We’ve had Netflix for a while now. Before that, we used RedBox a lot but that ended up getting old for us because the selection is relatively limited. We decided to get Netflix when we downgraded our television package to basic cable. From the beginning, we really enjoyed Netflix but they recently added a new feature that has been the icing on the cake for us. I knew I had to share it here.
Instant Streaming
The new feature is instant streaming through Internet connected TVs, game consoles, Blu-Ray players and more. We have a Nintendo Wii, which is one of the Netflix-ready devices. All we had to do was request a disc for the Wii. They sent it to us – Free. Now we can watch all sorts of things instantly in addition to the DVDs we get in the mail. When we downgraded cable I lost a lot of the control I had on the shows that Chloe watches because we lost the DVR. With the instant streaming I can choose single episodes of shows that I approve of for her to watch any time – I love that.
Television Shows At Leisure
One of the things David and I decided to do was go through previously-aired television series. Right now we’re in the fourth season of The West Wing. It is so much nicer to watch without the commercials and at our leisure.
Movies We All Like
Netflix enables you to have a separate queue for each person. So you can have a kids queue and an adult queue, or whatever you like. We alternate with the romantic comedies that I like, the action/suspense that David likes and the kid stuff that Chloe likes. It’s so much nicer than wandering aimlessly around a video store.
As far as I’m concerned, I might even be willing to get rid of the cable altogether. However, because I love my husband and my husband loves many sports – we’ll keep the basic cable for now. If you’d like to try Netflix for 2 weeks for free then I invite you to click the banner below. Doing so will get you the free trial – and also earn commission that supports this site.
Why I do what I do ~ Last night, I was going to make pancakes for Chloe and I (from scratch). I began getting all of the ingredients out and realized we were out of milk. I told her that I was sorry I couldn’t make the pancakes because I didn’t have any milk. She said, “But you have orange juice.”Have you liked Domestic Cents on Facebook yet?
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I did completely get rid of cable altogether and solely use Netflix for my home entertainment. Like you two, I love my sports games but haven’t missed ESPN as much as I thought I would. I realized that all the games I care about are on the main networks, so I can still watch them (in HD) at home without cable.
I did a whole write up on Netflix vs. Cable: http://www.27andfrugal.com/2010/02/05/5-ways-netflix-will-save-you-money/
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I think we might be able to get rid of cable if we lived nearer to a city. Then we could get local channels with an antenna. If we could – I’d be ALL over that.
We started out our married life w/o cable because we didn’t have the money to spare, and when I graduated from college a year later and went to work full time with a full time income, we decided we were so used to not having it why add that into our lives? BUT…Netflix was just starting to take off then, so we decided that $15/month would be cheap entertainment. I haven’t regretted it since! It’s cheaper than cable and either going to the movie theater or renting movies all the time. We have weird tastes in movies so Redbox just doesn’t do it for us, PLUS it’s SOOOO nice to just stick the dvd in the mail when we’re done.
My husband spent some Christmas money on a second-hand XBOX 360 in excellent condition so now we can stream it through that. A frugal tip for you 360 owners: You have to pay for XBOX Live Gold to stream Netflix, but we found a year’s subscription on Amazon for $40, and then paid for $20 of it with gift codes from Swagbucks. Then we dropped our 2-dvd out at a time plan to the 1-dvd out at a time plan and we’re saving about $44 year. You could save even more if you could pay for all of the subscription with Swagbucks.
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Great tip Kelli! Thanks!
We have had Netflix for a year or so, but just started the instant streaming when my husband got an xBox 360 for christmas. We LOVE IT! We started watching Lost from the first season and we have watched alot of movies that we normally wouldn’t have been exposed to: independant films, foreign films, low budget films. I wouldn’t trade the service for anything.