The Gallagher Adventure

Saving $45 a month in a down economy, actually finding something on television and spending more time with family – all because of one “jump.”

Last week, I wrote a small blurb on my ministry website, The Preacher’s Pen, about our decision to make the “Netflix Jump.” You may take a moment and read the post here –> Click here to read the post.

Our decision to make the “Netflix Jump” was pretty easy. The rates on DirecTV were going up  and we wanted to find an alternative. Cable seemed like a possibility, but we had been down that road before only to see our rates rise there too.

After making the jump approximately two weeks ago, we are progressing well.  The Roku boxes I purchased for streaming Netflix to our televisions work great. We are able to select movies in our Netflix instant queue and the Roku box pulls that instant queue to a menu screen on our TV. We are able to select from the movies on our queue and watch them at anytime.

Recently, I got a couple converter boxes off of eBay, a couple antennas locally and began the process of searching for over-the-air channels in our area. Most of the channels come in clear, but there are others which need a little signal boost. At least it is not like the “old days” where you were going outside to turn the antenna to get a better signal. For now, I decided to point the antenna at the window and see what happens.

All in all, I am pleased with our change of media. Our Netflix plan gives us unlimited online and viewing through the Roku plus 3 DVDs out at a time.  Watching over-the-air channels is like watching the locals on DirecTV or cable, but FREE!

We figure we will save approximately $45 a month (possibly more) by cancelling DirecTV. Our Netflix subscription runs $16.99 a month and our locals are free. As I mentioned in the previous post on my ministry blog, we are taking the $45 a month and placing it in a TV fund. It will be interesting to watch the fund grow over time.

Making the “Netflix Jump” has brought some old shows into our daily viewing experience:

• Super Mario Brothers from 1989 – One of Caleb’s favorite
• Airwolf – One of my childhood favorites.
• iCarly – The girls are able to watch several season of iCarly.
• Suite Life – One of the girls favorite shows.
• Carrie has been watching a variety of movies instead of the television shows on Netflix.

Personally, I will admit that 150+ channels might be nice, but we are enjoying a very rich viewing experience and saving money at the same time.

Stay tuned for more on the Gallagher Adventure!

Thanks for stopping by,

Chris