Back in April, Hubs and I took the leap and cancelled our cable. It has turned out to be one of the best decisions we've made, both financially and practically.

Our cable bill had soared to an unreasonable amount, and I was absolutely sick of calling every 12 months to find new promotions that would keep our bill lower. Plus, those that follow Dave Ramsey know that one of his biggest money-saving tips is to get rid of cable. Why wait? Now has never been a better time.

We started with a seven-day free trial of Sling. All you have to do is create a login, download the app, and poof! You can watch it on any mobile device or stream it to your TV! We could watch all of our favorite channels live (like HGTV, Food Network, ESPN, History, TBS, TNT, A&E, etc.) OR watch certain shows On Demand. The best part? It was $20 per month, and there were no contracts. I'm using past tense because we have since discovered PlayStation Vue, but more about that later.

Taking the Leap
If you're looking to take the leap and cancel cable, I'm here to tell you you won't miss it a bit! Especially with all of the options and add-on packages you can get on these streaming services. You just have to determine what's best for you and your family. We even cancelled Netflix and decided against Hulu after a free trial. It comes down to this: It has to HURT or make you extremely ANGRY to pay that cable or satellite bill every month. If you're okay with it, then these may not be the options for you.

As for Hubs and me, we made a list of our favorite shows and channels and decided what we could and could not live without. We all already know we're paying for a million channels we don't watch. Our time in the evenings is spent playing with Bryson, so the TV is just background noise most of the time anyway. There's no sense in paying over $150 for something you spend 10 percent of your day watching, and most of the time for us, that was network TV we could've been watching free from an antenna.

Sling
Anyway, Sling was a GREAT starting point. For $20 per month and over 20 channels, it could not be beat. Sling now has several tiered packages and $5 add-on packages for sports, kids, lifestyle, etc. Still great prices, and one of my favorite parts? You can cancel/downgrade/upgrade at any time. If you want a higher-tiered package during football season, great! Just log in, upgrade your subscription and downgrade it at the end of football season. Same with the kids package. Add it at the beginning of the summer and remove it when they go back to school.

With Sling, your phone is the remote control. You use it to select which shows you want to watch, then use the TV remote to adjust the volume or change the input.

My dad had read some reviews and comparisons about PlayStation Vue, a similar service with different options and capabilities. We started the seven-day free trial of Vue and said goodbye to Sling a few days ago.

PlayStation Vue
First, you do NOT have to have a PlayStation to operate Vue. We are not gamers, so we don't have any of that equipment. Currently, Vue cannot be streamed via Apple TV, but that may be in the works. We also have Google Chromecast, which can't work either because it is simply a streaming device, not a TV module. So, we invested $50 into a Roku (less than half of what one cable bill used to cost). You don't have to download an app, but it's available if you'd like to watch programming on your mobile device. You can be streaming one show on a TV and be watching a separate show on your phone, tablet or another TV, all under one account.

One of the things we love about Vue is you can record shows to watch later. It's like a DVR, but the shows are stored on Vue's cloud, and they are available to watch for 28 days.

For $35/month, we get over 70 channels, including all of those where OU football will be broadcast (excluding PPV) and several we were not getting with the $20 Sling package (although some were available in higher tiered Sling packages). We just like the additional options Vue offers and — here's the thing — if Sling begins offering more and better options, nothing is stopping us from cancelling Vue and going back.

If you're not sold, just try a free seven-day trial of each service (and I'm sure there are others out there) and see if it works for you. If you're worried about the local channels, invest in an antenna to get them free. ABC and NBC shows are already being offered On Demand on Vue, and it won't be long before the others jump on board and even begin offering live programming as well. Think of all the other things you can be doing with the money you're spending on cable or satellite TV! Hubs and I have saved over $500 in less than six months!

Internet Speed
When I called to cancel our cable, I realized we were paying for an internet speed we were not getting. I was told we could purchase a new modem (for a super high price) and out internet would be faster. Well, Hubs found a modem online (probably Amazon) for around $30 or $40 that would provide the internet speed needed for optimal streaming.

Vue offers 720p and 1080p display resolutions, and both load very quickly over our internet, which runs about 30 to 35 Mbps. We have noticed Sling buffered more than Vue has, but we keep it on 720p most of the time because I can't tell a difference in the resolution.

Like I said, we are still new to Vue, but we are loving it so far. We loved Sling, too; It was the perfect alternative to cable when we were looking to cut costs. Let me know if you have any questions!