I have decided the only way to start feeling like I am going to get out of debt is to finally cancel my cable.

I will say though I LOVE TV and this seems like a hard thing to do for a few years. My only issue is I try watching TV online and some of the shows require having a cable company to view.

These are the channels I view

TLC
Lifetime
Hallmark
ABC
NBC
FOX
CBS
PBS

If I cancel cable I was going to look into
Hulu plus
Amazon Prime
netflix
The website of the network if possible

I do like watching the shows a few days after they air.

I worry I won't see a lot of my shows anymore. Anyone have any experience.

Right now I pay about 90.00 for cable...

This place has lots of products and advice.

http://www.solidsignal.com/

We gave up cable a couple of years ago and haven't missed it since. We don't like to watch sports and I know that can make a huge difference.

We have Amazon Prime and Netflix. Personally, I could do without Netflix, but dh loves to get movies in the mail so we continue paying for that. Still, we save a bunch of money.

are you planning on streaming from a cell phone or wifi hot spot that is accessible to you? will this save money?

Netflix is nine or twelve dollars a month. You can investigate seasons of shows or treat them like long movies with, um, intermissions (as they strat the next episode.)

I used hulu eight years ago before netflix, then maybe three of netflix without subscribing to any cable stations or broadcasts. However, in my town internet service is through a cable company & I purchased only that part of their plan (saving sixty to eighty dollars a month.)

One man showed me that his phone has an old plan with unlimited digitial bytes streaming access (flat rate) and he never wants that phone to die. He thinks the plan will not be grand fathered into a new phone with the same company, & I know he's right. If I replaced my phone with a reconditioned one, payed 50.00 I would have kept my unlimited digital amount flat rate plan- however when I upgraded to a 64 gig phone the plan did change. Records showed however I used only 5% of a regular data plan a month (not streaming videos or being a live gamer online.... my husband still has the unlimited data plan on his phone.

This one type of plan enables someone to stream movies, tv episodes- from netflix or hulu or whatever in a device with limited memory. Some folks use it to generate an internet hotspot, its their wifi receptor/generator and they use other devices from it.

Other folks live real close to like starbucks and use their free wifi. earbuds. drink coffee and enjoy television episodes on teeny little screen. One of my kids showed me movies from netflix for years on their laptop screen, until they finally bought a house and won a small tv set from their office.

with internet accessable- netflix- yes, y ou can truely enoy life without live cable. & I think you can stream news stories, one at a time by clicking on their picture daily at every major news outlet. but you choose. Except like on cable they choose the story = you are going to listen to next, and now, off internet, you choose. On their website you read or look at interesting pictures to click and then hear their story. Rather than a news feed being fed to you, you are choosing what news inside their page you want to.

You can even choose news markets like where your daughter lives, or the town you grew up in, or an interesting place- and without scrolling through hundreds of stations, you google that town or county, google their news stations, open their web page, and voila! watch any local stories that interest you in your home town, or grand children's sports teams, etc. Its self directed.

Sports fans can subscribe to ESPN, they have a link, and stream any sports they want without paying episode by episode by buying the subscription- you will not need cable for that.

You can save money and fine tune you life or expand your interests by thinking deliberately- just what do you like.

or if you have ever dealt with depression or anxiety before, then I personally not professionally would adivse you to proceed with caution.

Because, if your specific television is a social world to you, if the characters in your series bring life to your inner world or if you have found yourself (after leaving mormonism) socially isolated in your community-

then I advise you proceed with great caution- that you will have to pick up a new routine, that you will have to be less than rigid, and flexible, in order to find other news (free news feeds on line), other series (you select and start or turn off) ... you may loose access to the daily morning chatty start up programs?

so if these are VERY enjoyable to you, and perhaps you feel not dependent but that your comfort depends on them-

and right now you have comfort balanced above depression anxiety and despair- then I would like you to practice once-
for several weeks, watching a netflix trial- going to news stations broad cast links-

and prove to yourself first- that you can do this, even when particularly tired at the end of the day or exhausted after several long days' commutes, learn the skill first before you cut your cable connection. Habits take ? days, a day for creating links on y our cell and home screen icons? several days of searching then using them?

finding a morning show link? or not? or an excercize link (I like gaia television or gaiam tv (of course) for gentle yoga and tai chi you can trial subscribe)

but its your life you are sculpturing, I value that you care about saving money and getting ahead. I want you to also value what supports you, supports your coping skills, and sculpt your self care of care.

