How to cut cable TV, saving money per month and still watch the channels you want to watch, live TV and have DVR service.
There are so many people who are way ahead of us on this topic, but I shared on Instagram a couple of weeks ago that we were finally cutting our cable TV cord and doing streaming services, so today I’m going to share what we are doing and why. It’s a huge topic of conversation these days, figuring out how to cut traditional cable or satellite TV services and go to streaming only. Mark and I knew the basics, but we have learned more as we go and we took the plunge at the end of January and haven’t looked back. I don’t think we will miss our cable TV. Keep in mind, I might not explain this exactly right, I’m still learning the lingo!
Mark is an ex-AT&T employee. He worked there for about 23 years before he retired a year ago. He was an IT specialist in their commercial area and had a good career with them, but he’s really glad to be home now. As an employee he got a discount, so we took advantage of that with internet and cable TV service. We went with Uverse when we moved in this house, since we couldn’t get satellite because of our huge trees surrounding us. Uverse is fine and dependable and we were happy with it for the most part. We were paying $138 a month for basic internet and Uverse TV. I think the internet portion was about $40 and Uverse was the rest at $98 a month. This price was after he retired and he still got a bit of a discount, but it was cheaper before retirement around $100 for both of them.
We found more and more that we simply weren’t watching all the channels on Uverse at all. We had a few favorites, a few shows on network TV, but mostly watching HGTV, DIY, Discovery and a few others, certainly not all 200 or more than we got. We did already have Netflix and Amazon, so watched movies and shows there too. We love documentaries and watch those often. So, when we decided to upgrade our internet service once fiber came to our neighborhood, it made sense to go ahead and cut that cable bill too.
We signed up for AT&T high speed internet which is great to have anyway. You’ll need high speeds for streaming services. We don’t do gaming or anything, but a high speed is great for home needs and a must for streaming services.
We asked around and started reading about the different streaming device methods that are out there. Here’s the basics if you’re just getting started with the process of cutting cable. I’m still no expert, but this is what we’ve learned so far. I know we are behind many of you who have already done this years ago. We should have done it too, but I was always fearful of missing out so didn’t want to do it, but I do not think we will miss our old cable TV at all!
Christina who blogs at The Frugal Homemaker did a great post a year ago that I read and made a note of. It really helped me to understand the process of cutting cable and streaming services and what all is involved. Her post goes into more depth than mine will, so definitely take a look at hers and you’ll gain even more knowledge about the subject.
In a nutshell, you buy a box (streaming device) with remote and that’s what allows you to stream programs through your TV. This is a one time fee that should last you for a few years, unless the streaming device goes out. You own the box instead of renting the box from the cable company. If you have a Smart TV, you don’t need the streaming device (I’ll call it a box from here on), it’s all done via the internet connection to your TV. We don’t have Smart TV’s so we opted for 3 boxes for all 3 of our TV’s. Then you begin researching companies that stream the channels that you want to watch. It’s all a bit complicated to figure out at first, but once you get that concept it comes together. Then you just subscribe to the services and channel apps you want to subscribe to for a monthly fee. It can add up quickly though, so be aware of all of that. It’s sort of like apps on your phone. You download them to your TV, open them and play them.
You’ll hear Roku, Firestick, Sling, Hulu and more. I heard these terms thrown around and had no idea what they meant, but with a little research, you can figure it out too!
The main thing you’ll need to figure out is what channels you have to have and need to have to be happy with the service you get. Many people don’t cut the cable until they have all this figured out, but we went for it and just cut the cable and then figured out what we wanted to replace it with. It all worked out fine in the end. We are still getting used to it, but I’ll share our story and experience so far.
I wanted HGTV and some of the other channels, including the new Discovery + which is where Magnolia Network is housed, along with a lot of other channels, including DIY and more. I’ll explain more about the subscriptions below. We don’t watch much news at all, we get our news online so mainstream news was not a big deal to us, nor were local channels. I will probably miss a few shows on the main network channels, ABC, NBC, CBS etc. but not enough to matter. Plus you can subscribe to some streaming networks that have local channels so if that’s a must for you, be aware of that as you are looking at options.
