Self-employment is definitely on my mind, and I want to be as prepared as possible for self-employment as I can be. I have been analyzing our budget a lot (our budget will be posted soon), and I have been looking for any categories in which we can lower or eliminate our spending altogether. Cable has definitely been on my mind because of this.
There are also other reasons why we have thought about possibly eliminating cable. We spend a lot of time in front of the TV, and we constantly wonder if it is worth it.
There are some shows that we feel that we NEED to watch (Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, Walking Dead, and the list goes on forever), but the rest are mainly just shows that we watch to procrastinate with things that we should actually be doing.
Also, another reason is that there are many people out there who watch all of these same shows and save tons of money. Some don’t spend anything, or they spend a very small amount each month, such as $10.
If I can possible save money, then why not? Who wants to spend more money than they have to?
Surprisingly, I have received some flack on the blog lately for wanting to save money. With self-employment, income is not stable, and I would like our budget to be low if we can help it. We still want to enjoy our lives (there are plenty of free and frugal activities out there) of course, but if we can save money and still receive the same value in return, then why not?
What amount do we pay for cable right now?
We are currently paying $57 (this amount includes all fees and taxes) for nearly every single channel imaginable and also for channels such as HBO.
It would be higher but around every 6 months I call the cable company and ask them for a discount, and they always easily say yes. This must be because so many customers are cutting the cord lately.
Would we be more productive without all of these extra channels if we determined cable isn’t worth it?
$60 is probably not an amount that could break us, but I wonder that if we paid for less channels if we would be more productive and maybe even happier in our lives.
With the amount of channels that we have, there is almost always something on TV for us to watch. We pay $60 a month for only 3 shows each YEAR pretty much.
With less channels, I do feel as though I will be more productive. And this is a big reason for why I might want to get rid of cable. Sitting in front of the TV when I should be working during the day just sounds too tempting! If I get hooked on a show, it’s really hard for me not to watch a marathon of it for the rest of the day. I am guilty to say that almost every single Saturday I work on my side hustles while watching a Boy Meets World marathon.
If we were paying $10 a month for what we watch, then we would be saving $50 a month. That $50 could go towards something else that has meaning instead of all of the mind-numbing shows that I currently watch (ahem… Teen Mom and everything else on MTV that I seem to be addicted to).
Related: 16 Alternatives To Cable TV That WILL Save You Money
We do love watching TV.
Don’t get me wrong, we both do love watching TV. I always love a good movie and a new TV show (I’m loving Under the Dome right now) too.
The price we pay isn’t too high, and I believe we pay much less than what others pay. I have heard of some cases where some families pay over $100 a month for less channels than we receive. I have even heard that the average cable bill is around $125 a month, which blows my mind because I would never pay that much. Would you ever pay that much for TV?
There are many ways to save on cable, of which we have done in order to lower our cable cost to as low as we have it. It’s always best to sign up under some sort of “New customer” discount.
Also, always make sure to ask for additional discounts. You can ask for the receiver for free, any insurance on the satellite, free HD channels, free premium channels such as HBO and so on. Also, do what we do and call your cable company every 6 months or so and ask for a discount. This has ALWAYS worked for us and usually takes less than 5 minutes.
What other TV options are there?
Netflix – Less than $10 a month
Netflix is around $10, and with it you can stream shows straight to your TV. Or you can get DVDs straight to your home.
At one point, my sister bought Netflix (I’m not even sure if we still have it, I’ll blame my laziness for not knowing the answer to that), and we would stream it from our PS3 straight to our TV. However, I never really saw too many shows or movies that interested me. I’m not sure if I just had bad timing, but I also only gave Netflix one or two chances.
Hulu Plus – Also less than $10 a month
Hulu Plus is $7.99 per month. I have heard that Hulu Plus is great if you want fewer ads (as compared to the free Hulu service) and because you can stream a lot of recent shows that may not be on Netflix.
Antenna – Free
I hope everyone knows what this is. Find those rabbit ears and put them on your TV. You can get basic channels for free. If you don’t already have an antenna, they can of course be bought at stores for what I’m thinking would be a relatively low price.
EDIT: I now use an antenna so that I can get my favorite local channels. You can [easyazon_link keywords=”go to this website” locale=”US” tag=”maksenofcen0b-20″ link_id=”3628″ id=”52224″]go to this website[/easyazon_link] and find many great antennas – this is an affiliate link, but I didn’t find out I could be an affiliate until after I was already using their antenna. I truly enjoy their product and recommend it!
Amazon Prime – $79 a year, but there are often discounts
There are many benefits of Amazon Prime, such as free shipping, but the main point of including it in this post is that they offer unlimited streaming as well in their service.
I logged in to see what the exact price would be, and it says it is normally $79. However, when I logged in, Amazon said that I qualify for a 50% discount, which would make my price only $39 a year. That seems like a deal! I have heard that there are many different discounts out there, such as for being a student, so please research this. I’m sure most people don’t pay the full $79 price.
