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Cut Cable, Use A Digital Antenna, and Save Thousands!

Last Updated: October 30, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 188 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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Cutting The Cable Cord By Getting A Digital AntennaWe finally eliminated cable earlier this year. Cutting the cable cord wasn’t hard due to the fact that we have a digital antenna.

And, guess what?

We haven’t missed it one bit.

According to NPD Group (a market research company), the average monthly cable bill in 2015 is expected to be $123. By the year 2020, the average cable bill is expected to be around $200 a month.

That’s A LOT of money!

In fact, that’s $1,476 for 2015 alone. By 2020, the average annual cable bill would then be $2,400.

Who wants to spend that much money on TV?

I know I don’t!

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I know there are some out there who prefer to have cable because they watch sports, but I doubt that is the norm. I believe many have cable just because it’s an expense that most people have and are “used to.”

However, that money could be used for something else. Perhaps a vacation, retiring a little bit earlier, paying off debt, and so on.

One of the main ways I recommend cutting the cable cord (and making it a bit easier) is by purchasing a digital antenna.

Related money saving tip: You can also ditch cable and get Hulu instead. It’s as low as $5.99 and a great way to save loads of money each month on cable.

 

Cutting the cable cord is easy with a digital antenna.

When you think of TV antennas, you probably think of the classic rabbit ears that are big and ugly. You probably also think about how the picture is never perfect and how channels can get blurry and almost completely fade away.

Well, these days antennas are no longer like that and this makes cutting the cable cord much easier. Digital antennas are sleek looking and allow you to watch your favorite TV shows with no problem at all.

Digital antennas are also cheap. They start at around $29.99 on the Antennas Direct website and go up from there. There is no monthly cost to use a digital antenna, so you can still receive many of your favorite local TV channels (that’s all I ever watched anyways!) and never have to pay money again.

Just think about it – around $30 for a digital antenna and be set for a really long time, or spend thousands of dollars on cable that you probably don’t get full use out of?

Seems like a clear winner to me!

Related: 16 Alternatives To Cable TV That WILL Save You Money

 

Our digital antenna.

We recently got a digital antenna (you can go to this website and find many great digital antennas – this is an affiliate link, but I didn’t find out I could be an affiliate until after I was already using their digital antenna. I truly enjoy this product and recommend it!) and it has been working well for us.

We have the ClearStream™ Micron Indoor Multi-Directional Digital TV Antenna.

It’s an indoor one that sits behind our TV, there is no ugliness that goes along with it, and you can’t even see it.

The digital antenna gives us around 14 channels and they are all of great quality. I’ve even heard of others getting 50 or 60 channels. The antenna we bought was around $60 and it will allow us to save hundreds of dollars a year for years to come, so it was a great deal.

Do you have cable? Why or why not?

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188 Comments
Filed Under: Budget Tagged With: Budget

About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. Shannon says

    October 11, 2015 at 12:48 pm

    I don’t have cable anymore. A few months ago i realized that we hadn’t been using it because we were always on Hulu or Netflix so we were wasting money.

    Reply
  2. Ty says

    October 11, 2015 at 1:11 pm

    We have cable because it was cheaper to bundle with our phone and internet.

    Reply
  3. Esteban says

    October 11, 2015 at 1:35 pm

    Hey,

    That’s great advice and a great way to cut some costs! I don’t actually watch any tv and my girlfriend pays for Netflix so that’s ok.

    i typically like to stream the shows I want to watch so it’s pretty much free for me 🙂

    Not sure if that’s legal in the states

    Reply
  4. jeb says

    October 11, 2015 at 2:34 pm

    No cable here! Love it! Books Books Books Books!

    Reply
  5. lisa says

    October 11, 2015 at 2:45 pm

    No we have never had cable television.It’s too expensive and we really don’t watch enough to justify the cost.

    Reply
  6. ten b says

    October 11, 2015 at 2:48 pm

    We had satellite tv, but it was always going out (we live in one of the rainiest areas in the US). The last time it went out, and didn’t come back when the weather cleared, they said it would be a week until they could send someone to look at it. Finally pissed DH off enough to cancel it – we were paying $100/month to watch a black screen.

    Right now, we get one channel, and have netflix. I admit, I miss football. But not enough to deal with cable/satellite again.

    Reply
  7. Kate D. says

    October 11, 2015 at 3:17 pm

    I do not have cable anymore. I cancelled it when my cable bill reached $170.00 per month!! Now I get movies (for free) from the library & listen to radio.

