Cut the cord, man.
Okay let’s admit it. We’re TV addicts.
The average American watches 5 hours of TV per day, according to a report from Nielsen. Five hours a day! That’s a lot of TV watching. But that’s understandable, I mean how else are you going to keep up with the entire Kardashian family?
But just because we are addicted to TV doesn’t mean we have to pay over $100 a month to watch our favorite shows. And $100 is a low number. It is estimated that the average price of cable TV will hit $123 a month next year. That’s $1,476 a year!
I’m not suggesting you stop watching TV – I watch more TV than I’d like to admit – all I’m saying is that you should consider paying less for your services.
I haven’t had cable for over a year and I don’t miss it at all. True, I have to wait a day to watch my favorite shows, but as long as nobody ruins it by telling me what happens, one day is not that long of a wait. I’ve noticed that people nowadays are pretty good at not telling me what happened. They usually ask, “Oh man, did you see it last night?” No, and don’t say anything or I’ll karate chop you in your throat.
Anyways, below are a few ways you can replace cable and save money in the long run.
How to Replace Cable
1. Digital Antenna – If you don’t watch the 767 channels that come with your package and only watch the broadcast networks (such as CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, PBS) then you might as well get yourself a digital antenna.
Some of the best antennas are very inexpensive (RCA ANT1650F Digital Antenna
2. Hulu – If you don’t mind waiting until the next day to watch your favorite show, then Hulu is right for you. Hulu is free and you can watch hundreds of TV shows and movies.
Hulu doesn’t have all the shows and it only shows the latest 4-5 episodes, but the amount of shows they have is more than enough to keep you entertained for those five hours every day. And if you want more episodes, you could always try Hulu Plus for $7.99 a month. I think free Hulu is good enough.
3. Netflix – Now if you really want to watch TV for five hours straight then just get Netflix and start watching Breaking Bad. Warning: You might binge watch Breaking Bad for three days straight. It’s just too good.
Netflix recently raised their price to $8.99 a month, but it is still a bargain considering the amount of movies and shows that it offers. Netflix are also producing quality shows like House of Cards and Orange is The New Black that are worth the money.
4. Amazon Prime – Most people know of Amazon Prime as a way to save money on shipping. But the Amazon Prime
The Amazon Prime membership
Breaking Down the Numbers
There are probably more ways you can replace cable and save money, but the five above are the most common. Now you ask, “What are the savings?”
To calculate the savings and to simplify things let’s make some assumptions. Let’s say your cable package is $100 a month. I would say that’s pretty average. Now let’s say that internet alone is $50 a month (I pay $39.99, but $50 is a good average.)
Let’s also assume that you want to get all four things mentioned above – you don’t have to because the antenna and Hulu could be enough, but let’s say you want it all.
| Year 1 | Year 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Antenna | $35 | N/A |
| Hulu | Free | Free |
| Netflix | $107.88 | $107.88 |
| Amazon Prime | $99 | $99 |
| Internet | $600 | $600 |
| Annual Total | $841.88 | 806.88 |
As you can see, if you replace cable with all of the above you will save almost $400 a year ($500 if you don’t get amazon prime). And not only that, you will probably buy a lot less stuff because you don’t get to see commercials.
Every time I go somewhere who has cable and I watch the commercials I’m always saying, “Ooh that’s nice, I want it. Oh I want that too.” Commercials are made to make you want stuff and they work! That’s why they pay millions of dollars to run them.
If your goal is to save money to pay your debt or for any reason whatsoever, consider cutting the cord for a few months and see how you feel. Once you’ve met your saving goals, you can always go back to having 7,357 channels.
Do you still have cable TV or have you cut the cord?
We cut the cord on cable this year and saved even more by using one of my mother-in-law’s Netflix logins. So we just pay for internet, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime. We have been without cable now for about 8 months, and I don’t miss it a bit. In fact, we have gotten into other shows that I never thought I would, like Orange is the New Black and Blue Bloods.
Funny about the Netflix sharing. I share mine with my sister and my brother shares his HBO Go account with me… but shhh
Actually saving is $600 more because everybody has internet anyway.
I cut the cord a long time ago and don’t miss it in the least bit. My fried gave me his roku so I love watching netflix and hulu, and I’ll also rent movies from red box which $1.20 compared to a $15 movie at the theater? No brainer, although I do go see a lot more movies this time of year because of the Oscar-type releases. And now I just heard HBO is going to offer a subscription baed service!
I also have a Roku that a friend gave us, but don’t use it as much because it is in the bedroom and we don’t watch TV there. I do think the Roku is a pretty nifty gadget and it has a ton of apps.
Ugh, we’ve been struggling with cable for a while. We just can’t seem to cut the cord because of sports.
Yes, sports is a big one for a lot of people. I don’t really watch that much sports anymore so it’s not a big deal to me. Maybe somebody else can chime in what they do about where to watch sports on the cheap.
We cut the cord a couple of years ago and never regretted it. We pay for Netflix and we bought an antenna for about $40 which gives us 50 channels including all the major networks.
That’s the way to do it. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime, and with Hulu, it’s more than enough for us.
We just got rid of cable and I don’t miss it at all! My husband got an antenna for football and he gets plenty of games to keep him entertained. We also have a Netflix subscription and I will have to check out Hulu! I wasn’t aware that was free haha! Thanks!
Oh yes, Hulu is free! There’s also Hulu plus, which has more episodes, but free Hulu is good enough most of the time.
The free Hulu only works on a computer. If you try using it as an app on a tablet or phone, it won’t let you access the free shows without a paid Hulu+ account. But I don’t mind connecting my laptop to the TV and watching some free Hulu on the big(ish) screen!
Funny that you wrote this, I just talked about entertainment cost on my blog the other day. We’ve been without a TV for over 3.5 years now. Don’t really find the need to replace cable at all. 🙂
I wish I could be without TV. I guess cutting cable is a good start. We’ll see where that leads.
I like Netflix. I think it’s worth it just to watch Breaking Bad! Best show I’ve watched in years.
Agreed! Best show ever! I watched like 3 seasons in one sitting… I don’t think I slept at all.
I have cable now for HBO and sports stuff. But, we went two years without it in the past and managed just fine. When we move next year we’ll probably cut the cord for good since we can get HBO on it’s own now. And I’ve found that I prefer binge watching shows after the series is over anyway – I forget too much in between seasons.
I love the fact that HBO is going to be offered by itself now. I wonder how many game of thrones fans will cut the cord and just get HBO go?
We’ve actually never had cable. We have a Roku as well as an Amazon Prime membership. And, we’ve found tons of great stuff on YouTube (mostly DIY home improvement shows, how to live on a homestead shows, and yes, videos of greyhounds playing and generally being cute). Also, we don’t watch all that much TV anymore, which helps.
I’ve never paid for cable in my life but I also watch way too much tv. We mostly use bunny ears and streaming off the network’s site. The only streaming service right now in Canada is Netflix, but we got frustrated because some shows were only available in the US.
I tried cutting my cable but it didn’t work out. I had Hulu and Netflix but I still missed cable mainly because of football. I’ll probably test it out again in the future. I do miss the savings that came along with not having cable.
We’ve kind of struck out with the antenna option…it only works in one room because the trees/houses block reception. Amazon, Netflix have been good. In the meantime, we’ve scaled back our service which has brought in some savings.