Awhile back, I began to seriously think about getting rid of cable. I felt like I was spending too much money and most of it was a waste. I began doing my research and realized that the process to transition to a cable free lifestyle would not be nearly as hard as I imagined.
So here’s how I cut cable in three easy steps:
- Bought a Roku. A Roku is a streaming device that will allow you to stream via Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime and a whole host of other options. If you have another streaming device (Apple TV, Google Chromecast or one of those fancy PS3 things) then you’ve already taken care of step 1. The Roku took me all of five minutes to set up and I’m already in love with it.
- Ordered Hulu Plus and Netflix. Hulu Plus allows me to watch current seasons of most of my shows and Netflix gives me movies, older seasons and HOUSE OF CARDS! (Sorry, I’m in the early part of season 2 and currently obsessed with it).
- Purchase an indoor HD Antenna. The antenna allows me to watch about 25 basic channels (my local NBC, ABC, FOX, CBS, etc.) and the picture is fantastic. The antenna was very low cost on Amazon and super easy to set up — it literally is hanging on my wall tucked behind my television and works so well.
AmazonBasics Ultra Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna – Made in USA
If you are thinking about getting rid of your cable, let me encourage you to do so. I’m saving around $45 each month now and it was so dang easy. I wish I would’ve done it months ago when I first got the idea.
Do you still have cable? Have I convinced you to cut the cord?
*There are affiliate links in this post and if you happen to purchase anything linked, I will receive a small commission. I only use affiliate links for products I have purchased and loved!*
Ah my son and husband would kill me if they couldn’t watch all of their sport events 24/7! I am thinking of getting rid of our land line though.
Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner recently posted…Liebster Award
yes, sports was a concern for us as well, but there is an ESPN channel, NBA game pass, NHL and MLB channels on Roku. my main concern was SEC football but most bama games are on CBS 🙂
We cut it for awhile but like the previous reader…football was a big deal :)..also fox news. So we have it again but the lowest package which costs us $40 a month and then we have Netflix. We tried an antenna but it keep going in and out and commercials are just terribe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If it was just me I could get rid of it though 🙂
Jen@milesandblessings recently posted…How’s your diet?
bummer that your antenna didn’t work — mine is so great — and for sports we have an ESPN channel, NBA game pass and most of my bama football games are on CBS. trust me, we considered that 🙂 i also think that sooner rather than later there will be an NFL game pass for Roku like the NBA one.
I got rid of cable too! Saves me about $100 a month. Have you checked into Aero.com? It’s only offered in some areas but it’s basically an antenna on your computer with a DVR.
i hadn’t heard of it – thanks! and congrats on cutting the cord — it’s so great to be saving the money!
I do still have cable AND Roku. Love it. I finished House of Cards season 2 right before Spring break and have now finished Orange is the New Black. LOVE IT!
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i didn’t cancel cable until i had everything in place and it was all set up. now i’m so happy i did it. and i love both house of cards and OITNB — can’t wait for season 2 🙂
I mentioned getting rid of cable to my father and he just looked at me in horror and said, “that’s not how we raised you.” It’s way too expensive, though, and honestly with RCN I get so few channels I just doubt that it’s worth it since I only watch about an hour a night.
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LOL. yeah it is so expensive and there were SO many channels that i just wasn’t watching that it no longer made sense.
Oh my gosh I needed this post. My husband and I have been back and forth for ages about cutting out cable and we just haven’t been able to pull the plug even though it is SO expensive and it always feels like nothing is on. I’m mentioning this to him tonight. 🙂
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do it! to make it less painful, you could just get everything set up and then cancel your cable after you’ve seen firsthand how you can still watch most of your shows. that’s what i did and it was easy peasy 🙂
Once I moved into my new apartment last summer, I decided to not get cable at all. While I do miss watching crappy reality shows on a rainy day, I do not miss that bill at all. Somehow when I bought internet, I also got about 10 channels through the cable line. 90% of the television shows I follow are on those stations so I’ve been very lucky. Congrats on cutting the cord! 🙂
Cassie @ Running Journey recently posted…4 Miles and Race Goals
yes – i don’t miss the cable bill either! 🙂 i figure i’m probably 15% smarter now that i’m not watching kardashians 🙂
I went 4 or 5 years without cable – only just got it back recently when I bought a new 50 inch TV and my fiance thought it’d be a shame not to have cable on it. Everyone always says sports is the reason they won’t cut it, but I am a huge sports fan and never had an issue with watching the games that I wanted to. With so much more now available on espn3.com too it’s awesome – just a simple HDMI cable from you iPad or laptop hooked up to the TV and you’re all set. Food Network and HGTV are really the only things that we watch more of now that we have cable. I don’t think it’s worth it, but oh well, I do enjoy my HGTV!
