Living a frugal life means that you’re always looking for ways to save money in your personal budget. It isn’t always easy and sometimes it can be downright hard to do. One of those areas that can be hard to save money in is tv. Sure, you can drop cable and opt for Hulu and Netflix, but you’re still at the mercy of a company that can raise prices whenever they choose to. Luckily, I’m a total cheapskate and consider it a game to get as much free each month as I possibly can. What that means for you is a way to watch tv online for free.
I want to clarify that when I say watch tv online for free, I mean legally. I am not telling you to do or condoning anything illegal here. We’re all about saving money, but never break the law to do it. With that said, there’s no reason to pay for something when you are able to get it free. Finding cheap and frugal family activities to save yourself money isn’t easy. Working to get as much as possible free only helps you to build your emergency fund and savings accounts to a point where you can rely on them should you need to.
How to Watch TV Online for Free
If you’re planning on watching tv online for free and you’re not using a streaming service such as Hulu or Netflix, you’ll need to be quick about it. Most of the options to watch tv online for free other than those services only leave each individual episode online for a short time. If you miss it and they remove it, you’ll either have to wait a while or pay to see it. Since paying to see it defeats the purpose of getting it free, you’ll want to keep that in mind.
Earn Free Gift Cards Online –
Love your Netflix subscription? Can’t live without Hulu? Why pay cash for them? There are plenty of ways that you can earn free gift cards online to score free Netflix gift cards and free Hulu gift cards. My two favorites are InstaGC and Swagbucks. Both have Netflix and Hulu and both are super easy sites to earn with. My own Netflix and Hulu? Paid in advance for a year with free gift cards! Just be sure that when you sign up for an InstaGC account and when you sign up for a Swagbucks account that you confirm your email. Otherwise you won’t be able to earn.
Watch tv online for free with Amazon Instant Video –
Are you an Amazon Prime member? If not, not only are you missing out on free 2-day shipping, a fantastic way to save money on groceries, free Kindle books each month, and free music streaming but you’re also missing out on being able to watch TV online for free. Amazon Prime Instant Video is available to all Prime members and is free. There are literally thousands of included movies and television shows that are available to Prime members at no cost. If you’re not a Prime member, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial to Amazon Prime to try it out. Doing this trial is a fantastic way to check it out before you buy. You’ll know whether it will be worth it for you to pay for Prime within just a few days.
Watch TV online for free with X-Box Live –
If you own an X-box 360 or an X-box One, you’ve got loads of free tv at your fingertips. There are a ton of apps for both that once installed on your machine, will allow you to watch free tv shows. For instance, the CW Network has an app that will allow you to watch the most recent 4 or 5 episodes of both their current shows as well as all episodes of shows they have cancelled. You will need to be an X-box Live Gold member to watch, but it is well worth the cost of the service.
Watch TV online for free with PlayStation Network –
Have a PS3 or PS4 gaming system? A lot of those same apps that are on Microsoft’s system are also available on Sony systems. Download the free apps and watch your shows until your heart’s content.
Watch TV online for free with Roku –
Roku is another way to watch tv online for free. While they do have paid channels, they also have a fairly decently sized list of free Roku channels that are available. These free channels make watching tv easy as can be. An added plus for this one is that when you buy a Roku, you’ll be able to download and sign up for Sling TV. Sling TV is a great option to those who still want that cable feel without the cost.
Watch TV online for free with a Amazon Fire TV –
The Amazon Fire TV is another portable device that can help you watch TV for free. Like Roku, it is plug and play and runs of different channels. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you’ll get a lot more use out of this than if not. Download apps to channels that you want to watch and watch your favorite shows on the fly. When you buy an Amazon Fire TV device, you’ll have the option of choosing between the Fire TV stick and Amazon Fire TV. They both function the same. One is simply more portable than the other.
Watch TV Online on the network websites –
Watching tv online for free used to be incredibly hard. These days it isn’t quite as difficult. Where networks used to keep their shows away from streaming, there are quite a few of them now that simply offer shows available to stream on their websites for free. A few of the networks that offer free tv online are Nat Geo, the CW, ABC Family, CBS, NBC, and TNT. While you may not be able to watch every show that they have for free, you should be able to watch more than enough to keep yourself entertained. If you want to view more of the shows, most of them offer a free trial and subscription service that you can subscribe to if you really want. CBS All Access is a great example of those. You can get a 1 week free trial and then it’s $6.99 a month after if you decide to keep it.