I have a roku box and stream mostly Amazon, but I also like some of the channels you can chose with roku, like PBS (all of the three letter stations you mentioned are on roku, I believe) . I don't miss cable AT ALL!

ETA: We have Amazon Prime and get most content for free -- including a lot of movies. Also, I never could make either Netflix or Hulu work for me. It seemed like the content was either obscure, or already available on Amazon. And with roku, I stream onto the TV.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2014 08:15PM by Devoted Exmo.

Also call and cancel. Say it's too expensive. You may find that they'll cut your bill by 30 or 40% right off the bat for a few months to keep you from leaving. Then you have time to do some research.

I do that with most of my service providers about every 14 months.

I have cox cable for internet only, however basic cable tv comes with it. I use the internet to watch shows that I don't get from my cable.

I just cancelled my cable too! I kept the high-speed internet though, and the internet telephone. This cut the bill with Time-Warner about in half. I have the Google Chrome device and Netflix and the "Rabbit" thing, and antenna for TV. Between all those low-cost services, I don't miss cable TV at all. It was all ads anyway!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2014 08:21PM by rationalist01.

We cut cable about 3 years ago. I missed it at first, but my husband and kids really didn't. My husband doesn't watch sports (except UFC fights from Netflix). We have Netflix and Amazon Prime and it's good enough. I watch my Soap on CBS.com. We're so used to "marathon" watching that I can't imagine only getting to watch a show once a week. We watch a season straight through (not in one sitting, obviously ;) )and then go on to something else while we wait for the next season. I don't imagine we'll ever pay for cable again.

We do have a digital antenna that we turn on once in awhile, like to watch the Olympics or something. We don't get that many channels though, so we rarely even bother.

Also, I found Hulu to be fairly useless. I couldn't stand watching the same 2 commercials seven or eight times in one show, especially when I was paying for Hulu Plus. It was too annoying.

Most areas still broadcast local channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, etc.) over the air. You may be able to just connect an antenna and get those channels for free.

If you don't have reception in your area, ask your cable company about a "locals only" package. Most offer it even if they don't advertise it. That is what I have and it only costs about $10/month. As a side note, I also get my internet from the cable company and they give me a $10/month discount for bundling tv and internet service. That essentially makes the "locals only" tv package free.

I just this week cut cable, kept the local stations and wifi. Saved me over $60.00. When I get in better shape with the $, I can always go back and order cable again.

I cancelled cable about 4 years ago. For about a week I was like "now where is that remote?" And then, dejectedly, "oh wait, there is no remote." But then I got over it. About 3 months later I tossed the TVs as well.

All the "TV" I have been watching for the past 4 years, I've streamed. I have only watched MSNBC. Nearly all of their content is put online within an hour after it airs with far fewer commercials. For everything else, I have been the Youtube queen. Anything not available on Youtube (and occasionally PBS) just doesn't get watched.

Last week I subscribed to Netflix, streaming-only. So far, I have to say, I'm pretty disappointed. It's ok. But I am really balking at the thought of paying $8 per month just for the privilege of watching 20 year old movies. The TV that's on Netflix is apparently good. I binge-watched The Office (had never seen it before) last weekend but I'm like "meh" on that and that's supposed to be the best show on TV in the past 10 years. So I'm probably going to cancel it and go back to Youtube.

I occasionally will get videos at the library. My library has a TON of movies and spends a lot on acquiring the latest and best.

After all this time with no bill (and pretty much no TV) I just think I'm too cheap to pay for something (Netflix) that's not great.

We live in the southern end of the Salt Lake Valley. We have never had cable. We bought an antenna thing from Best Buy and positioned it according to the directions for our area to pick up the best over the air digital. We get about 30 stations that are free. None of the Cable stations that you mentioned you like or course, but, enough stuff that we like. I also like the fact of not having a cable bill!

I know I should cut the cord, too, but I haven't done so yet.

If my computer was in better shape I'd do it in a heartbeat, but it's about to die. Streaming a 5 minute youtube video is enough to make it almost overheat.

I can stream some stuff (netflix, for example) through my DVD player on my tv, but I can't get local channels that way, or my favorite- Comedy Central. Most of the programming I want is streamed, but I can't watch it on my computer. :(

What kills me is that I could probably buy a new computer with what I'll pay for cable in a year, but there's not much I can do about it.