I will say the HD antennas can be hit or miss based on where you live. In my old apartment it worked beautifully for every channel but NBC randomly – that just didn’t come in at all and CBS would not work if I stood in certain areas of my apartment. At my new place the same antenna couldn’t pull in a single channel.
The best thing for me when I didn’t have cable was my slingbox – which is almost cheating and involves having someone nice enough to let you take advantage of their cable. I found parents to be good for that, haha. It is possibly the best device ever. I’ve had it since college and LOVE it. I have the device hooked up in my parent’s house. Anywhere in the world that I have internet access I can log in on any device and watch their cable live. I actually have two now, so one is hooked up to only get the basic first 60 channels and I can watch it at the same time as they are independent of what they’re watching. The second gives me complete control. I can turn the TV on or off, change channels on them (they love that, lol) and use the DVR or onDemand. I only use this one when we’re both watching the same thing like a Syracuse game or if they’re out of town. It’s very cool. My parents and brother also log into that one a bit too so it doesn’t just sit useless a lot of the time.
Sorry for my very long-winded comment, this is something I’m oddly passionate about -mostly because of my hatred of Comcast and the cable industry in general – and I also wrote a post on it awhile back if you’re not sick of my ranting and want to hear more ramblings from me on the topic… http://heart-and-sole.com/2012/02/10/cutting-the-cable-cord-how-i-got-rid-of-cable-tv/
Colleen L recently posted…Race Recap: Cherry Blossom 5k
huh, wow – i’ve never heard of slingbox. but like you said, i’ve been able to see almost everything. AND i kinda cheated a bit too. i suspended my cable for 6 months (although i can bring it back at any time) so that if i can’t find my bama games, i have an option 🙂 i’m how to check out your post!
Good for you! Unless I could guarantee that we could get the NFL, college and major league lacrosse I know our cable isn’t going anywhere! LOL! Glad you were able to make it work for you!
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LOL – i think you may be able to do all that very soon!
oh how i wish an antenna would work in my current place. i barely turn my TV on since i got rid of DVR (and scaled back on cable) and i’ve been thinking i should just get rid of all cable altogether, but the idea of having no TV is hard to swallow, even for someone who literally can’t remember the last time they turned on the tv. it would be a no brainer if i could get network tv. this is what i did back in 2002-2004 (before all these internet-based options were even a choice) and it worked so well in that apartment, but it’s an absolute no-go in the current place. but glad it’s working for you, and it’s definitely worth trying.
have you used this site? http://www.antennaweb.org/ it will tell you which type of antenna to buy and what channels you should buy. it was accurate for me…hope maybe it’ll work for you!
My husband loves his cable too much – and college sports like lacrosse – but whenever I see that cable bill ….
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yeah — it is SO expensive! i’m happy we made the switch.
I absolutely LOVE my Roku! We have three of them. I only watch TV when I workout, and having a Roku in the workout room has been wonderful. We have Netflix and AmazonPrime. I haven’t felt the need to add Hulu (don’t they STILL have commercials, even with Plus?). Another wonderful help in cord cutting is PlayOn (just google it for a link). It’s an inexpensive program that allows you to watch anything you can watch on your computer, on your tv instead (huge help! I don’t want to be tied to my computer). There is a PlayLater option too, which acts as a DVR (so I can fast forward through commercials the networks put on). So using it, I do stay current with a few shows (gotta go watch last night’s Grey’s Anatomy today!) I don’t know about the legality of it all, but there are even “channels” (projectgfreetv, onechannel) that have current HBO options and movies too.
With all this, we DO still have basic cable. It’s bundled with our internet service, and I haven’t figured out how to let my boys watch the basketball games without it.
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Congrats on cutting the cord! We haven’t cut our cable all together (turned out, we had to have tv service in order to receive internet where we are), so we cut WAY back on our channels. We now only have the general ones (CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, and a few others) along with HBO. I think HBO is the most watched channel in our house, so it made sense for us to keep it. Anyway, it has helped us to save quite a bit of money, which was the point. We are also fans of Apple tv and Netflix 🙂
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