The monthly fees are higher with local channels but it may still save you money over cable TV. The more you subscribe to per month, the higher your bill will be so you have to be aware of that as you start “adding on” channels and services if you’re trying to save money. Mark will want to watch college football in the Fall, but he will deal with that later. The great thing about subscribing to these streaming services is you can always cancel them at any time if you decide that’s not the one for you. Try one out, cancel and start another one if you find it’s not for you. You can try them out and see how they work and there’s no long term commitment. That’s the best part!
You can also get local channels with an antenna in your house. That seems to be what many people do for local channels, but we probably won’t bother with that. I won’t get into antenna choices since I’m not well versed in that, but know it’s an option for local channels.
You’ll need to buy your streaming device and those are sold at a lot of places, including Best Buy, Walmart, and more.
Mark did some research on all of them and we decided on 2 Roku boxes for 2 of our TV’s and Mark decided on the Apple TV box for his man cave TV (for some reason he went with one of the most expensive streaming device options). He also upgraded his man cave TV to a 75″ Samsung while we were at it. The older TV in there had begun to get white spots on the screen and it was driving him crazy. He had to point them out to me, which I saw but they began to spread more and so I knew it was only a matter of time before a new TV would go in there. His new one is a smart TV, but he is still using the Apple TV device with it instead of letting the Smart part work. We have a thing about Smart devices in our house, we don’t want all the extra cameras and microphones around, if you know what I mean. We want our privacy and there is too much shared these days with all these wifi connected devices and let’s say we just don’t trust them.
We went to Walmart and picked up 2 of these Roku boxes and remotes. They were $49 each. These plug into the TV with a USB stick and then you connect them to your wireless network and plug the box into the wall.
Mark got the Apple TV streaming device ($144) for his man cave. We got them all set up pretty fast and we were ready to go!
The most common streaming devices seem to be these 3:
Roku
Amazon Firestick
Apple TV
Just do your research on the streaming devices. We heard 4K was the best to get, so ours have that.
Once you have your streaming device picked out, you’re ready to subscribe to streaming services. This is the tricky part, lots of reading up on what channels are available.
The most popular streaming services and their monthly costs are always changing:
You Tube TV: Live TV and 85 channels – $64.99 per month (not very cost effective to me)
Sling TV: Sling has a couple of different plans, but basically you can start for $10 a month (introductory offer for first month) and it goes up from there to $35 per month (Blue or Orange choices), depending on options. 50+ live channels plus 50 hrs. DVR.
Hulu + Live TV: Hulu offers live TV for $71.99 per month (definitely not a deal to me)
And there are many more, so just research until you find a good fit for you and your family. There are also some free options out there or very low monthly costs. I’m not going to list them all, but Christina goes into more detail on those than I will.
Here are the choices we’ve made for now:
Note: Philo and Roku TV both have DVR cloud capabilities built in too so that you can save programs that you want to watch and come back to them later if you miss them. The good thing about many of these streaming services is that you have access to all the older shows and can watch them at any time, so you don’t miss anything, but some live shows that are showing on some channels you can save for later, which I really like too.
Roku TV: This is free with our streaming devices and Roku TV has lots of good free options for watching channels too. Roku has old TV shows, like Rifleman, Leave it to Beaver, Bewitched, Beverly Hillbillies, Outer Limits (remember that golden oldie!) and lots more. We love old TV! They also have movies, live news, kids shows, and more. Great for a free service and again they have the DVR cloud service if you want to save a show and watch it later.
Philo TV: $20 per month and it has many channels that I like, so we’re trying this one for now. Christina also opted for this one and it sounded good to me, so that’s what I got as well. It has Lifetime, A&E, AMC, Animal Planet, BBC America, CMT, Comedy Central, Cooking, DIY, Food Network, 3 Hallmark channels, HGTV, History, plus lots more. This was a good option for me. It overlaps with Discovery + in that I’m getting HGTV there as well, but I really wanted Chip and Jo’s new Magnolia Network, so I added it on.