    Reply
  8. DJ says

    October 11, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    I do. My favorite shows are on cable.

    Reply
  9. Fig @ Figuring Money Out says

    October 11, 2015 at 4:17 pm

    I pay for cable right now because my roommate requires it but I don’t even use it. I watch everything online. 🙂

    Reply
  10. Kim o says

    October 11, 2015 at 4:42 pm

    No cable. I have a Roku and pay for Hulu Plus, but miss local channels, so this would be perfect!

    Reply
  11. Lauryn R says

    October 11, 2015 at 5:45 pm

    No, we don’t have cable in our house. It’s too expensive! We choose to have internet over cable because it’s more useful to us as a family.

    Reply
  12. John Heim says

    October 11, 2015 at 9:02 pm

    Yes, we have cable and I hate it. We had AT&T for awhile and it was nice, but we bought another high-resolution TV, and exceeded our bandwidth allocation, or whatever. We had to go back to Charter’s monopoly, and both of them are way overpriced!

    Reply
  13. KV says

    October 11, 2015 at 9:43 pm

    I don’t have cable because I don’t watch many shows. I use the library to watch movies.

    Reply
  14. Tawny says

    October 12, 2015 at 12:18 am

    I don’t have cable. I never have. Who can afford it; not me. Anyway, with the new Me TV and Antenna TV, I can see good shows always. I just need an antenna that doesn’t make the show go off with every little breeze. This one is better than the last 2 I’ve had, but I need a more reliable one.

    Reply
  15. Holly Thomas says

    October 12, 2015 at 3:55 am

    I only have basic service.

    Reply
  16. Megan says

    October 12, 2015 at 6:09 am

    I do still have cable but it is something that my family has been considering dropping for some time. It seems like more and more often that there are great alternatives coming out. We have the amazon fire tv and use that to view a ton of content. The PBS app on that is fantastic. When combined with how much I watch on Amazon Prime tv and on Netflix… it is looking more and more likely that we will drop cable when our contract is up next month.

    Reply
  17. Bridgett Wilbur says

    October 12, 2015 at 8:18 am

    I do have cable but I would love to get rid of it.

    Reply
  18. Natalie says

    October 12, 2015 at 10:10 am

    I do not have cable because I cannot afford it!

    Reply
  19. Jen V. says

    October 12, 2015 at 12:35 pm

    We do have Cable (AT&T) Uverse, but only because it comes bundled with our internet. We switched from Roadrunner and it actually ended up being cheaper for both than it was for just internet with Time Warner.

    Reply
  20. Crystal E. says

    October 12, 2015 at 2:44 pm

    I have a basic Dish package thats $45 a month. We got tired of watching DVD and VHS for years, so finally got cable!

    Reply
  21. Ashley Perez says

    October 12, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    Yes, we have cable because my husband loves to watch his tv shows. 🙂

    Reply
  22. Deborah says

    October 12, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    My kids and I can not afford cable, we do have Roku, and watch the free shows. We need this antenna, thanks for the great giveaway!

    Reply
  23. Leah says

    October 12, 2015 at 11:28 pm

    We recently cut our cable bill from one of the small packages to basic tv because it saves us $20 a month. Once that contract is up, we will be canceling it and will just watch Amazon Prime. We are working on paying off debt!

    Reply
  24. Shannon says

    October 13, 2015 at 2:30 am

    I do not have cable because it is too expensive plus I don’t really watch a lot of TV so we just watch Netflix mostly….

    Reply
  25. Jane says

    October 13, 2015 at 7:30 am

    We have cable because…well we’ve always had cable. but everytime I read a story like this I say we need to get rid of it! Hopefully if I win, it will happen!!!

    Reply
  26. Daniel M says

    October 13, 2015 at 12:33 pm

    we still have cable because we don’t have smart tvs yet and appletv ruku whatever look too limited and don’t want to have to go through menus searching for the show i want ever single time i want to watch something

    Reply
  27. Sohair says

    October 13, 2015 at 5:58 pm

    Because it has a lot of channels that my hubby likes to watch

    Reply
  28. Elaine Powell says

    October 13, 2015 at 7:47 pm

    we do for now. thinking of trying something less expensive. if not for Nascar and a couple of my husbands fav, channels, I would unhook the cable

