This is a guest post from my friend Tabitha who blogs at Saving Towards a Better Life. She eliminated cable and was very surprised to find that she doesn’t mind living without it. If you think you can live without cable, it would be a great way to add to your fund!
So, after my husband went through his second job change in a year for an even lower salary, we had to take a hard look at our budget. The only thing we had not cut back on was cable/satellite TV.  We had the bare bones package, with DVR and an additional receiver – this was costing us $80/month. We had DirecTV and they have a great offer for those not sure if they’re ready to take the full plunge into no TV. You can “suspend” your service for up to 6 months. This is what we did – hoping that the no TV situation would be temporary until we got back on our feet.
Now, just because we aren’t paying a DirecTV bill anymore doesn’t mean we don’t watch TV anymore. Here’s how we survive:
Before we turned off our service, I DVRed a lot of my son’s favorite cartoons. Even though we turned our service off, everything on our DVR is saved (after all, it’s just a hard drive like in your computer.)Â We can access everything saved on it.
We turned our service off the beginning of December 2010, so when people started asking what to get my son for Christmas, I suggested several of his favorite cartoon series’ on DVDs. He has a sufficient library of things to watch and I don’t have to worry about him being inundated with commercials for the hottest toy, junk food or another TV show I don’t want him watching.
I still watch all my favorite shows on the network websites. Yes, I do have wait before it’s posted – some shows are posted the next day others run a week behind. Either way, it’s not the end of the world to have to wait. My co-worker that watches Grey’s Anatomy knows not to come in on Fridays talking about it – we have our recap conversation on Mondays.
One word: Netflix. For around $10 a month we have access to hundreds (maybe even thousands) of movies and TV shows.
So what about those things you need TV for, like news or weather reports?
News – is readily available online. I can even still watch my favorite news show on the Fox News site. I follow Fox News on Facebook so I get news updates. Plus, I listen to a lot of talk radio.
Weather – I use the Weather Channel Desktop when I need to check the coming forecast. Plus, just about every radio station does the weather every 15 minutes in the morning so I get the days high and chance of rain – which is all I really need so I know how to dress.
So just because we don’t have cable – we haven’t completely cut ourselves off from civilization. It is possible to live without TV. And even with all the other ways to watch TV, now that we don’t have satellite service we watch a lot less TV. It’s not on just for background noise anymore which is peaceful and I don’t get sucked in to watching a Saturday afternoon marathon of a bad reality series when I should be doing something else.
And here’s her update:
We disconnected our satellite service at the beginning of December 2010. Which means we have been without service for years! When we disconnected, our bill was almost $80 a month (when we first got it, we paid around $65 and over the years they would increase the package or additional receiver fee by a few dollars – I have no doubt that we’d probably be paying more than $80 now because I’m sure it’s increased).
But if you take the $80 we were paying and multiply it by the months that we haven’t paid it, you will see that we have saved thousands of dollars! That’s a nice chunk of change! If I let myself think about it too long, I get MAD at myself for all the years we SPENT all that money on satellite!
Theresa says
Hello all, what about sports? Thats a big thing for him to lose, is there anyway we could watch sports thru Hulu or any other source online??
amanda says
this is something we have been considering for months…we just need to do it already!
April says
We got rid of cable too and my family doesn’t even miss it. We do Netflix streaming, which is $7.99 a month and we still are able to watch shows we like. The shows we like that are not on Netflix we find online and watch.
Lisa says
I finally got my husband to take the plunge and get rid of Dish a couple of months ago. I hated paying $65 a month for television. We do have netflix and sometimes rent from Redbox. I feel so much better now. I hated how the television would get turned on and then shows would end up being unintentionally watched because they came on after what we were watching. I’m trying to get our family to watch less television and it has been working :)
Ivon says
This is a great article! I’ve been thinking about either lowering my Cable Triple Bundle to the lowest package I can or eliminating the Cable Bill all together. I don’t really need the home phone service since we have cell phones and as long as we have Internet, that’s really all that’s important now a days.. I wish I could use the savings from doing this towards a Disney Fund because we are HUGE Disney Fanatics but unfortunately with my Husband out of of work since Sept. and with 5 teenage girls still living at home and 2 of them about to start college in the Fall.. any and all savings need to help with expenses in the home. My husband and 2 oldest daughters can’t catch a break, applying for jobs and getting turned down countless times with excuses like (Husband: Over Qualified or Pursuing other candidates – Daughters: Not enough experience) it’s ridiculous! I can’t work outside the home due to health reasons so I’m left with doing the best I can from home. It’s just not easy! So from the bottom of my heart I Thank you for posting this article. It’s given me LOTS to think about and Thank you to all who have commented as well.. BIG EYE OPENER!
Take Care, Good Luck & God Bless!