Philo has a Guide that you can look at for live programming and see if there’s anything coming up you want to save for later and come back to, which is a nice option. The Guide is set up just like your cable service guide so you can easily see what’s coming up later in the day.
If you decide on Philo TV, use my Philo link and code RN69TWJQ to get $5 off your first month.
Discovery+: $6.99 a month for no commercials (worth it). Regular monthly price is $4.99 a month. As mentioned, I really wanted to get the new Magnolia Network, so this option was a must, but it’s very reasonable for what you get. Check out all the channels below that come with Discovery +, I thought it’s a very good lineup for what I need. You can go and watch all the HGTV shows at anytime, by scrolling through all the shows and episodes.
And it has all of these channels as well (see below), some good ones on there for a reasonable cost. I love home and garden channels and have a few shows that I like.
If you love home and garden shows, then Discovery+ is one you should definitely sign up for. They have them all, from everything on HGTV to cooking, real estate, beaches, mansions and everything in between. I even cracked up when I went through the HGTV shows and saw all the oldies that we all watched early on like Decorating Cents and Room by Room. Remember those? They look terribly outdated now, but I remember I used to love them. They are pretty funny to look at now and I doubt I’ll go back and watch them, but I had to show Mark an episode with Matt and Sherry from Room by Room. He laughed too.
Peacock TV: This is a freebie I signed up for and it has some good channel options. All free, can’t beat that! They do have a $4.99 a month Premium option, but I just did the free one. It has lots of old TV shows, plus movies and more. It has Downtown Abbey,Yellowstone (which I haven’t watched but want to) sci-fi, lots of old TV faves, reality TV, true crime, and many more favorites.
There’s a show we absolutely love that we were watching on HGTV and I’ve searched HGTV on Discovery and it’s not coming up there, but it came up on Peacock TV too, so we’ve been watching it there and we can go back and watch all the episodes from the beginning. There are 6 seasons. It’s called Escape to the Chateau, about an English couple who bought an 18th century chateau with 45 rooms in France in 2015 and spent years fixing it up, all in a documentary narrated by an English lady. It’s such a good show and we’re going to go back and watch it all over again, it has been such a delight to watch. They have 2 young children and they are raising them in the country, but it also shows them going to town and to Paris to shop. It’s so fun to see the transformation of this magnificent chateau, room by room and project by project.Her parents also moved with them and live in the carriage house after it was transformed. She has a great design eye, does a lot of DIY projects, and he’s a chef and handyman and their goal was to open it as a wedding venue and also live in it and it has been a big hit. It shows them getting married in the chateau and also preparing for wedding guests too. Such a fun show to watch!
We found their website The Chateau and this will tell you all about them and the show and house. They do events and weddings at the Chateau. If you haven’t watched this show, you must do so and tell me what you think! Mark and I are trying to figure out how we can go visit The Chateau!
There are lots more free streaming TV options including this one, we have it installed too:
Tubi TV: Lots of genres and channels to choose from. You’ll see some overlapping of channels, but if it’s free who cares?
We also have a free ABC app that gets live TV as well as some other live news stations on one of the apps we have, so we can see news channels if we want to.
Christina shares a lot more free apps on her post, so check it out. I didn’t list them all, because I’m not familiar with them all, but there are a lot of them for FREE if you want that option.
So this is where we are so far with our switch from cable to streaming TV. We are not regretting it one bit. I know Mark will be looking at football options in the fall, so he will figure that out when the time comes. He will probably subscribe to a channel for a few months for sports and then discontinue it after that. College football is the only sport he watches religiously.
I don’t see us adding a lot more options, we have more now than we can possibly watch, so no getting bored around here! I have spent time just clicking around on all the free options to see what all is there for later. We can’t possibly watch all that we have, so I think we’ll be set for now.
Cost and Savings:
As a recap of savings we are going to see, our old internet and Uverse TV with AT&T was $138 per month.
We will save more than a few dollars over that cost.
High speed internet: $45 per month still with AT&T
Philo: $20 per month
Discovery+: $6.99 per month
We already had Netflix: $12 per month
Amazon TV comes with Prime and we already had that, so figure in that cost as well if you have it too.
