How I Cut the Cable, added Hours to My Day, and Saved Almost $1,000/year
A guest post from Andrea at Single Working Mama
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was a self-proclaimed Discovery Health addict. Despite my doctor’s recommendation to avoid the “baby shows”, I watched them religiously — especially at the end of my pregnancy when I was placed on modified bed rest.
One of my greatest discoveries during that time was Netflix. At the time they had only recently introduced instant streaming, and the first movie I watched was The Business of Being Born. I was instantly hooked on watching movies right there on my computer. It made the time I spent staying off my feet go by much faster.
After Angelica’s birth, I became a newsaholic. I got hooked on MSNBC, and being a liberal during election season, I was able to stay on top of what was going on during the presidential primaries and election. I also continued to channel-hop, watching Style network and all of my favorite baby shows (hello, Baby Week on Discovery Health)!
Fast forward to July of 2010. As part of our budget renovation, we decided to cut cable. We started off with a trial run. We unhooked our cable boxes and configured our Playstation 3 so that it would run Hulu and Netflix. I also found a way to stream my beloved MSNBC on Justin.tv. After a month of having the cable boxes unhooked, we found that we didn’t really miss much.
Sure, I no longer had Discovery Health or Style, since they don’t put their shows online. But, I gained hours of my life back. My evenings were no longer spent channel hopping. We were limited to the shows that were available on Hulu the day after they aired on cable, and of course, our beloved movies on Netflix (which, by the way, is only about $10/month). Regular old Hulu is free and you can get almost any of the major network shows if you don’t mind waiting an extra day.
Looking for other ways to save on cable? Check out the Amazon Fire TV Stick
The day we called to cancel cable was liberating. Our bill dropped about $85/month (since we kept our cable modem for internet access). That equals about $1,020/year in savings. Imagine what you can do with an extra grand each year!
Sure, sometimes I miss being able to just mindlessly channel surf. But on those days, I tell myself, “It’s JUST TV!” There really are much more important things in life. TV is just a luxury.
If your budget is tight, and you’re looking for ways to save money, just give it a try for a month – turn off your cable boxes and turn to other alternatives. Or don’t watch TV at all. You’ll be surprised at the time you get back and how little you actually feel that you’re missing.