Library – Free
The library is also another option, and all it costs is whatever it takes in gas to drive there. The library often has movies and you can rent what you want to watch for free.
Do you have cable? Is is cable worth it to you? How much do you spend each month on cable?
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I don’t pay for cable. I do watch a lot of TV but only a few shows religiously so I just rely on Hulu. It’s a good expense to cut if you really need to but at the same time, if it’s something you really enjoy, $60 isn’t going to hurt you that much.
Yes, I agree. We do love our TV!
Yeah the time factor is what we keep thinking about!
$57 for cable is a great deal. That’s cheaper than what pay. The main reason I still have dish is for sports . If they create a way for you to watch sports for a lower price, I will tell dish bye bye.
Haha yes so many people keep it for sports. Luckily, I do not care about sports! 🙂
We used to have cable, but it was ridiculously expensive for what we had compared to satellite. We signed up for satellite (Direct TV) because it was way cheaper. Since we were new customers, we negotiated a cheaper price, plus received the DVR genie which usually costs $200-300 (but we didn’t have to pay for it). It’s definitely worth it to use, since it is a better service.
I’m not sure how much we pay, since my husband was the one that switched the service.
Yes, satellite is usually much cheaper!
I have been cable free for over a year and I enjoy the savings. We use a variety of other methods to watch shows, but we tend to just go with the antenna and netflix. It is a combo that works well for us.
That sounds like a great combo. We have been thinking about doing something similar!
Thanks for posting about the great cable debate. I live alone on a tight budget and have struggled with the idea of keeping or getting rid of cable. Where I live in NC, cable runs about $60 a month. The cost isn’t terrible, but that’s $60 that could help pay down my student loans or boost my monthly savings. I’ve kept cable mainly for the company that it provides but I do hope to one day pull the plug. Thank you for providing other options to consider!
You’re welcome Emily 🙂
Yes, $60 isn’t a TON of money, but it is something.
I recently wrote a post basically asking the same question. I HATE paying the cable bill (which is roughly the same as yours). We don’t watch much TV and mostly just flip through the channels before hitting the sack at night.
The reason I haven’t cut the cord yet is because of NFL. I could easily live without it but my man likes to keep up with it and none of the other options (HuluPlus, NetFix, etc.) have NFL. Sure, they have NHL, NBA, etc…but no NFL.
What gives???? Am I missing something???
Yes, we just flip through the channels as well. Luckily, W doesn’t like sports!
We got rid of our cable and saved about $50 month. We use an antenna, Netflix, and Apple TV box.
Great decision. Unfortunately we are moving to where we can’t have an antenna and only two cable/dish companies are available. 🙁
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Sounds like a good combo for TV! And oh no, why can’t you have an antenna? No reception?
What is a roku box? Everyone is talking about it!
We actually just made the switch to cable. It’s bundled with our internet so it’s only about $40 more a month and my husband calls periodically and gets better rates on both services.
We lived happily without cable for the first two years of our marriage and I grew up without it. Hulu and Netflix are great but are limited. Even with the antenna (which cost us $12), we only got 2 local stations.
It’s an interesting question about productivity. I enjoy writing my blog, sewing or even doing work in the evenings with the TV on for “background” so productivity isn’t really an issue for me.
$40 a month is a great deal! We are probably going to cancel HBO for when our shows aren’t on (there will be a 6 month lapse with nothing on there that we watch), which will save us around $15 a month, I believe.
We currently do not have cable and haven’t had it in years. We actually don’t even have a T.V. at the moment! We had Netflix for awhile, but cancelled after the price hike they had. I DO agree with you though … there are several NEEDS :p when it comes to T.V. shows (i.e. Walking Dead) We have found ways to watch the shows we want (legally!) without having to spend the money to watch them.
We also try to limit the amount of T.V. we watch. I’ve been guilty in the past of spending all day getting sucked into a T.V. marathon. We have big goals and we’re always working on eliminating distractions.
The only thing we will not give up is our internet! We’ve actually contemplated getting rid of it a few times! We use it of course for blogging, but also for our own business. I’m excited for the day where we don’t have to think about all of these things and we can get them if we want!
Yes, I could never get rid of internet either! My self-employment relies on it!
I’ve been considering Amazon Prime for a while now. I had to go back to Netflix after I got really tired of always hitting Redbox. Their streaming service was convenient but they really need to update the selection more often.
I agree, they need more updates!
Yeah we might have to look into ordering them individually as well!
We cancelled ours a few months ago for that same reason. We weren’t really watching anything except useless background noise. We have Netflix streaming, and add the DVD plan if there is a show we want to watch that isn’t on streaming. So far, it’s been great.
Great to hear Kim! We might go the same route.
We go back and forth but still have DirecTV for now. I generally think it’s a pretty good value when considering entertainment gained per dollar spent, but it’s a bad deal in terms of its impact on our overall time, as you noted. For the next year we’ll likely keep it but I do think our lives will be more fulfilling without so much television time. It’s a habit, mostly, and that’s why it’s hard for us to break it.
We are the same way. We have always had cable!