How much do you pay for cable/sat in your area, what features do you have

[rockundergirl]

I have dish network, I pay 29.95 a month for it , as far as i understand it in central new jersey that's as low as its going to be if you want to have cable at all.
What do you guys pay/ how do you save on it?
If you don't have cable at all why? and what other ways do you entertain yourself and children at night. For example i have thought about canceling it and getting netflix ( 14.99) but it seems like the amount of entertainment i get for the 29.95 is worth the extra 15 dollars.

 

[taitai]

I have dish network, I pay 29.95 a month for it , as far as i understand it in central new jersey that's as low as its going to be if you want to have cable at all.
What do you guys pay/ how do you save on it?
If you don't have cable at all why? and what other ways do you entertain yourself and children at night. For example i have thought about canceling it and getting netflix ( 14.99) but it seems like the amount of entertainment i get for the 29.95 is worth the extra 15 dollars.

Well, our cable bill is for cable, internet and phone so it would not be an apples to apples comparison. However, the tv isn't on until after the kids go to sleep (unless there is something special on like Wimbledon or the US/Brazil soccer game). If we want to see a movie, we rent from the library or pay $1 at Red Box at McDonalds. In terms of entertaining our kids...that is easy. It is light here until close to 10 in the summer. Now, their bedtime is way before then, but it does mean that we have tons of daylight to play outside. Soccer, basketball, baseball, riding bikes, swimming, etc. On rainy days, they do puzzles, play board games, read books, etc. We read a book as a family every night. Currently, we are in the middle of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

If you just spend a couple minutes thinking about you will come up with a ton of things to do to entertain your family that do not require a television.

Have a great weekend.

 

[rockundergirl]

Well, our cable bill is for cable, internet and phone so it would not be an apples to apples comparison. However, the tv isn't on until after the kids go to sleep (unless there is something special on like Wimbledon or the US/Brazil soccer game). If we want to see a movie, we rent from the library or pay $1 at Red Box at McDonalds. In terms of entertaining our kids...that is easy. It is light here until close to 10 in the summer. Now, their bedtime is way before then, but it does mean that we have tons of daylight to play outside. Soccer, basketball, baseball, riding bikes, swimming, etc. On rainy days, they do puzzles, play board games, read books, etc. We read a book as a family every night. Currently, we are in the middle of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

If you just spend a couple minutes thinking about you will come up with a ton of things to do to entertain your family that do not require a television.

Have a great weekend.

Oh very true! I do tons of activities with my son.. crafts,books, just chatting. But he gets TV time too. ( about 5 hours a week) I think what i wanted to ask was more about the cheapest ways to get tv programming into your home for your child and for yourself, not really what else i can do instead of having tv programing. Thank you tho.. good advice!

 

[tnd]

We pay way too much! Like $80/month for AT&T U-verse, but that is 200 channels and 3 boxes (we pay an extra $14/month to have two additional boxes), plus we pay more for HD channels. It's a total luxury expense and would be the first thing to go in any money crunch. It's actually a new treat for us, we just got it in March. We had used rabbit ears for the 5 years prior to that. I think with the new digital transmissions, the over-the-air stations are better, we started pulling in a lot of cool, free digital channels. I especially dig the PBS Create channel which is all cooking, travel and gardening shows. Kind of like a hybrid HGTV and Food Network.

If money is an issue (and I read your prior thread, so it seems like it could be), I'd cancel cable. $30/month plus whatever other taxes are added is at least $360 per year that could be saved or used to pay down debt. Get a decent digital antena for $15-20. PBS has excellent kids' programming for your son. I also have Netflix, but we pay $8.99/month for one movie out at a time, but as many as we can watch in a month. I think that is more than enough for us, and there is RedBox as the prior poster mentioned.

 

[Donnainnj]

Comcast basic, basic cable runs about $14. That includes the normally free channels with a clear picture. If you want anything else, Disney, nick, TLC etc, forget getting a bargain with cable.
Donna

 

[rockundergirl]

We pay way too much! Like $80/month for AT&T U-verse, but that is 200 channels and 3 boxes (we pay an extra $14/month to have two additional boxes), plus we pay more for HD channels. It's a total luxury expense and would be the first thing to go in any money crunch. It's actually a new treat for us, we just got it in March. We had used rabbit ears for the 5 years prior to that. I think with the new digital transmissions, the over-the-air stations are better, we started pulling in a lot of cool, free digital channels. I especially dig the PBS Create channel which is all cooking, travel and gardening shows. Kind of like a hybrid HGTV and Food Network.