    Reply
  29. Lisa L. says

    October 13, 2015 at 7:49 pm

    No cable, too busy traveling full time in RV. But lawd how I miss the NFL !!! Broncos keep winning though. Me and my Denver Bronco styled RV are happy for that. Which is for sale by the way, :o) 1k finders fee if they mention your name! Lisagee1234 on instagram

    Reply
  30. molli vandehey says

    October 13, 2015 at 10:22 pm

    i do because my roommate already had it. i will likely cancel soon

    Reply
  31. charlene says

    October 14, 2015 at 2:39 am

    I have cable but I wish I could get rid of it. I am in a pretty rural area and would only get about 5 channels and the kids would go nuts

    Reply
  32. amy tolley says

    October 14, 2015 at 8:31 am

    yes we have cable because my family wouldnt go without tv..and we dont really get reception out here all to great and you can only watch so many dvd’s then its time for something else ..but would love to try this out if lucky enough to win…and drop the cable bill that coast out the butt

    Reply
  33. Crystal Rogers Walker says

    October 14, 2015 at 1:46 pm

    We have Dish Network we live in Smoky Mountains and don’t have alot of choice for TV or Internet

    Reply
  34. Bella T. says

    October 14, 2015 at 2:41 pm

    I’ve never heard of this! 🙂 I currently do not have cable due to the expensiveness and hassle!

    Reply
    • Bella T. says

      October 20, 2015 at 8:56 am

      p.s. My FB name is Isabella Renee if you need verification for the FB Share entry! 🙂

      Reply
  35. Amanda says

    October 14, 2015 at 7:41 pm

    I love this idea, but my husband is all about the TV. We’ll see what he says when I run it by him. Our cable bill will double in March if we stick with the current plan.

    Reply
  36. James says

    October 14, 2015 at 7:47 pm

    I’ve been using a Over-the-Air digital antenna for the last three years and it works great. Add a long HDMI cable from your computer to your television and you have a lot of great free streaming options online for content.

    Reply
  37. Christy Caldwell says

    October 15, 2015 at 10:34 am

    I don’t have cable. It’s just too expensive. I use an antenna for network TV. I have been looking for a better digital antenna.

    Reply
  38. Sandra Watts says

    October 15, 2015 at 2:55 pm

    I just got a new television that has all the apps and include Roka. I want to cute the cable, I am just not sure how yet.

    Reply
  39. christine burd says

    October 16, 2015 at 12:20 am

    We do have cable and it is bundled with phone and internet .. We never really looked into other options

    Reply
  40. debbie says

    October 16, 2015 at 11:26 am

    No we dont I live in new zealand and we still dont have a lot of tv channels but we do have what we call freeview which s free to watch We also have sky which is like cable but there are only about 15 channels Plus its quite expensive and repititive but slowly getting other tv services available which will prob drive the costs down

    Reply
  41. Richard Brandt says

    October 16, 2015 at 8:57 pm

    Yes, for Turner Classic Movies.

    Reply
  42. Barbara Montag says

    October 17, 2015 at 12:58 am

    I entered the wrong info for following you on Twitter
    @JalapenoMama

    Reply
  43. Barbara Montag says

    October 17, 2015 at 12:59 am

    Shared on FB https://www.facebook.com/barbara.montag.7/posts/10207034802044752

    Reply
  44. Diego F. says

    October 17, 2015 at 9:18 am

    I don’t have yet cause of money, but ll have it soon 🙂

    Reply
  45. Gord says

    October 17, 2015 at 1:08 pm

    I have cable only because its included where I live.

    Reply
  46. Annmarie W. says

    October 17, 2015 at 6:16 pm

    We don’t have cable…we’re longtime DirecTV subscribers. But my mom has cable, and this might be a great option for her!

    Reply
  47. Allison lesley says

    October 17, 2015 at 8:14 pm

    We cut our cable about 3 years ago and we stream Netflix and Hulu now. It saves us a ton monthly just by making this one cute. Cable is outrageous and the plans are always changing so its not worth the money paid for it.

    Reply
  48. Laura J says

    October 18, 2015 at 12:04 am

    We do have cable, but I have been thinking for the last year about cutting it. This would be such a great option!

    Reply
  49. Julie Waldron says

    October 18, 2015 at 2:42 pm

    We have satellite TV but we’ve thought about getting rid of it.

    Reply
  50. Patricia Delgado says

    October 18, 2015 at 7:28 pm

    We do have cable because my children enjoy nick and disney jr

    Reply
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