~Ivon ºoº <3
Bethany says
This was huge!!! I tried this out and lowered my cable bill from about $200 per month to under $18 per month!! Now I am putting all the difference in my fund, which tripled in one month!!!! Thanks!
Kristin of Couponing to Disney says
Wow, that is a huge difference!
tracey says
I have been wanting to cut out the cable for a while. It is convincing the rest of the family and trying to figure out who to get our WIFI with. Maybe soon I can convince my hubby.
Sally says
We cut cable about a year ago and don’t miss it one bit. I thought it would be tough, but am so glad we did it!
Jessica McMasters says
Our family got rid of cable 5 years ago! We love it! Everyone thinks we are crazy for not having cable, but with Internet we are able to watch any TV show we want. We are only paying 14.99/mo through AT&T promotion for a year which actually go extended for an extra 6 mo. It saves us so much each month. We also share one car, one cell and no house phone. So our only monthly bills are: Rent, Water, Electricity, Cricket Mobile ($37), AT&T High Speed Internet ($14.99). We love it, because it allows us to save the money we would have spent towards DISNEY!!! Our one downfall is going out to eat!
Breanne Clemmensen says
Don’t forget you can watch ABC, PBS, CBS, CW, NBC, and FOX with just bunny ears on most tvs, but if you are like in and have an old tv you will have to have a convertor box ( I got mine for free when the government gave coupons out two per household, dont know if they are still doing this) otherwise they are about $30. You don’t have to log on to the computer to get the weather or watch the news. You can also read the paper. I had cable for a year when I lived with my grandparents in college. Yes it fun to have extra stuff but you can get by fine with renting movies from the library or asking for movies as gifts. Also sign up for redbox.com text messages and then you can get free codes for renting there too. Netflix looks fun but its still more money you are putting out that you wouldn’t have to.
Jean says
Don’t forget about movies from the library…. we get kid DVDs and VHS (yes we still have a VCR), and you can get movies and TV series for adults too. Some are $1, but the older ones are free.
Glenna H. says
We haven’t had cable for many years, only broadcast antena. When they gave us a “free weekend” of HBO and our sons were teenagers. I was up in the middle of the night flipped on the TV because I couldn’t sleep, low and behold, right before my eyes I was watching an actual sex act, between a man and two women. I was, aghast. That was the end of cable for us. When we want to see a program we missed we hook up our WIFI computer to our HD TV. with HDMI connection and watch it streaming. Usually it is a few days or a week later but we keep up to date.
catherine says
We have a cable/phone/Internet package and do not use cellphones. What is the best way to save on the phone/Net part if we give up on cable? Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t save that much with just eliminating cable. I have always wanted to get rid of cable, though. …Netflix works great on our Wii, but is now $16/month for stream and DVDs. Thanks for the post!
Carra says
We haven’t had cable in over 10 years. The biggest hurdle was my husband and ESPN but he’s used to not watching sportscenter now! My kids were 5 and 2 when we got rid of it and we didn’t have Netflix then. We would let them watch DVDs every once in a while but we started listening to the radio more and we encourage a lot of reading in our house! We have had Netflix now for a couple years and we love it. It lets my daughter catch up on shows that all her friends talk about so she’s in “the know”. We did invest in a really good antenna and installed it in the attic so we get all the local channels and can watch network tv with no problem. I’m not sure how much 10 years worth of no cable is worth but I know we’ve saved thousands! And we haven’t missed it – I highly recommend it!
Luci says
We don’t have cable or satelite. After our move and finding only very expensive satelite was available, we got wireless internet with a device through a cell provider. C-Spire and Verizon are available in our area. Had to test which worked the best. We know some folks who can hook up to 4 or 5 devices to the cell phone for internet. They have Verizon.
We have lots of videos. Our local libraries have quiet a selection as well. We can renew them online and have them for up to six weeks, so it’s a better deal than rentals.
We listen to the news on radio, mostly National Public Radio. If you want local stations on your tv, you could check into a digital antenna.
When we did have cable with Comcast, we had digital service and downgraded to the Family Tier, which included Sprout and some of the digital channels. Then after a move, we opted for the cheapest package, Basic not Limited Basic. You may have to ask because it wasn’t listed on the price list and I knew it existed through at least last Spring.
crystal says
I don’t understand why she has to watch abc and fox shows online – those along with nbc, cbs and cw are free broadcast channels, her tv would pick those up without cable service.
Kristin from Couponing to Disney says
Unfortunately she lives in the boonies where the TV does not pick those channels up. :(
Luci says
We also live out in the country. I haven’t tested it in our area, but one can check which digital antenna may work in your area for the channels you’d like to pick up. See the fcc.gov website for DTV Reception Maps to see what’s suggested for your location.