If money is an issue (and I read your prior thread, so it seems like it could be), I'd cancel cable. $30/month plus whatever other taxes are added is at least $360 per year that could be saved or used to pay down debt. Get a decent digital antena for $15-20. PBS has excellent kids' programming for your son. I also have Netflix, but we pay $8.99/month for one movie out at a time, but as many as we can watch in a month. I think that is more than enough for us, and there is RedBox as the prior poster mentioned.

its true, I prob should just save the 300+ a year, but i dont' have any debt(well just mortg debt). I was more just looking to get a better deal on cable , then to cancel it all together. plus it would be a pain to cancel it, cuz i rent a room in my house and it says in his lease that I provide cable... who knows if he would take some sort of fit if i don't provide it..

 

[goofyforlife]

When i first lost my job last year...I was just going to drop to major networks type service (figured that was less than ten bucks.)

They offered me a limited channel linup for $15 a month and i signed up for autopay which got me Cinemax for a penny for a year....

I don't have every channel but we have closer to what we need. Where i live you can not get any networks with just a tv set. (digital or not)

Off the top of my head I've got about 10 local channels, HGTV, TLC, comedy channel, boomerang, disney kids (the channel with Saddle club) and a buch of others...

It sickens me that i was paying way more than that for a few years...

We are also big REDBOX users for movie rentals(use the free night codes when they are out).

 

[Took]

Comcast basic, basic cable runs about $14. That includes the normally free channels with a clear picture. If you want anything else, Disney, nick, TLC etc, forget getting a bargain with cable.
Donna

Yes, about 13.25 or so here. I say I don't have "cable" but I do pay for this level, actually, since our picture quality is weak w/o it. PBS is our major station and it won't come in clearly w/o cable since the station is 50 miles from us.

Still, pretty cheap.

 

[jnorth1007]

I am ashamed to say we have been paying $123 a month for cable through Charter. I hate it and I hate Charter but my DH kept making a fuss about me cancelling it. Now I have gotten him to see that he could get a new 4-wheeler for what we are paying for cable each month. I just can't decide what to go to though. I guess my options are to drop the Charter down to the minimum but honestly I would love to tell them to shove it not to mention I am in LA and when major storms and hurricanes come around we are without any television reception for weeks at a time (6 months for Katrina) and so I would like something that would be available after the storm. I guess this means a sattelite. What is the going rate and how reliable are they? I hope this isn't a hijack since I am also looking for the best deal for the lowest cost on cable. Thanks for asking the question OP.

 

[heartsy77]

We have a local small provider; we pay 111.07 a month for HD ( a few channels) digital cable, DVR and cable Internet ( which has a download cap). I think it is too much! We live right on the border to Time Warner customers ( I wish we could get them). I am not sure if this high compared to others; we live in a very rural area in Upstate NY.

 

[Mrs.Reese]

I don't have cable. I use hulu and the networks use streaming. Got rid of blockbuster and have netflix instead. At first you think you'll miss it but DH and I find we get so much more done without having cable. I'm still behind on Fringe and Heroes.

 

[SnowWtch]

We pay $183 a month but that's for Digital Cox Cable with 3 tiers and free HD, internet and phone with unlimited long distance. Believe it or not since I went with the package and dropped AT&T for my phone with no long distance I'm saving $20 a month and getting more.

 

[lspst8]

I have Comcast and pay about $104 each month for cable and internet. It's just regular digital cable with no HBO or pay channels. I don't even get Bravo, which is one station I would really like to have. No HD or DVR here either. I HATE Comcast, but it is really the only option where I live.

I went for a year with just the basic 2-20 channel cable for about $15 bucks, but I missed getting Food Network, A&E, ESPN, and Fox Sports (for Penguins hockey).

 

[albertamommyof4]

well for our cable we pay @$56 a month and we have digital cable with some packages and a kids package but i think it is not that good of a deal and for internet we have through our phone company and our internet is @$20 a month and it is light speed adsl, our phone is $33 a month which i find crazy as we hardly use it lol.

 

[tasha99]

I pay $13 or so a month for basic cable, but also about $12/month for Tivo. Someday I'll buy the Tivo HD (which allows Netflix streaming), get Netflix and ditch cable, but not for a while.

