Cut Cable, Use A Digital Antenna, and Save Thousands!

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…

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: January 27, 2025

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

Cutting The Cable Cord By Getting A Digital AntennaWe 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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Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

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  1. Daniel M

    we still have cable because we don’t have smart tvs yet and appletv ruku whatever look too limited and don’t want to have to go through menus searching for the show i want ever single time i want to watch something

  2. Sohair

    Because it has a lot of channels that my hubby likes to watch

  3. Elaine Powell

    we do for now. thinking of trying something less expensive. if not for Nascar and a couple of my husbands fav, channels, I would unhook the cable

  4. Lisa L.

    No cable, too busy traveling full time in RV. But lawd how I miss the NFL !!! Broncos keep winning though. Me and my Denver Bronco styled RV are happy for that. Which is for sale by the way, :o) 1k finders fee if they mention your name! Lisagee1234 on instagram

  5. molli vandehey

    i do because my roommate already had it. i will likely cancel soon

  6. charlene

    I have cable but I wish I could get rid of it. I am in a pretty rural area and would only get about 5 channels and the kids would go nuts

  7. amy tolley

    yes we have cable because my family wouldnt go without tv..and we dont really get reception out here all to great and you can only watch so many dvd’s then its time for something else ..but would love to try this out if lucky enough to win…and drop the cable bill that coast out the butt

  8. Crystal Rogers Walker

    We have Dish Network we live in Smoky Mountains and don’t have alot of choice for TV or Internet

  9. Bella T.

    I’ve never heard of this! 🙂 I currently do not have cable due to the expensiveness and hassle!

    1. Bella T.

      p.s. My FB name is Isabella Renee if you need verification for the FB Share entry! 🙂

  10. Amanda

    I love this idea, but my husband is all about the TV. We’ll see what he says when I run it by him. Our cable bill will double in March if we stick with the current plan.

  11. James

    I’ve been using a Over-the-Air digital antenna for the last three years and it works great. Add a long HDMI cable from your computer to your television and you have a lot of great free streaming options online for content.

  12. Christy Caldwell

    I don’t have cable. It’s just too expensive. I use an antenna for network TV. I have been looking for a better digital antenna.

  13. Sandra Watts

    I just got a new television that has all the apps and include Roka. I want to cute the cable, I am just not sure how yet.

  14. christine burd

    We do have cable and it is bundled with phone and internet .. We never really looked into other options

  15. debbie

    No we dont I live in new zealand and we still dont have a lot of tv channels but we do have what we call freeview which s free to watch We also have sky which is like cable but there are only about 15 channels Plus its quite expensive and repititive but slowly getting other tv services available which will prob drive the costs down