I can't believe cable companies haven't had significant restructuring yet, though. They are definitely starting to sweat, though. The game is changing.

Newegg will help you pick components and they have a FANTASTIC three part build vid on youtube. I have built two so far and it was a snap. And um, well, I ain't all that great with the tech stuff lol. Hit the Thanksgiving sales both times and saved a TON of money. Also we now have two systems we KNOW exactly what their guts are and how to fix/upgrade them. When you get ready to build there are folks here that will help you too :) If I can do it, ANYONE can do it!

I've converted to the mac cult, and I'll never go back. I totally understand that I am paying more than I need to, but I have my reasons and I just won't go back to a windows based system.

The only exception to this is I *might* break down and get a cheap Chromebook.

That is the main reason we stick with it and don't go Linux or Mac. Hubby is a Diablo addict and there are um, well, a few I like to play :)

I actually built my first computer in 1997. Boyfriend's dad was willing to help, but I had to do the work. It was a great experience.

I just hate windows so much, and I had so many issues with all of my windows computers. I had 3 PC laptops die in 3 years. I was always scared of macs because people made such a big deal out of compatibility issues and learning a new OS, but then I used them in the computer labs in college and was like, "Oh, this is easier!"

My macbook pro is over 5 years old and is just now starting to give me problems. So I may have paid more for it initially, but it lasted WAAAAAY longer than any other computer I've ever had, and that's good enough for me.

A lot of PC'ers like to give us mac users a hard time and talk about how we should just learn to program and do maintenance ourselves, it's not that hard, etc. What if I simply don't want to? What if I just want a system that works with a whole lot of effort on my part? That's why I'll probably always stick with macs.

I have heard that about gaming, and that sucks. I'm not a gamer, though, so I have no real reason to make the switch. I'll hold out as long as I can with this one, if it bites the dust before I can afford a new one I'll go with a cheap chromebook, and when I can afford it, I'll upgrade to a new mac. And I'll love it. :)

The best decision we made was to stop paying $80 a month for basic cable and get Netflix and Amazon Prime instead. They are both around $10 a month (Amazon Prime you have to pay for by the year) and we get everything we like to watch. We don't miss cable at all - except my son misses the NFL channel. Amazon Prime pays for itself because you get free shipping - I just saved $32 in shipping this week alone by ordering an item that was marked Prime instead of the same thing (in a different color) from Amazon that wasn't marked Prime and I'd have had to pay shipping for. You can also buy episodes of things that aren't free on Amazon Prime or Netflix, so the combination of the two covers everything but the latest shows. We also have quite a number of broadcast channels we get that we like - I'm watching a marathon of my favorite crime show on one of the upper channels right now. So we dropped our bill $60 a month, have shows we like better and free shipping on Amazon. I'd tell anyone to cancel cable.

By paying $90/month for cable, does that include internet or only tv? I recently downgraded---but did not cancel cable---down to their (Cox Communications) "TV Essentials" package. It includes HD for 30 channels plus another 60 analog ones. Cost went from $80 to $40, and the main thing I lost was ESPN. I don't watch that much sports on TV so I don't care, and things I do watch (major college games, Olympics, World Cup) are carried on major networks. ESPN must be charging $10-20-30/month per subscriber if my bills went down that low.

THere was one tier lower, TV Basics, no HD cable box but you can plug in the cable directly to the tv and get over the air HD (720, not 1080) channels, mainly the ones that are broadcast over the air. To be able to view 30-40 channels in HD was worth it to me so I went to one tier up from the bottom.

I don't have any pay channels (HBO, Cinemax, etc) and do have Netflix and Amazon Prime. The main tv, in the living room, is a year old and has built in apps for both of these programs. Prime is definitely worth it for the free shipping alone, I probably make 2-3 Amazon purchases per week. The free books and streaming video are the icing on the cake.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2014 09:39PM by PtLoma.

I don't have a TV. I watch shows on my computer. I get the internet through my phone company, and I have Netflix. I like House of Cards, The Killing and Orange Is The New Black which Netflix produces. I've been known to binge watch a season of shows when they become available. I also have a subscription to audible for audio books. I like listening to a book while I'm doing some other activity.

I love live sports too much to cut the cable. I'm a huge college football fan and love watching as many games as possible. Watch ESPN is only available online if you have cable or satellite with certain companies. You can't pay for it separately. I've tried. If I could do that, we probably would have cut the cord ages ago.

can you only use it by typing in your dishnetwork or cable login?

