Cutting cable = Saved me $1200 per year

[5stljayhawks]

Tell us how you saved $ with cutting cable.

I had AT&T uverse with HD and sports channel, cost was well over $120 per month. Bought a roku (basically a wireless internet HDMI connector for TV) from Costco $60. Then added Netflix and Hulu +. These cost a combined $16 per month. Haven’t looked back, at least at cable. Just like when I pulled the phone plug out of the wall in 1999.

My next project is the Internet bill... Any Suggestions how to get high speed internet at lower cost. Paying $60 per month.

The Yearly Numbers
ATT $1440
H&N $192
Savings $1200 per year

 

[aprilchem]

We don't have cable. We have a roof antenna and streaming Netflix and that's about it. It's a good cost savings, but the real reason that we did it is that we have children and we a) didn't want them exposed to some of the things on TV and b) didn't want to become a "TV-centered family." We generally turn our TV on once a week (on Sundays to watch football, if we're home). We get our news from the newspaper or listening to NPR on the radio.

I do miss having cable sometimes, but I think it's better for our family overall. We're saving ~$1500 a year by not having it; cable TV in our area is very expensive.

Not sure how you can save on Internet; in our area we basically have two choices for high-speed internet, and one of them isn't "high-speed" enough to run Netflix properly. The other is what we have, and I think my DH pays about $50 a month for it.

 

[barkley]

idea on cutting the internet bill-oh yeah. look to who is available in your area then call your current provider and ask for the cancellation department. ask what if anything it costs to cancel your current service. they will immediately start asking why and you just say that you've gotten some very attractive new customer offers from _______________(and name the competitor). I did this at one point and our provider (at that time) reduced our cost by over 50% down to right below what the other companies were offering, and the kicker was while the other companies were only offering it for 6 months, my provider locked the rate for 2 years

our current provider offers some DEEP discounts if you bundle your cell phone with your internet (and the cell service is with some of the major carriers-it's just a matter of them doing the billing).


we just substantialy cut our tv viewing costs as well. we don't have cable (not offered in 'the sticks') so we have direct tv. a year ago I wanted to cut costs so I eliminated some of the channel packages we weren't using. since I hemmed and hawed with them about canceling they offered a $20 a month discount good for the first year of a 2 year contract. a couple of days ago the first bill without the discount came so I called them up and of course was told by sales that I didn't qualify for any new discounts so I asked to be transferred to cancelations. asked what the cost would be to cancel service. told $20 x 12 months remaining. explained to them that the way I crunched the numbers I would still be ahead if I cancelled and took up Dish Network on their current promotions. Immediately they "found" a discount I was eligible to for a 6 month $40 per month discount PLUS a 'loyal customer' additional $40 credit on my current bill.

in 6 months i'll be calling them again

 

[LJSquishy]

We tried to cut cable tv but Comcast doesn't offer a cheaper option than what we already have. We pay $51.95 for internet and $13.95 for cable tv...but if we just want internet, it would cost $65 so we can't save any money. We only get the most basic 30 channels and we never watch tv. If we had HGTV, TLC, etc I would watch some tv but we don't.

Comcast basically has a monopoly in our area. Satellite internet is not reliable, and Century Link is a complete joke. We don't get Verizon Fios unfortunately.

 

[wiigirl]

Nice! I think I might be addicted to cable.

 

[JB2K]

I read, yesterday that Comcast is implementing what's called "metered internet" for non-TV subcribers across their vast footprint.

What that means, is if you reach a certain "cap" that is consistent with using Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and others, you will pay some sort of penalty -- it's worth Googling...

As OP, like me, is from St. Louis, it's a 99% likelihood their local CATV company is Charter Communications. As Charter is also a large company, you can expect similar practices from them.

For the record, I am a AT&T U-verse subscriber -- sure, it's a little pricey, but it constitutes 95% of my "entertainment" -- especially since there is no alternative method of viewing local MLB games (per MLB rules, my local team is blacked-out on MLB.tv).

 

[crisi]

I read, yesterday that Comcast is implementing what's called "metered internet" for non-TV subcribers across their vast footprint.

What that means, is if you reach a certain "cap" that is consistent with using Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and others, you will pay some sort of penalty -- it's worth Googling...

As OP, like me, is from St. Louis, it's a 99% likelihood their local CATV company is Charter Communications. As Charter is also a large company, you can expect similar practices from them.

For the record, I am a AT&T U-verse subscriber -- sure, it's a little pricey, but it constitutes 95% of my "entertainment" -- especially since there is no alternative method of viewing local MLB games (per MLB rules, my local team is blacked-out on MLB.tv).

We get business internet for this reason.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

We have an antenna, apple TV and use the TIVO we already had. We also have a Netflix subscription, which we had while we had cable. We save $100 a month. I do miss HGTV and hubby misses NESN, but not enough to go back to that bill!

 

[harleyquinn]

The only reasons we still have dish are sports. You can't see a lot of baseball and basketball games if you don't have a TV provider.

