Have you recently taken a close look at your cable bill? Do you see lots of taxes, charges, and fees that kind of snuck their way into your bill? I remember the last time I looked at my cable bill and thought, “what a waste of money” and I called the company up and I cut the bill. I was tired of feeling like I was getting ripped off. What’s funny is that cable didn’t start off that way in the late 40’s, and what once was a small localized business, has turned into a ginormous industry of penny-pushing and trying to make as much as they can off the consumer.
According to Consumer Reports, the average household will spend $154 a month on cable. Over a year that is over $1,800! That is more than I spend on our family’s clothes and, quite possibly, it is more than what you spend on groceries every month.
I published this article about a year ago and mentioned that we decided to cut our cable because we were aggressively trying to pay off debt. Cutting our cable was a tough decision at the time. I dreamed of Little House on the Prairie nights in our house with our kids…but it never works out quite like that! However, in the 2 years that we have cut out cable, I have never felt deprived or felt like I missed out on the latest shows. Let me show you how to get around the cable pit so that you can start saving money on cable and start using that money for something much more necessary (organic produce, quality meats, or paying off debt).
How to Cut Your Cable in 5 Easy Steps
Step One:
Shop around in your area for the BEST internet provider. Most cable providers have the internet charges wrapped up like some fancy wording “triple play“. Look in your area and see who offers the best rates for internet service. WOW, Wave, and Verizon FiOS have the best ratings according to Consumer Reports. Work a deal with them. See what their charges are for just internet and phone (if you need that).
Step Two:
Call your provider and tell them YOU ARE DONE. This is a tricky step because the hagglers for cable companies ARE GOOD. Do not let them reel you in. Tell them you are tired of the added fees and service charges and that you want your cable to be done. If you found out that they offered the best deals on “strictly” internet, then keep the internet but ditch the cable. Make sure to work out a deal!
Step Three:
Get the no-cable essentials…unless you are going COMPLETE no cable. We love our Roku and we can stream shows, yes, even the latest Grey’s Anatomy shows, on it. The best thing about my Roku is that you do not even need a DVR anymore. You can play the shows at your convenience. Many new televisions have a built-in cable antenna. Check to see if yours does. If it doesn’t, then I recommend this Radio Shack antenna. This allows you to tap into FREE broadcast table which airs all the major channels like FOX, ABC and NBC. You thought you had to pay for those, huh?!
No-Cable Essentials: Roku and Radio Shack antenna.
Step Four:
Sign up for Netflix and/or Hulu. What’s the difference? Netflix has mostly older shows, but it is great for kids. My kids enjoy lots of shows from Netflix and lots of Disney movies too. Hulu has newer shows and episodes. What’s the caveat? You have to wait a day or so for them to load up the newer episode after it airs on television. But, if you are anxious and can’t wait, then you can always use your handy antenna and watch it!
Step Five:
Get rid of your extra tv’s! Ok, I know this isn’t for everyone, but we just have one TV in the house now. We have vowed never to put a TV in our bedroom or our kid’s bedroom. However, there are times when I would like to lay down in my own bed and watch the latest Revenge. This is where having an iPad comes in handy! Download the Hulu and Netflix app and watch it in your own bed on your own iPad!
Now relish in the fact that you are spending *maybe* $15 a month on Hulu and Netflix and you are saving over $130 a month! What can you do with $130 a month?Â
Any idea how to get ESPN without cable? That’s the one thing I have to be able to have in order to convince my husband to cut the cable.
We go to a nearby sports bar when there is a game on we want to watch.
This really isn’t a feasible solution for someone with kids or in a small town or really anyone who actually likes watching sports on a regular basis. I’m sure it will be a helpful option to some but hopefully some better options are shared for sports around the internet. A great artical otherwise, thanks for sharing! 🙂
I know the Amazon Fire Stick includes ESPN.
Very useful post.i was just today thinking about ditching cable.can you please tell me what is the difference between roku and hulu
Hi there! We’re working through BS2 on Dave Ramsey’s plan. It’s so great to see other people in the real food world doing it. We’re writing a check to pay off a $6k loan today and then we have about $12k to go. We haven’t canceled our cable yet, though. I love all your ideas for keeping up with your shows, but I was wondering if your husband is a sports fan. My husband is a sports fanatic, and I don’t want to take away his precious Blackhawks games! So far, I haven’t found a way to get local sports coverage without cable. Was that a concern for you too?
Hi Emily, my husband is too. I hope you get an answer, cause I would love to know that as well.
We did this very thing over a year ago. Nothing made me happier than to tell my local cable company to cut it out.
One of the lovely side effects (for our household) is that the telly doesn’t play mindlessly in the background. It’s not set on a channel and playing nonstop. If you want to watch something-you watch something. Period. I adore this. It’s inadvertantly cause our family to spend more time together.
