I probably could. The challenge came from wanting it to turn on at different times on different days (basically whether my wife is going into the office or working remotely on a given day), so once we started getting into wanting different schedules for M/F, T/W/Th, and S/S, the programmable one just seemed like the way to go, particularly if I wanted to easily turn off a day on-demand.
can you use a dumb timer instead of a smart one? if you just want to set a schedule, there's no need for an internet connection there.