 

[justakrazymom]

We ditched cable 2 months ago.. no antenna but somehow we still pull about 38 channels out of the air.. location location location I guess. I was a TV addict but I dont miss it ONE bit!

 

[LJSquishy]

I read, yesterday that Comcast is implementing what's called "metered internet" for non-TV subcribers across their vast footprint.

What that means, is if you reach a certain "cap" that is consistent with using Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and others, you will pay some sort of penalty -- it's worth Googling...

As OP, like me, is from St. Louis, it's a 99% likelihood their local CATV company is Charter Communications. As Charter is also a large company, you can expect similar practices from them.

For the record, I am a AT&T U-verse subscriber -- sure, it's a little pricey, but it constitutes 95% of my "entertainment" -- especially since there is no alternative method of viewing local MLB games (per MLB rules, my local team is blacked-out on MLB.tv).

Comcast has been trying to implement this for years and never succeeds. We got a notice about 2 or 3 years ago about the cap for internet usage and we exceeded it. It didn't stay around for long -- they gave up. Maybe in the future there will be internet tiers just like data packages for cell phones but I wouldn't worry about that right now.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I read, yesterday that Comcast is implementing what's called "metered internet" for non-TV subcribers across their vast footprint.

What that means, is if you reach a certain "cap" that is consistent with using Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and others, you will pay some sort of penalty -- it's worth Googling...

As OP, like me, is from St. Louis, it's a 99% likelihood their local CATV company is Charter Communications. As Charter is also a large company, you can expect similar practices from them.

For the record, I am a AT&T U-verse subscriber -- sure, it's a little pricey, but it constitutes 95% of my "entertainment" -- especially since there is no alternative method of viewing local MLB games (per MLB rules, my local team is blacked-out on MLB.tv).

Sorry, that didn't sound right - so i checked and found this http://corporate.comcast.com/comcas...ith-improved-data-usage-management-approaches
The minimum data "cap", with no.mention of needing to have more than just internet, is 300GB monthly.

 

[lvillotta1]

I have COX cable here in the Midwest. I just added Internet to my bill about 5 months ago. I called the cable company and told them I could only afford $100/mos and what could they do for me? They said no problem and offered me a great deal with home phone,cable and Internet for $100. So about $30 for each service and this does include all taxes. We are a TV free family and never have it on,but having the package this cheap is well worth it. I know other people who pay well over $150-200mos for all these cable channels.

 

[Withanx]

We did something similar just before we moved this summer. We cancelled our Directv saving us about $85 a month. We got both Hulu and Netflix and so can watch almost anything we want when we want, with the exception of CBS. But we can watch those shows online...not that we watch a whole lot anymore. We are actually about to buy an antenna so we can watch special stuff like the Disney parade on Christmas. Lol.

 

[tvguy]

Not having data plans on my phones saves me $1,440 a year.

 

[WantToGoNow]

We haven't had cable for 2 years - saves us $130 a month. We have been able to pick up someone's wireless internet but its not consistent so we decided to get wirelessback through Frontier for $30. We can now cut back the data on our phones since most of our data useage was right here at home. We were talking about getting basic cable back but both of my kids (almost 10 and 12) said we didn't need it. We have rabbit ears and get local channels.

 

[mistysue]

We have one option for high speed internet. We didnt have cable tv until earlier this year- they got sick of people having internet only so they raised the price and its $5 more for tv and internet so now we have both.
If you need to cut costs, I hope you have competitors because if you don't they will know. I actually spoke to our cable company about canceling, said other companies had better deals and they told me to check again because they are the only service here. They currently have no discounts on single service. They have no need because they added the only choice.

 

[joannamet]

I would love to do this but we watch a lot of sports and a few shows like The Voice that are on network tv. DD watch Disney channel, of course. I just don't see how to make it work for my family but I admire those of you who have.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I would love to do this but we watch a lot of sports and a few shows like The Voice that are on network tv. DD watch Disney channel, of course. I just don't see how to make it work for my family but I admire those of you who have.

Did you notice this thread is from two years ago? Why not start a new discussion?

 

[Dannek]

Tell us how you saved $ with cutting cable.

I had AT&T uverse with HD and sports channel, cost was well over $120 per month. Bought a roku (basically a wireless internet HDMI connector for TV) from Costco $60. Then added Netflix and Hulu +. These cost a combined $16 per month. Haven’t looked back, at least at cable. Just like when I pulled the phone plug out of the wall in 1999.

My next project is the Internet bill... Any Suggestions how to get high speed internet at lower cost. Paying $60 per month.

The Yearly Numbers
ATT $1440
H&N $192
Savings $1200 per year

Move to an area that has Google Fiber...
It won't save you money, but at something like $70.00 per month for 1 gigabit symmetrical upload and download speeds, it is the greatest value in the USA for internet access.
No cable company can come close to that price for that speed. It's future proof and low cost compared to everything else.