Is Cutting the Cord Worth It?
Is Cutting the Cord Worth It?
I have an absurd cable and internet bill each month and it has been bugging me for a number of years. It used to be like $89 for cable and internet 10 years ago, which is still a lot, but the prices have gone up much higher than the rate of inflation. My bill is now $170 per month.
I can’t stomach that fee any longer, especially since we are fairly light users of the TV. Add in a subscription to Netflix, and you can easily be shelling out $2,000 plus per year for these “luxury” items.
We are in the process of cutting the cord. We have bought a smart TV, and are looking to cut our monthly expenses by more than half (hopefully). But I am finding that it isn’t as easy as it seems, and I might have to make some flexibility sacrifices in order to cut the bill.
I am seeing lots of articles that say to the effect “its not as good as it seems” to cut the cord. When you add in an internet charge of $40-60 per month, plus $40 per month for Hulu TV, Sing, Youtube TV, and you still have your subscription to Netflix for $10, you can quickly get above $120 and you might lose some channels and have less DVR recording capabilities, which is something that I rely heavily on for sports.
So I ask my tech savvy friends on here – is cutting the cable worth it?
Would love to hear any experiences people have gone through!
Take care,
Brian
Note: free image courtesy of pixabay.com
My wife and I considered cutting the cord earlier this year and in the end, it wasn't a significant enough savings for what was being sacrificed. Like you, we are light users of TV but one constant is local sports. Hockey and baseball are on channels not offered by YouTube TV and other services but are included in cable. Cable clearly has the advantage here and knows what they are doing. Even after realizing this, we will considered cutting the cord. One thing we immediately noticed is that you can't pay down for internet. That is, if you and multiple people in the household could be using the internet and streaming at once, you clearly have to pay up for a better internet. I.e. added costs. That plus all the cable cutter services like Netflix in the end yielded us only about a $10-20 savings per month. Giving up local sports, managing a bunch of subscriptions, and sacrificing other channels just wasn't worth that incremental savings.
Cable magically packages decent internet with a big channel list (including local sports) for just $10-20 more than if you cut the cord. To say they know what they are doing is an understatement.
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Yes, I have to agree on the cable side. I just am frustrated the cost has gone up so much but really do like it!
I cut the cord over a year ago and will NEVER go back! Just pay for a good Internet connection and thoughtfully select the right media sites. I use Netflix and Amazon. Roku HD is a good aggregation point to pull those and other free media services. For local channels, I use an over-the-air HD antenna. I saved so much and actually spend less time zombified in front of the screen watching nothing.
Thanks for sharing your experience and feedback... very helpful!
I'm not very pleased I paid for cable for so long. Right now I only have internet. With my over the air antenna I get pretty much everything I need.
I'm not a fan of smart TV's but I do like my Roku which I can unplug and turn off.
You might be able to cut your home internet and use your cell phone wifi but that is a bit extreme because you'd have to do mirroring to the TV which is not really hard at all but could be a pain although you might be able to save $170 a month.
Definitely. Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu. That's all you need. Who needs to pay $150 a month when you can pay something like $30 a month?
It takes a little bit of adjusting to not be able to watch whatever TV you want, but the cost savings more than justify it. You'll be happy having that extra money around. Think of it this way: would you rather have the ability to watch some entertainment that will be gone after the program ends, or have more silver to add to your collection?
I could say more, but I think you get the idea. :)
Yes it’s worth it
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We did it and haven't looked back
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I am sorry for not being able to help you, because I am not a "tech savvy friend". At most I am a simple friend. :=)