A few months ago, we finally got rid of cable. Since cutting cable out of our lives, we haven’t missed it one bit.
We are still watching all of our favorite shows, we can still watch the news, and we don’t feel like we’re missing out on anything at all.
There has only been one time when I wished we still had cable and that was so that I could watch the newest season of Walking Dead. That will eventually come out on Netflix though, so I can wait for that – no problem at all.
According to NPD Group (a market research company), the average monthly cable bill in 2015 is expected to be $123. By the year 2020, the average cable bill is expected to be around $200 a month.
That’s a lot of money.
That’s $1,476 for 2015 alone. By 2020, the average annual cable bill would then be $2,400.
I know of many people who spend much more than this as well, such as someone who recently told me that they spend over $300 a MONTH on their cable bill. While that may seem crazy to you, I have heard of many people who pay this much money and sometimes even more for cable.
By learning how to cut cable, you could save thousands of dollars over your lifetime. That money could be better spent on retirement, traveling, family, and more.
Below are different areas that some of you have wondered about when it comes to cutting cable. Continue reading to learn how to cut cable today.
Cutting cable is easy with a digital antenna.
When you think about antennas, you probably think about the classic rabbit ears that are big and ugly. You probably also think about how the picture is never perfect and how channels can get blurry and almost completely fade away.
Well, these days antennas are no longer like that and this makes cutting cable much easier. They are sleek looking and allow you to watch your favorite TV shows with no problem at all. There is no monthly cost, just a small upfront cost to buy the antenna. You just pay for the antenna once and you can watch local channels as much as you want.
We recently bought an antenna (you can go to this website 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 this product and recommend it!) and it has been working well for us. It’s an indoor one that sits behind our TV, there is no ugliness that goes along with it, and you can’t even see it.
The antenna gives us around 14 channels and they are all of great quality. The antenna was around $60 and it will allow us to save hundreds of dollars a year for years to come, so it was a great deal.
If you get an antenna, I’ve heard of others getting many more channels, sometimes even 50 or 60. If you are interested in learning how to cut cable and looking for alternatives to cable TV, I highly recommend getting an antenna.
We spend $8.99 a month on Netflix.
The only thing we spend money on monthly after cutting cable is Netflix. I can watch everything I want to because of Netflix and it’s nice because I don’t have to watch commercials or wait to see what happens after a cliffhanger.
The only bad thing about this is that we are watching a little too much Netflix. We’ve watched whole series of shows already but luckily we are getting a little better with controlling ourselves.
There are also many other options when it comes to still being able to watch your favorite TV shows after cutting cable. You could get Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, pay for the episodes you want to watch individually, and more. There are TONS of options out there.
We don’t watch sports so cutting cable was an easy decision.
Many people have asked “Oh, but what are you doing so that you can watch sports?”
Figuring out how to cut cable and whether it would work for us was easy since we don’t watch any sports on TV.
It’s really that simple.
How much money are we saving?
We aren’t saving a ton of money, I will be honest and say that. However, it was money we were just wasting though, as it was very rare whenever we did watch a TV show that wasn’t on a local channel or on Netflix. This is the main reason why we decided to get rid of cable, as it was useless and just another bill that we didn’t need in life.
We are saving around $41 each month and around $492 each year, after you subtract Netflix expenses.
We are also saving time. I used to have to talk to our cable company once every six months so that I could negotiate our cable bill down. Our cable company seemed to have a $10 or $20 increase a few times a year, and that is just insane. If we would have never negotiated, I’m sure our monthly cable bill would have been in the $100 or $200 range.
Are you planning on cutting cable? Are you interested in learning how to cut cable? How much is your monthly cable bill?
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Thanks!
We got rid of cable last year and I have not missed it for one minute. I personally love Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime for watching the programs that I like. We are not only saving money, but we also save time because we now watch tv intentionally rather than spending hours flipping through hundreds of channels and not really watching anything.
Good job Shannon!
