Honestly, the “why” part is easy. Cost savings and simplifying how we watched TV. At least simplifying the number of remotes floating around our house.

Last week, our family officially became “cord cutters” and eliminated our DirectTV service in favor of going all-in on streaming. When we first signed up for our AT&T Fiber Internet + DirectTV package, it wasn’t a bad price. When that promotional price fell through after the first year, it got expensive quickly. When our cable + internet was costing a little over $200/month (and we were still paying for Netflix on top of that) I knew there had to be a better way.

So what services do we use now? How do we access them?

For Live TV: YouTube TV

I waffled between using YouTube TV and Hulu Live. Reading through reviews comparing both services didn’t really help all that much. Everyone gave a pretty even list of pros and cons for both services. The channel listings were mostly comparable, reviews and terms equally so. After taking a look at the channels we actually watched over the past year, YouTube TV seemed to be a good fit for us.

YouTube TV also offers unlimited DVR (which honestly is glorified OnDemand), unlimited screens (I think) and it was $5/month cheaper. Throw in the slightly cheaper price point and the fact that YouTube TV didn’t appear to nickel-and-dime add-ons like Hulu did (DVR limits, screen limits, etc), it seemed like the right choice.

Other Streaming Services We Use

We currently use three other streaming services:

• Netflix

• Amazon Prime

• Disney+

Some people count their Amazon Prime membership as part of their overall streaming costs. I honestly don’t. We use that two-day shipping multiple times per week to save trips to the store that we’d have that membership regardless. The streaming content is just a bonus feature to me.

If we didn’t have kids, I’m not 100% sure we’d have Disney+ yet. I’ve enjoyed streaming some Marvel stuff here and there but was already doing that a bit on Netflix and Amazon. The “plus” (ha) has been the ability to bring out all the Disney stuff that we watched as kids with our own kids. It’s been a nice piece of nostalgia for us…and gets us away from Netflix kids shows that we’ve seen looped too often. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by everything there is on there, like Home Alone, the Simpsons, etc. There’s something for everyone on the service.

And then there’s Netflix. We don’t use it as much for movies but love the shows and the Netflix exclusive content (e.g., GBBO, Patriot Act, Mindhunter, etc.) keeps getting better and better.

How We Are Streaming

We have a Fire TV stick for every television in our house (living room, second smaller TV plus a projector in our basement). The Fire TV does a pretty good job making it easy to find movies to watch, no matter which app we have to watch it on. Plus, our house has a few Echo devices and the Fire TV sticks are starting to integrate better with a little work.

A specific example: I could be in the kitchen and my three year old daughter wants to watch a show. I can tell the Echo in our kitchen “Alexa, watch _____ on [insert streaming service name here]” and our living room TV will queue it up.

Additionally, the “Announcement” feature is pretty cool. I can be near any Amazon Alexa-powered device and say “Alexa, Announce ______”. It’ll play the announcement on every Echo in our house…and pause whatever is streaming on the Fire TV to make that same announcement. The Fire TV will play the audio AND transcribe the words on screen in real-time. It’s almost like a first-world dinner bell of sorts.

We used a Smart TV in the past and the native apps installed on it. However, I quickly learned that buying a smart TV is a lot like buying a computer. After a while, it’ll start freezing up on you. Relying only on a $30 HDMI stick (whether Fire, Chromecast, Roku, etc) is considerably more affordable and practical in terms of upgrade cycles.

All-in-all, we aren’t saving a HUGE amount of money, around $60-70/month. But it’s enough to notice and do something else better with.

Plus we only have one remote now instead of one remote for the Fire TV, one remote for the dish, and another to switch the input settings. It’s a little thing but I love that little element of simplicity.

What about yourself? If you’re a cord cutter, how’d you do it? What do you use to stream?