Jeanne says
I also live in the country, about 50 miles from the local stations with mountains. We use a large outdoor digital antenna and pick up all of our local stations. Woohoo….no cable bill.
anna says
awesome! we canceled our directv a few months ago too! i was actually going to pay the fee since we were moving and we were almost at the end of the contract so the fee was less than the bill really, then when my husband got home from work and i told him he was like, what?? so he called and in like 5 minutes had the fee gone! i have 3 little boys so, yeah, i NEED a tv to use as a babysitter so i can shower without the house being burned down. so they watched a movie about once a day, some days not at all if i showered before they got up or during nap time. now we are doing netflix and i’m cool with $8/mo since there are educational shows like liberty’s kids and leapfrog. even though my husband is getting a raise in a few months, i don’t envision us getting cable back. i really like not having cable!
Julia says
I don’t have cable and I don’t miss it. I got a cheap antenna from family dollar that allows me to watch television (I had gotten the converter boxes when they were available for free with the converter box coupons, plus flat screen tv’s already have the analog converter built in!). I also use Netflix (bonus my sis and I split it, even better) I have att for internet and i got their special for a year and only pay 14.95 a month after the year it’ll be 35 a month which isnt too bad. I stream all my show’s online there through their websites or through tube plus. I have my $5 garage sale vcr and i get my daughter what ever movie she wants from the thrift store for 75cents. She’s happy and so is my purse.
tanya says
I looked into this but have no other options for internet service what do you all do for wifi?
Gabriel says
There is a $30 or $40 dollar cable that can connect your laptop or iphone or ipad to your t.v. then your shows and web are endless. Also, We also use Magic Jack for our home phone. (vtech phone with 4 units)
Christie says
You go Tabitha! We haven’t had cable for 8 years and 1 month! That’s $7,760 if you figure $80 a month and I totally DON’T regret it for a minute! :-)
ASHLEY says
We have an Xbox so we have Netflix and HuluPlus and we disconnected our cable in October 2010. We have two kids, 5 yrs and 8 months. None of us miss it at all, we have tons of movie and can watch all our favorite shows on either HuluPlus or the network website or past seasons on Netflix. Plus our Xbox even has Iheartradio so we can use it to listen to nearby radio stations and ones that are across the state or country :) So for 7.99(Netflix) and $8.99(HuluPlus) we get to watch everything we want on our schedule!
Lori says
Same thing here. Only have Netflix though. Love it. But was questioning if it was worth getting Hulu Plus too.
We also switched to DSL, about a year ago. But it’s time to go back to the sweet speed that is cable internet. :)
Lindsay says
We did the same thing in April of 2010. When we found out I was pregnant, we decided we didn’t want to waste the money on something that we didn’t actually need. Plus, it seemed to suck our time up and we wanted to spend those last few months of being a couple focused on each other.
My father bought us a year subscription to BabyFirst TV online, and my son watches that when we need to get something done. (It also came with 3 dvds- score!) We have Netflix without the DVD option, and we do watch things on Hulu, although we don’t have Hulu Plus.
Our TV bill was just over $50 a month for local channels and On Demand and was from the only provider we could use at our apartment. Its crazy to think that I would spend that much a month on trash I don’t really like. Now, watching TV is a conscious decision, and always something we really like.
Oh, and I’ve saved over $1150!!! Too bad it went to things like diapers, formula, and a college savings account instead of Disney. :-(
Amber says
I couldn’t agree more! We cancelled our cable over a year ago and I don’t miss it at all. We have the same Netflix package for $8 per month and it is more than enough. We did spend about $80 on an antenna so we could still get some network channels and it’s working fine.
Kelly says
Thank you so much for sharing this! I am dealing with trying to figure out the most economical option to cut down on the cost of TV.
I was thinking about getting rid of cable and doing Netflix and HULU.
Has anyone used HULU?? Is it worth the money??
Thanks!!!
Linda says
I’ve been using Hulu since November and I would say that at least for me, it is worth it. I have a Roku box and use it to watch Netflix and Hulu Plus plus many other channels. My daughter and I use Hulu to catch up on our favorite shows. I work a few nights a week, so we pick one night and just watch all the episodes we’ve missed.
Emily says
We too got rid of our $95/month satellite due to the expense and all the lousy commercials bombarding my children. We also have Roku, Netflix, and Hulu Plus all for about $20 something a month. Some shows we don’t get on Hulu but I will purchase on Amazon on Demand for a couple bucks here and there. We also have a self made antenna sp? that works really well to get the local channels too and it’s free!
Alyssa L. says
Hulu is free, but Hulu Plus is $7.99/month. I mostly just watch the free Hulu, but will subscribe to Hulu Plus for a month here and there if there is a current season of a show I really want to catch up on that isn’t available on regular Hulu. Honestly, the combination of Netflix and regular Hulu covers all of my TV and movie needs, but then I watch most of my stuff on the computer and not the TV. As a word of warning: Hulu Plus will only let you stream to the TV for certain shows (in other words, shows from networks that allow Hulu Plus to stream to the TV; some networks are stingy in giving Hulu Plus rights).