We cut cable a year ago. At first we just had the Roku device that allows us to access netflix, hulu and many others. Many are free! We only pay for Hulu and Netflix. The only thing I did not like was missing The Walking Dead, and any shows on (? can’t think of the station for some reason), but anyways it has the shows like NCIS, CSI, Criminal Minds etc… And my hubby hates missing his Nascar!!
The Roku was a one time cost of $39 and I pay $7.99 for Hulu and Netflix each month. We recently bought a HD antenna and we had to get a booster for it, so we now get about 25 local channels. I will definitely be checking up on the Sling. My only option for high speed internet is to get it through the cable company and it cost me $60/month. It was $55/month until earlier this year.
My son and his wife cannot get internet without the cable and phone too. Time Warner will not do internet alone.
Oh yeah I do have a home phone and it is only $32 for the year. It is the Magic Jack and it is connected through my internet service.
Weird! I had no idea that there were so many places where you could only do a package deal.
We’d love to cut our cable but the one thing that has me hesitating is losing the DVR. I never watch shows at the time they air and hate sitting through commercials. I don’t relish the idea of having to be home at a certain time to watch a show when it actually comes on (like in the case of having an antenna). I hope some of these newer options will offer DVRs at some point.
If you switch to Netflix then there are no commercials! 🙂
We have Netflix; I was more concerned about the lack of DVR and having to watch commercials for shows not available via Netflix.
$300 a month. What a joke!!! I rarely watch TV, at all. Thankfully I don’t pay for cable but even if I watched more TV I don’t think I would. It seems to be pouring money down a drain. That’s a nice holiday away each year in cable bills!
Definitely!
I tried to get rid of my cable bill recently, but can’t until my contract is up in June. But I did get my bill negotiated down in the meantime. After my contract is up, I’ll be cancelling my subscription and putting that money toward other things, like debt and savings. It isn’t much now, about $46 month/, but it used to be $85/month and I never have time to watch it anyhow.
Awesome Kayla!
We love Hulu. Haven’t looked back.
Thanks to subsidizing the in-laws in the guest house, we were paying $100 for the second-lowest package. Now we pay $8 for Hulu. (We already had Netflix.) So I now transfer the $92 of savings into an account each month. This way, the money we saved is actually saved.
Awesome!
Sports is the only reason I haven’t cut my cable yet. The bill is usually only $65 per month. With my side hustle income increasing, I might just keep it though.
In some cases it’s worth it. It can be a great way to score frugal entertainment!
I only indulged in Foxtel (Cable) for a about 12 months in total and that was many years ago. I paid extra to get the Sci Fi, History and National Geographic channels, too. What I discovered pretty quickly was that the same programs were shown over and over again. Sure, there were no commercials but seriously, I love my Sci Fi but even I get sick of watching the same series and movies ad infinitum!
As of about a week ago, Aussies now have access (officially) to Netflix. I am seriously considering signing up. It seems like a small price to pay to watch what you want to watch, when you want to watch it. Plus, it means the TV is only on when you’re watching something specific, not just to see what’s on next. That’s got to be a good thing.
Netflix is great. I highly recommend it!
It’s almost 2 years now since we cut the cord and switched to Netflix on the Roku. The one nice thing about being an early adopter is that we’re still only paying $7.99 a month for our Netflix. That extra $1 will let us retire about 5 minutes earlier than previously planned 😉
The other side benefit of cutting the cord was being invited to a cord cutters focus group and earning $150 for giving my opinion on cord cutting.
But the thing I love the most? No commercials!
Our Netflix would only be $7.99 as well but we added a second user so that two people can watch at once in different places.
Yes, I love no commercials!
I think more people should dump cable and/or satellite tv. It’s ridicously expensive and hundreds of stations with nothing to watch! I love Netflix.
I agree!
Netflix family here. Lots of educational shows for my kids, too. And no commercials!
Awesome!
Haha makes sense 🙂
Try it one summer! 🙂
I just pulled the plug on cable. At $40/ month extra, I couldn’t justify it. I’m not sure if I want to get a digital antenna so I can watch TV old-school style — at a certain time and day, without a pause button, and no fast forward. It’s hard to do that with little kids around, because once occupied, someone always needs something!
Good job Rebecca!