We 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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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.
We have cable because it was cheaper to bundle with our phone and internet.
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
No cable here! Love it! Books Books Books Books!
No we have never had cable television.It’s too expensive and we really don’t watch enough to justify the cost.
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.
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.
I do. My favorite shows are on cable.
I pay for cable right now because my roommate requires it but I don’t even use it. I watch everything online. 🙂
No cable. I have a Roku and pay for Hulu Plus, but miss local channels, so this would be perfect!
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.
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!
I don’t have cable because I don’t watch many shows. I use the library to watch movies.
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.
I only have basic service.
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.
I do have cable but I would love to get rid of it.
I do not have cable because I cannot afford it!
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.
I have a basic Dish package thats $45 a month. We got tired of watching DVD and VHS for years, so finally got cable!
Yes, we have cable because my husband loves to watch his tv shows. 🙂
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!
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!
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….
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!!!
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
Because it has a lot of channels that my hubby likes to watch
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
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
i do because my roommate already had it. i will likely cancel soon
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
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
We have Dish Network we live in Smoky Mountains and don’t have alot of choice for TV or Internet
I’ve never heard of this! 🙂 I currently do not have cable due to the expensiveness and hassle!
p.s. My FB name is Isabella Renee if you need verification for the FB Share entry! 🙂
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.
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.
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.
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.
We do have cable and it is bundled with phone and internet .. We never really looked into other options
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
Yes, for Turner Classic Movies.
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I don’t have yet cause of money, but ll have it soon 🙂
I have cable only because its included where I live.
We don’t have cable…we’re longtime DirecTV subscribers. But my mom has cable, and this might be a great option for her!
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.
We do have cable, but I have been thinking for the last year about cutting it. This would be such a great option!
We have satellite TV but we’ve thought about getting rid of it.
We do have cable because my children enjoy nick and disney jr