I have Dish and about the only station Imwatch is Investigative Discovery and unfortunately it is part of their most expensive package. Is there any service where I can get this channel and maybe MSNBC or CNN?

In my post I talked about MSNBC. You can stream everything they do and the clips are all up about an hour after the show originally airs.

There is an ad before every clip (usually the same one) and you can't skip it but it's a lot less than regular TV ads.

msnbc.com

Thanks. Anyome know about Investigative Discovery??

I'm in the same boat as some of you, I'm considering canceling my satellite.

Here are somethings that may help.

Over the Air (ota) - old fashioned Antenna TV, Yupe its still around just a digital picture instead of analog. Since the change to digital you get a guide, crystal clear picture (most of the time better pq then cable). Checkout rabbitears.info, tvfool.com, digitalhome.ca (has an awesome ota forum with howtos for diy antennas)

Roku - Plays downloaded mp4 movies, netflix, crackle, amazon prime, Hulu plus, pbs, plex client. You can also add non-approved/private channels.

Chromecast, appletv, will have similar options as the roku.

XBMC - Can be installed on a computer as a program in windows/linux or as the desktop environment in linux. Plays downloaded avi, mp4 movies. Can have addins/plugin that add streaming options.

Plex Server - Installed on computer, allows other devices like roku, ios, android, to connect through plex client, plays downloaded mp4, avi, ect. Can have plugin added that utilize the broadcasters website

I'm a cord-cutter and I have to admit, it has been pretty good. If you live in an area with good broadband service, the easier it is. Here is my 'home entertainment' set up.

I have an antenna for my main television. Besides the 'Big Four' (ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC), I get PBS, CW, My Network and several indie stations.

Radio still offers a lot in the ways of news and entertainment. Besides the usual stations fare, I do get NPR, jazz and classical stations.

As for 'online', I have a Roku and Apple TV. Also, I have a subscription to Netflix. The 'Big Four' networks and PBS all have apps for Roku, so if I miss a show, I can watch it there. A&E has an app as well and I never my favorites via it (they let you watch the last three episodes of a show at no charge...I'm a big Longmire fan, BTW). Apple TV is cool because I can stream my iTunes library off my computers. My old DVD and CD collections have been ripped to a computer and the disks are safely stored away.

Finally, if you are a sports fan, it isn't too bad. With the antenna, I have my football fix covered. Baseball, basketball and hockey can be a bit harder to catch. Generally, you can catch streaming-radio coverage of your favorite team. Also, most leagues are now selling, or plan to sell, online 'season passes', much like they do on cable.

The money I have saved is pretty sizable: my cable tv, phone and internet bill was running me around $175 a month. Now, my Internet bill is $55, Netflix is roughly $9 and a prepaid phone (which I hardly use) runs me $30 for 60 days. I use Skype for a lot of my 'calls' and it is free.

Total cost now: $80 roughly a month. The $95 a month I'm saving has gone to paying down debt and it helps a lot!

I hope this helps the OP and others.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2014 05:48AM by Talon Avex.

I've been cable free for about two years. I have rabbit ears for local stations, a Roku box and my PC for streaming. Right now I have Hulu, but I alternate between Netflix and Hulu. You can cancel for a while and then reactivate without much bother. I also have Amazon Prime. I think If I could only have one, it might be the Amazon Prime. With Amazon Prime, you get the free shipping feature (I have a business so that feature pays for the yearly fee) some of the same shows as the others, plus you can pay to view some movies and programs that the other two don't have. I also stream network and PBS shows on my PC. I haven't missed cable at all.

When I dropped cable, I also dropped the home phone. I just pay for high speed internet and either Hulu or Netflix and the once a year Prime fee.

The other big plus is that I watch what I want to watch and not trash that happens to be on. I think it's pretty amazing that with cable you can have over a hundred channels and nothing good to watch.

Thanks everyone I am going to try to figure out what to do. Perhaps going back to a VHS player and recording shows will save me money.

I find that Netflix and news from Bing are sufficient for my needs along these lines.

Also cost efficient

I hate commercials. I cut the cord a few years ago because I got tired of asking myself "why am I paying $80/month to be chased away by [usually annoying] commercials?" Apparently, most people don't seem to mind it being a part of their home ambiance.