We finally eliminated cable earlier this year. Cutting the cable cord wasn’t hard due to the fact that we have a digital antenna.
And, guess what?
We haven’t missed it one bit.
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!
In fact, that’s $1,476 for 2015 alone. By 2020, the average annual cable bill would then be $2,400.
Who wants to spend that much money on TV?
I know I don’t!
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I know there are some out there who prefer to have cable because they watch sports, but I doubt that is the norm. I believe many have cable just because it’s an expense that most people have and are “used to.”
However, that money could be used for something else. Perhaps a vacation, retiring a little bit earlier, paying off debt, and so on.
One of the main ways I recommend cutting the cable cord (and making it a bit easier) is by purchasing a digital antenna.
Related money saving tip: You can also ditch cable and get Hulu instead. It’s as low as $5.99 and a great way to save loads of money each month on cable.
Cutting the cable cord is easy with a digital antenna.
When you think of TV antennas, you probably think of 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 the cable cord much easier. Digital antennas are sleek looking and allow you to watch your favorite TV shows with no problem at all.
Digital antennas are also cheap. They start at around $29.99 on the Antennas Direct website and go up from there. There is no monthly cost to use a digital antenna, so you can still receive many of your favorite local TV channels (that’s all I ever watched anyways!) and never have to pay money again.
Just think about it – around $30 for a digital antenna and be set for a really long time, or spend thousands of dollars on cable that you probably don’t get full use out of?
Seems like a clear winner to me!
Related: 16 Alternatives To Cable TV That WILL Save You Money
Our digital antenna.
We recently got a digital antenna (you can go to this website and find many great digital antennas – this is an affiliate link, but I didn’t find out I could be an affiliate until after I was already using their digital antenna. I truly enjoy this product and recommend it!) and it has been working well for us.
We have the ClearStream™ Micron Indoor Multi-Directional Digital TV Antenna.
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 digital antenna gives us around 14 channels and they are all of great quality. I’ve even heard of others getting 50 or 60 channels. The antenna we bought 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.
Do you have cable? Why or why not?
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So glad you posted this option! I am still attempting to cut the cable cord – but Mr. P is pained by the thought of losing his precious Animal Planet (and Discovery…and…). We’re working on it. I will definitely float this idea past him.
Haha those are some of the same exact reasons for why Wes didn’t want to get rid of it. It’s well worth it though!
What an awesome giveaway! We haven’t had cable for several years now, and honestly we don’t miss it at all. We have a cheap $15 antenna that brings in the local news and PBS, and we have amazon prime for certain shows. We honestly just don’t spend that much time in front of the tv though. There’s too much to do, and we make better use of the money elsewhere.
Awesome!
Do you know if the antennas work in Canada? I’ve never heard of it!
Hmm.. I’m really not sure. Hopefully someone in Canada can help us out 🙂
The antennas do work in Canada! Several models are available at Best Buy in Canada or at Save and Replay, but if you win the Eclipse it will work for you!
Thanks Erica!
We cut almost a year ago, and amazingly, 70 channels still come in on our TV. Shh… don’t tell our cable company! 🙂 We saved about $60 a month when we cut the cord!
Haha nice!
We’ve been cable and TV free for over 4 years now. Don’t miss anything and definitely saving quite a bit of money.
Great job!
We also cut the cord 4 (or 5?) years ago–didn’t miss a thing. It was such a good idea, especially now that TV can be replaced with a streaming service.
Yes!
I went a step further. I got rid of cable tv and internet at my house! My entrepreneur buddies said I was crazy. It worked amazingly for me. Knowing that once I left my office I wasn’t working online made me get more done. I love reading and not having cable at my house has upped my consumption of books to 1-2 a week again. I saved about $815 a year, which that’s small change but still nice.
Awesome!
We are a family of 7 and we cut the cord 2 years ago because i wanted to live intentionally with our kids and not glued to the screen. The added savings has been a huge blessing. Honestly, we don’t miss it a bit. We have a netflix subscription because i love to netflix binge from time to time.
Great job!
We desperately want to cut the cord, but around here the cable guys are the only game in town for internet access (and as we both work from home, good internet is crucial to our livelihood). And, of course, the cable companies won’t just give you internet, they jam telephone and tv channels down your throat as well. We are in the process of switching from one provider to another to cut our bill by $100 a month, but in the end we’ll still have way more channels than we want.
Ugh that stinks!
Nice!
Never heard of the digital antenna, are you finding good reception most places you visit? We cut cable a few years ago, It wasn’t just because of the money, but I have probably saved hundreds of life hours and have been much more productive since. I do get my share of Netflix watching in however. 🙂
We have an antenna in our RV as well and it works great. Seriously, it is awesome!
I have still have cable. I only $60 per month. I love my sports. As soon as I can find an alternative that allows me to watch NFL, NBA & MLB in HD I’m cutting it.
I think that if you get use out of it, then it can be a frugal form of entertainment. No problem with that.
We do not have because it got too expensive.
Good luck with the giveaway!
Nice!
Yes, we still have cable due that ours is in a bundle package with internet/phone. We have thought about cutting the cord quite a few times, but we need the internet & phone for schooling purposes. If we got rid of just the cable, then we’d only be saving $20 a month and my husband likes the extra sports channels that we get.
$20 isn’t too much more and if it provides for frugal entertainment then that’s great!
Yes I have cable and lots of time I can’t find anything to watch.
You should think about getting rid of cable then 🙂