So, that’s a total of around $84 per month instead of $138, for a savings of $54 per month. Not a bad savings is it?
I hope this helps if you are in the market to cut your cable bill too. We have so many options now there is so much to watch that we should never run out of things to see or be bored. There were so many channels on Uverse that we never watched or looked at, so why pay all that money when you don’t need to?!
We both love good documentaries, good mysteries, action movies, home and garden shows, so there is definitely no shortage of any of those. I don’t think we’ll miss the local news, but if we do we can always opt in for a service that has it. We can check online for anything urgent in our area. Mark loves sci-fi movies and shows, not my favorite and I have a few that are not for him, so we also have shows we watch separately and that’s the great thing about streaming shows. It’s there when you want to watch it.
If you have cut your cable too and only do streaming TV, feel free to add your comments below and any tips or tricks you’ve learned for saving money. I’m sure we would all love to read them!
Although we still have cable we are weaning our way off and find our self watching either prime or netflix and then our absolute new fave is FREE called PLUTO TV. We like old stuff so it has a classic section (happy days, one day at a time, love boat, rifleman, doctor who, i love lucy, beverly hillbillies) a game show section (old price is right from bob barker era, deal or no deal, lots of other old and newer game shows), movies, documentaries, crime (unsolved mysteries from long ago WITH current/close to current updates) and so much more.
I’ll have to check out Pluto but it sounds like it has the same as the free ones we already have. We love those old shows!
I really need to cut my cable bill! Right now I pay a bit over $300 per month for cable & internet with Comcast. Comcast is 1 of the worst companies out there. You would think with so many people cutting the cable cord Comcast would be willing to work with long time customers to save money. Think again. A very greedy company with non existent customer service. The main reason I haven’t cut the cord is I hate dealing with Comcast. They are so unpleasant and it stresses me out to even think of calling them.
You can definitely save money by switching to streaming. I bet you won’t miss Comcast at all.
Our cable bill with Suddenlink went up to $172 in January. Suddenlink ads offer large sign-up discounts for new customers but what about those of us who have been with them for 30+ years? (They are the only game in town.) My husband called and complained and said we couldn’t afford it and we were going to cut the cable so they connected him to the “customer retention” dept. Who knew?!? We are now paying $126! My husband watches very, very little tv. He has wanted to cut the cable for years but I watch quite a bit so I always prevailed. We have Roku but I watch it very little (it was a Christmas gift from a relative). My husband was in IT for 29 years and we have no smart devices, either. Oh, I need my fall football, too! SEC (Aggies), Cowboys and Chiefs! I live a few miles from Patrick Mahomes hometown! Thanks Rhoda for great explanation!
HI, Terry, that’s the problem with these cable companies, they keep going up. I’m sure the streaming services will do that too, but they have a lot of competition now to keep customers happy. I have known about customer retention and I do that with my Sirius bill in my car, I call every year and tell them I’ll leave if they don’t give me the same or similar deal. It works!
Comcast is terrible. We don’t have Comcast now, but in the past, I found if I ask for a manager immediately and repetitively, things go faster. Any business that makes your heart pound due to anger is not a good business.
As for ATT, I am a long long time customer back when it was called something else.
(20+ years? Is that possible??) ATT gets a bad rating for customer service but I have 99.9% had great service with them. When your teenagers do stupid, expensive things, they always worked with me. We have had to port numbers, unlock phones, help my Mom a dozen times with her modem, on and on. I have never minded calling them or going into their stores.
Everything you said sounds very familiar and is alot like how we feel about TV and how we made the transition to stream. We have Hulu but I don’t love it and I think we will try philo and add discovery. TV is front and center in February in Ohio, haha.
I really wanted to watch Yellowstone too, but after the 2nd show I realized I couldn’t because of all the profanity it just ruined the show?
I hate to hear that, why do they have to ruin things with language?!