I reccomend this for everyone. Estimated savings in the last year for our family? $1428.00 Love it!
Good information, funny that at the end there is an ad for Cable & Internet! LOL
I also would love to cut cable but there is no other way to watch our SF GIants games.
We go to a nearby sports bar.
We have not had cable or satellite for 14 years….but I’d love to view the Hull and Netflix….I just don’t see how that would work as we almost use our total allotment of data per month as it is?
Hulu, not Hull LOL
What about HBO, Showtime and Starz? I do not mean the movies, but I do not want to miss Game of Thrones, Trueblood, White Queen, etc.
the only thing I miss since cutting cable is the part of the NASCAR season that is only carried on cable. the first 12 races are on Fox and the rest are on cable. I found an app for my phone called Racing Radio that carries the radio broadcast of the races so at least I have that. any video footage of good crashes usually ends up on youtube and facebook within one day so I really don’t miss that much. I can’t justify the cost of cable only for NASCAR.
Hi,
Can you tell me how to know if my TV has a built-in cable antenna? It is a new TV and I assume it would but I wouldn’t even know what to look for… I hope that doesn’t sound silly. I see where my current DVR? connects in.
Also what is Roku? Is it like Hulu and Netflix?
I already called my company to disconnect and I plan to call and finalize tomorrow but I need to have a plan to put my husband at ease.
Could you tell my as well if the antenna does well in remote areas? We live in the middle of 50 acres.
Love your article! Thanks for the advice.
Kind Regards,
Audra
Okay- update. I figured out Roku. I just ordered the streaming stick (HDMI Version), I sure hope that is right. The rest I still need to know about.
Thank you so much for your post about Dave Ramsey’s Advice. You inspired me to pay the rest of my loans. Yesterday, I paid my last student loan! I am so happy and liberated. The one thing that was holding me back was fear.. But I’m ok now. I’m free. I added a little thanks to you in my blog 🙂
https://ruffledblend.wordpress.com/2014/07/24/today-i-bought-back-my-freedom/
Take Care,
Jasmine
ruffledblend.wordpress.com
So happy for you! And thank you!
I just happened across this on Pinterest, and it’s ironic because we just cancelled our DirecTV today. It was annoying, because it was $100 a month, and when I called they were magically able to offer me the same package at less than half that.
Umm. Thanks?
But, really, we weren’t getting rid of it because of the cost, although that will be amazing to have an extra $100 a month! We got rid of it because I just couldn’t stand my kids watching the shows on tv any longer. I won’t get into all of that, though.
As far as sports goes- we have found that it depends on the league!
For baseball, you can watch most games on MLB.tv For us, we live too close to the “in market” area (meaning if you live in Chicago, you’re in the Cubs “in market” area. If you live in Pittsburgh, you’re in the Pirates “in market” area) for our team. They black those games out on MLB.tv. We can always catch it on the radio, though. They are also on Roku, though we don’t use this (yet) and are not sure if “in market” games are blacked out there, too.
NFL is terrible about allowing their games to be offered anywhere, but- frankly- my husband and I have had our fill of the NFL these past few years. That’s tough because I love watching football, but they’ve annoyed me that much. Anyway, you can still go on your team’s website and listen to the game live while watching an animated version of the plays- meaning they put a “ball” on the computer animated “field” where ever it currently is on the real field. (At least that’s how it was last season. I assume it will be this way for the fall.) I’m sure soon the NFL will open up their contracts because they finally opened up some contracts for Sunday Ticket with Dish Network, whereas they used to be only with DirecTV.
There is some weird way to stream some of the games through something called WiZiWiG.com, but I have NO clue how to do this. You have to have a supported device or something. I don’t get any of this and I’ve never looked into it, but someone mentioned it.
Hulu offers UFC and the WWE. No offense intended to wrestling fans, but I just know nothing about those two things… We’re not UFC or WWE fans. It looks like their offerings are pretty substantial, though, and you could pretty much watch whatever… meet? match? that you wanted.
I also know nothing about NASCAR other than you can listen to it on the radio.
As far as the NHL, you can watch out of market games for $15/day on gamecenter live. They also offer a package, but I’m not sure what that costs.
The Olympics usually has a live feed online.
WatchESPN has SOME free live feeds, but usually you have to enter your cable/dish provider number.
Oh, and the NBA has an NBA League Pass that allows you to stream games from on any mobile device. Again, I’m not sure about whether in market games are blacked out on this- we live out of market for our team in this sport.
For college basketball, we’ve yet to find a solution at all.
Hope that helps some of you ladies if anyone is still reading these comments a year later! 🙂