.

TV Shows

We spent a long time researching our options to watching our favorite television shows.  To be specific, I’m talking about shows broadcasted on the primary networks like ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX but also cable networks like USA, TBS, TNT, and FX. We closely examined Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu Plus.

Amazon Prime Instant Streaming

To be absolutely honest, we are already Amazon Prime members and our main purpose for the subscription is the free two-day subscription on our subscribe and save. But after examining the Amazon Prime Instant steaming video library we found it extremely underwhelming. Several of our most highly desired shows are available through Amazon Instant Video but unfortunately not as part of the Amazon Prime subscription.

Netflix Streaming

We’ve been a Netflix DVD subscriber for many years. When my wife traveled for work we found the DVD service an invaluable benefit and we still use it too.  Years ago, Netflix offered it’s streaming service with the DVD subscription. I used the service a bit while I had access to it. But Netflix didn’t stream many of the television shows we watched. They are available on DVD but only after a season has completed and released. This was the single reason we chose to keep Cable with DVR for as long as we have.

Hulu Plus

Between these three streaming services Hulu  is the most impressive to us. It offers the shows we regularly watch and they become available relatively close to their air date. Additionally, we can watch our favorite shows on our Vizio Smart TV by subscribing to Hulu Plus.

Local News and Channels

The last piece of the puzzle was to get Local News and broadcasted channels. Fortunately my wife researched our options and found an inexpensive solution. The Mohu Leaf Indoor HD Antenna is a great solution at $40. Since our home is within a 35 mile radius of the broadcasting towers, we can mount this antenna inside the house with little to no effort.