Hi fellow Ohioan here,
We have found Netflix to fill the winter evenings , but yes the profanity on some shows is ridiculous. Madame secretary is good and the British cooking shows.PBS just wrapped up All Creatures (we liked this as well as the original series) also call the midwife we like
It really is shocking how much we spend on DirecTV and internet every month. Mostly we watch Netflix and Amazon (with Acorn added for great British shows) plus my HGTV and Hallmark. I have a Roku stick in the bedroom which allows me to pick up those channels from the main tv. John is like Mark with his college football…South Carolina v. Georgia to kickoff this year … so we add that on in the Fall. Unfortunately where we live, our AT&T is slow as molasses. This was a really great explanation Rhoda, and I will be looking up the free services you and others are mentioning!
Great information for certain!
What speed did you settle on for your internet?
I’m not sure what it is, but we got high-speed fiber and we got the middle version, whatever it is.
Thanks I found it! 300bps!
We gave up TV many years ago and only have internet. I honestly don’t miss it. I read & knit and sip tea and life is good. Oh and a bit of wine. I have missed you as you only popped up on my feed a few weeks ago. I have no clue why you disappeared. Good to see you again.
HI, are you subscribed to my mailing list? If you are my posts will go to your email inbox every time I post.
Cut cable 3 yrs ago. Love my Blue Sling,! My att,u verse was $185.00 a month.this senior cannot afford that,tried to’negotiate’! Despise Att.
We have been thinking about cutting the cord. We live in a large nice neighborhood with very old equipment. All we have is Comcast. The one thing I do like is taping the shows we like and getting rid of the commercials. We bought an antenna. It didn’t work very well for us. We gave it to our daughter who lives in Buckhead (Atlanta). It works great for her. We do like a lot of the shows on the main networks. We have Netflix and Prime. I would like Discovery plus. If we could find some way to keep the main networks, we would cut the cord.
HI, Shirley, you’d probably be happy with getting Sling or one of the streaming services that offer local channels too, just make sure they have all you need before you do it. I don’t think you would miss Comcast at all. It just takes a little getting used to for the change in how you watch and record, but it’s a great way to save money.
We cut cable about six months ago, Rhoda. We were like you and didn’t know what we were doing and we were somewhat fearful. We did our research and chose Hulu Plus because we could get my husband’s beloved Texas A&M football. If it weren’t for that we could do a less expensive package but still…we are saving so much over Uverse. It’s not quite as convenient but it works. We also have Amazon Prime which has shows, movies, and I recently realized you can get one free audiobook/month.
Some things have gotten complicated!! I wish we could just turn on the tv like we used to be we must change with the times. 🙂
Hi, Stacey, yes we always have to learn new things don’t we? It hasn’t been that hard for me and I’m glad we went ahead and did it. I don’t think we will miss cable at all.
Thank you for this great information! I’ll forward this to my husband to study (he’s the expert on this)! I have forwarded many of your posts to his e-mail; e.g., the woodworking projects in the entry, bedroom study, etc. Speaking of Yellowstone, I noticed a rickety sign, “Indian Health Services,” or something like that, at our former Senior Center. I was glad to know they were using the center for something. Turns out it was a set for Yellowstone. I had forgotten that they film at various areas here in Summit County, UT. The sign was there for only a couple of days.
HI Leslie, glad you found this post helpful. And how neat on the Yellowstone filming. I’ve never been to your part of the country.
My husband and I cut the cord about 2 years ago. We do like live TV for the news and a few other TV shows, but Hulu live appeared decided to try it. We were quite happy with it. We always had Netflix and Amazon prime, so we were saving quite a bit of money per month. I also added the Hallmark Channel for myself, but the content was older shows and movies. Hulu’s prices kept jumping up and went to over $30 more per month than when we started. It wasn’t a bargain anymore since the number of channels stayed the same. We are now back to cable TV. Our cable company has a few channel package options so we were able to keep our costs down. We pay about $20 more per month (as compared to Hulu Live) and have many more channels and my beloved Hallmark Channel is back with the new content.
Rhoda, I am so very glad you posted this information. I have been seriously considering canceling my cable subscription – it is just stupidly expensive when I watch only about 6 channels, but they are channels that carry the shows I like to watch and arent’ available locally. So your info is very welcome to me. I am going to peruse it and glean every bit of your good thoughts conerning this matter.