We used to have lots of channels, but it seemed like our bill just kept going up. I don't have time for more than Judge Judy and True Blood anyway, so it was a big waste of money. The kids wish we had all the other channels, but even they find that the Tivo records plenty for them to watch with just the basic lineup.

 

[fiveforall]

We pay $137 for Charter that includes HD, wireless, and cable w/no premium channels. We also have a two at a time Netflix subscription. I hate paying so much, but my DH loves watching sports in HD and I love being able to use the laptop in every room of the house.

 

[derocas]

I'm in Monmouth County, Central Jersey. We recently switched from Optimum to Verizon Fios. Today a sales rep from Optimum was at my door offering to buy out my existing Verizon contract. They offered my tv, phone, and internet for $69.99 plus boxes. No taxes or fees and free DVR service for a year.

I know that you were asking about just cable but I thought that this was a good offer to share.

 

[travelgirl06]

Rabbit ears, online TV and Redbox for us. The total (excluding our internet server, which we would have anyways) is a few bucks a month, and we can watch shows when we want to.

 

[cglaura]

There is a Netflix for $9.62/month, it is 1 movie at a time, unlimited per month. I usually get 1 every 3 days or so if I watch them right away, which comes to around $1 per movie. I figure it is about the same as Redbox, but I don't have to go get them. My closest is 20 minutes away!

We also play alot of board games and both read a few hours a day.

For cable: I'm south jersey just outside of Cape May. I have Comcast Basic $12.60

I get (not the HD though, that is just from their site that it is available)

3 KYW 3 - DTSD (CBS, Phila.)* News & Info
4 WMGM 40 (NBC) News & Info
5 WTXF 29 - DTSD (FOX, Phila.) News & Info
6 WPVI 6 (ABC, Phila.)* News & Info
7 WPHL 17 (WB, Phila.)* News & Info
8 Comcast Network News & Info HD
9 Edu
10 WCAU 10 (NBC, Phila.)* News & Info HD
11 QVC Lifestyle
12 WHYY 12 (PBS, Phila.)* Children & Family HD
13 WPSG 57 (UPN, Phila.)* News & Info
14 HSN Lifestyle
15 EWTN Lifestyle
16 WUVP 65 (Univisi) Multicultural
17 WPPX 61(I Televisi) Lifestyle
18 WGTW 48 News & Info
19 WMCN TV News & Info
20 Community Access [WW]
21 C-SPAN News & Info
22 WWSI 62 (Telemundo) Multicultural
23 WNJS 23 (PBS) Children & Family
28 VERSUS* Lifestyle HD
29 ESPN* Sports
30 ESPN 2* Sports
31 Comcast Sportsnet* Sports HD
32 The Golf Channel* Sports HD
33 Speed Channel Sports HD
34 FX Lifestyle
35 TNT* Lifestyle
36 TBS Superstati Children & Family
37 USA Children & Family
38 Bravo Movies
39 Sci Fi Channel Lifestyle
40 E! Lifestyle HD
41 Spike TV Lifestyle
42 Comedy Central Lifestyle HD
43 Discovery Health News & Info HD
44 Discovery Channel Children & Family HD
45 Animal Planet Children & Family HD
46 TLC Children & Family HD
47 A&E Lifestyle HD
48 Lifetime Televisi Lifestyle
49 Home and Garden Televisi Lifestyle HD
50 Food Network Lifestyle HD
51 ABC Family Children & Family
52 Disney Channel Children & Family
53 Nickelode Children & Family HD
54 TV Land Children & Family
55 Fox News Channel
56 CNN News & Info HD
57 CNN Headline News News & Info
58 CNBC News & Info
59 MSNBC News & Info
61 The Weather Channel News & Info
68 BET Lifestyle HD
69 MTV Music HD
70 VH1 Music HD
71 tru TV** News & Info HD
76 History Channel News & Info HD

 

[Pigeon]

I don't have cable or the equivalent. Watching TV is a waste of my time. I do watch a little PBS and the occasional CBS CSI/Mentalist stuff. I don't want to watch any more TV than I do and I'm sure that if I had access to all those cooking shows and home decorating/remodeling shows I'd be hooked.

Most of what's on cable I don't want in my house. We strictly limit the amount of screen time our kids have. I don't even like most of the kid-oriented cable shows and don't want my kids seeing them on a routine basis. Yes, there's some educational programming. But my kids get far more education from bringing back a totebag of books from the library.