Budget Friendly Entertainment

When Mr. Mister and I got married we decided, in an effort to save money, not to get cable. Instead, we purchased a Roku player and signed up for both Netflix and Hulu.

There is a one time fee to purchase the Roku, but it pays itself off quickly. The price of Roku players rangers in between $49.99-$79.99. After this one time fee, we just have a monthly payment of $16.98 that is spend on subscriptions to Netflix and Hulu.

What a deal!

Not only is this a cheap way to pay for entertainment, but it is convenient too. The best part is that we get to set the schedule for when we watch television shows, which is incredibly useful for a graduate student like me. I can subscribe to several shows on Hulu and watch them whenever I want (i.e. study breaks,a fun date night in, or lazy Saturday mornings).

For those of you who aren’t familiar with how each of these works, here’s an overview:

The Roku is a small box that connects to your television & the internet. Please don’t ask me how this all works, I’m grateful to have my very own Mr. Mister who put together and maintains this system for us. The Roku has several “channels” that you can add to your menu including things like: Pandora, Crackle, Hulu, Netflix, & more. In essence, the Roku enables you to stream content onto your television. There’s even a handy dandy app for your iPhone, which allows you to use it as a remote control. Yay for technology! 

Hulu is useful for someone who wants to watch television shows that are currently playing on the major networks like ABC, Fox, etc… You just subscribe to the show, and the new episodes will show up in your queue each week. Backlogged episodes are available too, even for great classics like "The Cosby Show," which is a favorite of ours.  

A Netflix subscription allows you to watch movies and television shows. Personally, I’m not a fan of their movie selection. Although at times, we’ll find a great one on there like “The King’s Speech.” However, Netflix is a great resource for watching television shows from start to finish, which is a wonderful way to get addicted to not one, but dozens of new television shows.

So, thank you Netflix for introducing me to & awakening my addiction to shows like:  “How I Met Your Mother,” “Parenthood,” “Parks & Recreation,” & “Downton Abbey” (just to name a few). I’m sure that Hulu is grateful to you for introducing me to these shows so that I will continue to stream them via their service.

In conclusion, yes, we’re saving money. But, oh my goodness, Mr. Mister and I have a lot of shows that we watch now.

Are you ready for the grand total?

We watch 15 different tv shows.

Of those 15, we watch 11 shows together. While I have no desire to have zombie induced nightmares from watching “The Walking Dead,” Mr. Mister also has no desire to know the inner workings of the OBGYN office featured on “The Mindy Project.”

So, now I’m curious. How many television shows do you watch?