Save Hundreds Every Month By Cutting Cable Without Being Miserable

Cutting Cable Without Being Miserable

Cutting Cable Without Being Miserable – it Can Be Done!

A little over five years ago, we were paying $250 a month to a company we couldn’t stand. After one heated phone call, we no longer had cable. It’s not that we don’t like TV and movies, we just couldn’t give another penny to this company. Because of this, we decided to see if we could go without cable and five years later…we haven’t gone back!

We had a Triple Play package which consisted of phone, cable, and internet. We cut the cable and home phone so now we only have internet through another company for about $70 a month. Our speed is twice as fast and we have a LOT less issues – seriously almost none. Considering I run a website and spend most of my day online…this is a good thing!  Also having good internet is a key part of our entertainment package because occasionally we have multiple devices streaming at the same time. The more devices connected, the bigger package you will need. If you only have one, you won’t need as much.

We already had a Netflix Membership and an Amazon Prime Membership so we just started watching those more. You would be AMAZED at how many shows are available. Here’s the best part – you can watch an entire season(s) at once with no commercials! How cool is that?

Plus if you get an HD antenna (under $30 on Amazon) you can pick up local HD channels for free too. We get 7 in our area but larger cities have even more. That means you can still watch most TV shows as usual – CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, and public channels for FREE. Get a recording device and you can even still record your favorite shows!

We also started renting and buying movies more. We don’t normally don’t go to the movies so I usually don’t have a problem buying a movie for around $10 if I think we will watch it multiple times. We buy them through Amazon so they are ALWAYS in our account and we can download them and watch them on the go. Plus I don’t have to worry about the disc being destroyed.

I calculated it up once, and I think we spend about $110 a month on entertainment. That is the cost of internet, movies, subscriptions and more. Well over HALF of what we were spending and we haven’t missed cable once!

Want to turn your house cable free?

First you will need a device to stream the shows and movies through. While select TVs are ready to go, if yours isn’t you can purchase devices to do this as well. Most are super inexpensive and most are portable. I suggest getting one for each TV in your house. Just makes it easier than moving stuff around. We already had an Xbox and Roku for streaming Netflix so we really didn’t have to buy anything to start other than the antenna. Watch for deals – these have become SUPER cheap in the last few years!

Get devices to stream…

Roku
Xbox 360 or One
Select Televisions—as low as $169 shipped!
Google Chromecast
Amazon Fire Stick

Then you need to decide which streaming services you will use. You can get one or all.  TIP: Do one trial at a time. Watch what you want and then cancel it. Then get another!

Decide which streaming services you want…

Amazon Prime (Free 30 Day Trial)
Netflix
Hulu Plus (Free 2-Week Trial)
VidAngel (Get movies for $1.00 – no late fees)
ShowTime (Free 30 Day Trial)
Starz (Free 30 Day Trial)
CBS All Access (Free 30 Day Trial)

There are others, these are the ones we have used and had good success with!

Getting the show you REALLY want but can’t find anywhere else…

We have run into this. Games of Thrones is only on HBO. We wanted to continue watching it but couldn’t find it anywhere. We ended up buying a few seasons. Each season was about $29 on Amazon so it was STILL cheaper than having cable!

Sometimes you just have to be patient. Eventually shows always end up on one of the streaming services. Ask friends for suggestions. I have found a TON of shows that I love that I would have never watched before!

Some key things to note:

We don’t have a home phone. Instead we added a line to our cell package for our son (about $20 a month). Yes, my 12 year old has a phone BUT he has a phone to take anywhere and he has a lifeline if he is alone. He knows it is the “house phone”.

Our big issue has been sports. We are huge FSU fans and not every game is televised on normal TV, although we can usually we can get them with HD Antenna. Our solution has been to hook an HDMI cable (under $5 on Amazon) up to our TV and stream the game via a laptop (if it is online – usually ESPN is). Relatively easy to do, OR we have just gone out to watch the game. Still cheaper than paying for cable!

Got any questions? Leave a comment and I will do my best to answer it!

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