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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Yes, I agree!
You hit the head on the nail Michelle with the productivity part. We would be so much more productive without satellite. We are “in the process” of getting rid of the satellite. We have a smart tv which has amazon on it. We will be budgeting for ~$15-20/month for tv shows and movies which will be far less than we are paying. Like mentioned though, the productivity is the biggest reason for doing so for us as well.
The Warrior
NetWorthWarrior.com
Yes, productivity is a really big reason!
We got rid of cable awhile ago to help save up for a house in a HCOL area… we now have a home, and we haven’t gone back yet. Most of our shows we want are on the big channels and then we can stream others on Hulu if we miss anything. I go back and forth with Netflix if I need to catch up with a series, but other that, we just use our Antenna ($12 investment) and Hulu (free version). A friend records Walking Dead for my Husband since I think that’s the only show we couldn’t stream for free online. We definitely don’t miss cable!
Walking Dead is the main thing that I would miss! But I’m sure we could find another way.
Is there a positive/advantage to have all 4? Just wondering 😉
We have cable before with free antenna and it only cost for $10 a month with 75 channels but I unsubscribe it. I was thinking that having a cable was just useless because we don’t usually watch TV ,I prefer to pay internet connection rather having a cable subscription.
We watch a lot of TV. I would love $10!
The bf and I get internet and cable for about $30 a month and so we have it more as a package deal than anything else. We sometimes find ourselves flipping through the channels, and make ourselves go outdoors to enjoy the weather or play a board game. It’s nice to have for rainy days or curl up to watch a good movie, but after that, we are not too caught up in any series. And, overall, we do make use of those $30 a month. So the only reason we would cut it is if it went up in price or something else really took up our time.
$30 is a really good deal!
But what do you do about internet? Do you have any suggestions for internet price cutting?
Our internet is not bundled with our cable.
Hmm for internet, maybe shop around and call them personally for a discount?
My husband and I pay $150 for cable and Internet, nothing fancy but a DVR, and that’s the introductory rate. I’m seriously considering canceling our cable and just keeping the Internet. $100 a month could pay off a lot of other bills!
Hmm that seems like a lot!
TV isn’t a priority for me, and while my husband watches it more often, he’s content with the channels available on free antenna tv, so that works great for us. We purchased Netflix for a few months, but their movie/tv selection is very odd…and I DO feel that I’m less likely to choose laziness when there isn’t that netflix temptation around!
I watch so much TV! I wish I didn’t watch as much.
I “cut the cable” about 8 years ago and found some things about my watching preferences. I already knew I wasn’t much of a fan of televised sports shows, but did miss some of the camaraderie of people dropping by (or staying longer) to watch a game. I also found out I’m a huge binge-watcher – it’s very hard for me to resist watching multiple TV episodes in a row. Finally, I also found out that cutting cable didn’t increase my activity per se – I think I was probably using TV as an excuse, when what I really wanted to do was just vegetate. On the plus side, I do read for pleasure a lot more now… almost as much as before college.
As far as subscriptions, I usually alternate between Netflix and Hulu+. Fortunately both of them are very good about keeping track of your preferences/titles even when you’re not active. I usually use Hulu when the TV season is in full swing (like now with the Fall season starting) to take advantage of being able to watch the newest episodes. It also tends to limit my binging tendencies. 🙂 I also tend to supplement my TV watching with the occasional Redbox rental or digital rental/purchase since Hulu’s selection of movies is still pretty slim. When my favorite shows start switching to reruns, I switch to Netflix and catch up on seasons of shows that Hulu doesn’t cover.
Finally, I’d mention that I recently got a Google Chromecast ($35), which makes it easy to stream content from TV websites (including Hulu) as well as YouTube and Netflix onto my big “dumb” (as opposed to smart) flatscreen TV. You do need a WiFi network to use it.
Yes, I’m a huge binge watcher as well. It’s hard to stop once you start a new show.
I canceled cable last year and couldn’t be happier. My booster antennae lets me get all the network tv I want. And not only can I do my streaming through my blu-ray player, but for less than $10, I bought 2 cords to connect my computer to my television, essentially turning that into a second monitor. Now I can stream from all the free sites right to my tv. Sure, some of them have commercials, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I also currently live a block and a half from a library, so I can always get a blu-ray, dvd, movie, tv show.
Good job!
Our house has Netflix streaming and an antenna and for us it’s more than enough. For watching new released movies we use the library. There are times I wish I could watch shows that Netflix didnt pick up but at the end the day it’s not really a big deal.
Sounds like a good plan 🙂
I haven’t had cable since I moved out of my mom’s house and started paying for it.lol. That was about 19 years ago. My husband put up a fuss about it but he wasn’t the one writing the checks so the cable went bye bye. We’ve tried Netflix back when it was really cheap and they were just a DVD rental service- no varying prices for however many DVDs you had out. We’d watch two movies every night because my husband figured out a rhythm with Netflix and the postal service but then we realized how much time we spent watching movies and how tired we were in the mornings because we’d stayed up late to watch them. That was shortly before I became a SAHM and we had to give a up a lot of extras in order for me to do that. Now it’s just the occasional rental from Redbox and even the price of Redbox has gone up. I’m intrigued by what you said about Amazon Prime. I didn’t realize you could stream movies for free with it. Oh, and shame on those foo’s giving you trouble for trying to save money. Have they been living under a rock since 2008 or what?
Wow that is awesome! 19 years is a long time to go without 😉
I pay about $140 a month for a bundle of cable, internet and phone. My cable company is horrible and I am getting ready to cut it off if I am not offered a better discount. The prices have increased dramatically since I first singned up. If you can stay away do since most of the shows end up on dvd or hulu anyway. I am looking into Roku or something similar as I feel the cable companies have become like the new mafia. All they want is money by any means necessary.
I hope you get offered a discount. That seems like a lot.
I have four ROKU players in our house and an Xbox. I use Netflix and Hulu and everyone in the house can certainly find something to watch. My kids hated it at firsts but now are happy to have it. I split the netflix and hulu with a friend so its half price for us and we can still pause and rewind. LOL
That’s awesome Crystal!