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. Sharon Kaminski

    We do have cable. We do like it because we love football.

  2. jimmy Rector

    we have dish getting higher every day

  3. Edmond

    RE: no cable. Can’t afford it. Pick me, pick me! Your next winner!!! Show me the money!!! It would be a dream come true and means more to me than anyone else to win. Starving artist here desperately needs the prize $50 and eat. Winner, winnner. Chicken dinner. A life changing experience. Top of my bucket list. Thank you for the awesomeness, the contest, and generosity. Dear Santa: I’ve been nice. My X-Mas wish this year is to win this contest.

  4. Kelly Nicholson

    have direct tv..i really need this

  5. christopher h

    i do not have cable anymore, I found I was spending too much money on something I wasn’t watching that much

  6. Carlos

    Indeed, we still have cable as some of the shows we are currently hooked on are exclusively on it, like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead…

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Walking Dead is on Netflix 🙂

  7. Horace

    Our family does not have cable. We cut the cord to save money about a year ago.

  8. sarah s

    We haven’t had cable for a little over two year, we use mainly the free version of Hulu and free episode selections on the main cable channels.

  9. David

    We don’t have cable. It is too expensive and there are plenty of free channels.

  10. LindaG.

    We have cable now, but we want to try the indoor antennas, so thank you for the review.

  11. Wanda Bergman

    We do have cable so we can gain a few more channels.

  12. Jack

    Right there with you. We’ve saved thousands of dollars so far by cutting the cord and switching to Netflix and Roku. Best of all, no commercials!

    I do miss Mythbusters, but if I missed it that much, I could always buy it on Amazon.

  13. Anita L

    Yes, we have cable because without it, we would not be able to watch television!

  14. wudstock08

    nope we dont have cable. just an antenna to save money

  15. Sharon

    No, we don’t have cable, and we need a digital antennae to get local and more channels better! Thanks for an Awesome Giveaway!!