January Spending Freeze, Day 13: Goodbye for now, Sling TV!

The morning after the national championship game, we got to do something I'd been waiting to do for a while--cancel our Sling TV subscription!  Knowing it would be the final game of the (college) season, I had put a reminder on my calendar weeks ahead of time, and called Jordan to tell him to log in and cancel as soon as I saw it.

We don't watch a ton of TV--at least not current TV.  We still love watching old episodes of The Office, Dead Like Me, and The IT Crowd.  But when people are chatting about some awesome new TV show, I am probably clueless.  Of all the shows currently running, I love The Walking Dead, Downton Abbey, and Days of Our Lives.  Also Doctor Who, but I'm behind on that one and need to catch up.  Therefore, the only reason we needed Sling TV in the first place was so Jordan could enjoy football.  It's one of his few indulgences, and I think it's worth ~$27 per month during football season to have these games available to him.  Here is how we get the rest of our shows, and why they do not justify keeping Sling TV year-round:

1) The Walking Dead - Jordan takes surveys on his phone to earn Google Play credit.  They are generally quick and easy, and he usually has enough credit built up to get us the latest episode, which is about $2 each time.

2) Downton Abbey - Because this comes on PBS, it's free!  Our media center PC (built by Jordan) records it for us.

3) Days of Our Lives - Comes on NBC for free and our media center records it.

4) Doctor Who - I am ashamed to say I have hardly watched any of season 8, all of which is on Netflix, which we have.  Perhaps by the time I catch up on that, season 9 will be on Netflix as well.  If not, the entire season can be purchased on Amazon for $22.99.  We have Amazon Prime, and whenever I order something with Prime shipping that I don't need in a hurry, I choose no-rush shipping to get a $1 credit toward digital content.  Those credits (many earned during Christmas shopping!) would cover part of the $22.99.


As you can see, cable would be a terrible waste for us, which is why we cancelled it quite a while back.  We still have internet with Charter, and they keep calling Jordan trying to get us signed up for cable TV again.  They want to know why we cancelled.  Um...  It was the biggest waste of money ever?  I honestly felt like they should be paying ME for suffering through all those irritating commercials.  So, while it is much cheaper, we don't need Sling TV 7.5 months out of the year, either.  We will probably be renewing it in early September, but this month I was excited to cancel and throw that $27 into savings!  Every little bit helps!