How To Save Money By Cutting Your Cable

Raise your hand if you are sick and tired of paying your insanely high cable bill…

I can tell you right now that you’re certainly not alone. Millions of people are still paying their cable companies hundreds a month for a terrible and overpriced service. I’m sure you even thought to yourself plenty of times about just getting rid of it once and for all, but then ultimately didn’t because you and your family would lose out on watching your favorite shows!

There has to be a better solution out there… right??

Good news – there is!! And you’re in luck because I’m going to explain exactly how to save money by cutting your cable below.

 Okay, so here’s the breakdown of what you need to do to start saving money.

Step 1.

Get yourself a local HD TV antenna. This step will ensure you can still access the local channels in your area that you won’t be able to get with the other steps in the process of cutting your cable. Antennas can range anywhere from $20-$200 depending on what you need. Everyone reading this will have a different need for their antennas.

What to look for when choosing an antenna:

1. Range/Miles – How far are you located from the broadcasting towers? (Find a map here)

2. Type – Amplified, multi-directional, indoor/outdoor, etc…

A lot of people still refer to antennas as “Rabbit or Bunny Ears”, and while you can still purchase those, I strongly recommend against them. What you really should be looking at are the multi-directional and amplified antennas. The reason for this is so you don’t have to mess around with moving those “ears” around every time there is signal interference.

My recommendation when looking at antennas are either the Terk or Mohu brands. These two brands seem to work the best for everyone and will give you the least problems. I personally use the Terk for my TV’s, but have heard great things about the Mohu antennas as well. (Make sure you get 1 antenna per TV you want to watch! Antenna’s DO NOT split well unless using a very powerful outdoor antenna).

Step 2.

You’ll need a streaming device and/or a Smart TV. The reason you’ll need these are so that you can start streaming your favorite shows (including live shows) using the internet. If you have a Smart TV, you probably already subscribe to services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video and more which means you’re good to go! (If you don’t have an Amazon Video account, you can get a free 30 day trial today!)

If you don’t have a Smart TV, or only have one and would like streaming access throughout other rooms, you will need to purchase a streaming device (per each TV). Roku has quite a few different options to choose from so I highly recommend checking them out. Otherwise, Amazon has their FireTV and FireStick which operate basically the same way as the Roku devices.

I mentioned Netlfix, Hulu and Amazon Video already – which are great for streaming shows/movies that aren’t on live TV. So how can you still watch live TV that isn’t coming through over the air antennas, like shows on ESPN, AMC, TBS, TNT, etc…? 

Enter SlingTV, Playstation Vue and now the newest release, YouTube TV*. These services offer a variety of different packages for you to subscribe to and will enable you to watch live tv directly through a streaming device (Roku, Amazon FireStick, Smart TV, etc…) Both SlingTV and Playstation Vue have their benefits, however I do like SlingTV better. Just be sure that if you are going to be constantly streaming that your internet speed and router are both fast enough to handle it!

*Revision: YouTube just announced YouTube TV which will be very similiar to the other streaming services listed above and will cost $35/month and give you unlimited DVR space via the cloud and 6 accounts. Definitely be sure to check that out!

Once you’ve hooked up your TV antenna and streaming device(s), signed up for some of the recommended streaming services, you’re ready to go! You can start watching your favorite shows, both live and on demand all while saving money by cutting your cable. You can thank me later!