Thank you so very much for publishing this timely knowledge for our consideration.
Thank you for the info. We just changed TV and internet providers to save $$ as well. I hate to say it is not easy getting used to new devices, but we are trying to watch less TV and avoid repeats. We also love Escape to the Chateau. If you find a way to visit maybe it could be a blogger friend excursion! I’m sure there are many of us who would love to see all their creative restoration and artwork. I look forward to and enjoy each of your posts.
HI, Sherry, good for you and yes that show is so good. We are enthralled with it and started looking at their website. Would love the chance to visit!
My husband and I cut the cable cord 3 years ago. The price kept going up every year and was $160 per month when we said ENOUGH! We bought a Roku stick for our Smart tv ($49 at Walmart) and we have Hulu which is $5.99 per month. I love being able to watch what we want when we want. The $154 we save each month still makes me smile every time I make the payment! We have so many good shows that we enjoy watching and have not missed cable or the high payment AT ALL!
My boss in Greenville clued me in on roku back in 2011 for my daughter in college. It worked so well , we got them for ourselves since we were dropping cable . We picked up c spire here as streaming with fiber optic . I know nothing much about all of it, just teach me the remote part, ha! We get it all that I love and Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and apps . If something comes on you love that you can’t see because of some reason , you can catch it the next night on Hulu a lot of time. Hulu and Netflix are so fun!! You can binge watch! Enjoy !!
I’ve got to quit procrastinating and say goodbye to DISH. I’m over Chet and Joanna. I prefer Ben and Erin on Home Town. I think they are on Discovery Plus too.
I loved Room By Room and Decorating On A Dime, and Kitty Bartholomew.
Thanks for this very informative post. You’ve given me the courage to move into the 21st Century.
If you go to https://www.suppose.tv/tv and put in your zip code, you can select what channels you must have and it will list the streaming services and cable/satellite companies that offer that channel and also display the monthly price. We went with YouTube TV (with ROKU) because of sports and the unlimited cloud DVR that allows you to fast-forward through commercials. The Apple TV box can be “configured” to get sports so that is probably what Mark is thinking.
Thanks for sharing, Susan, that is good to know.
You can do it, Glenda! I love Ben and Erin too and all their shows are also on Discovery+, so you can watch them whenever you want.
I cut the cable a couple of years ago. I found every month my cable bill was going up and I was watching less tv. I had a Roku for my tv at the time. Last year, when we all started staying at home during quarantine, I bought a Smart TV. It is a Fire TV. I believe my daughter’s Smart TV is a Roku TV. It really doesn’t matter, they all do basically the same thing. I do highly suggest if you have to replace your tv and don’t have the sticks or boxes, buy a Smart TV. You can get great deals on them, and the cost difference is about what you would pay for the streaming device. Other than that, I’ve connected my tvs to inside antennas to watch local channels. About all I watch on local channels is the new. I will say that my tv upstairs work great with an antenna, but the one downstairs is just so-so. I do find that I am watching more tv than before. I don’t know if it is because I’ve been home more over the last year, or that I can binge watch a whole series! I would like to upgrade my internet, but I’m waiting for AT&T to run fiber in our area.
Cutting the cord was such a MENTAL thing to me! But once I did it, I was just mad that I didn’t do it sooner.
Yes I totally agree!
We cut cable about 3 years ago and have never looked back! We subscribe to YouTubeTV, mainly because at the time it had all the sports channels so there would not be any shortage of SEC fb watching in the fall in our house!!!! We also have had Netflix and Amazon Prime for years, so we didn’t count those as we were paying for them anyway. We added Disney+ when it came out and Frndly, which has all the Hallmarks, UPTV, Pixl, and the Weather Channel. I love the convenience and having the Roku is terrific b/c we can bring it with us wherever we go (before all the pandemic fun started, we took it on our spring break trips and plugged it up in hotels and even have one in the car for the entertainment center for the kids when we travel)!
That’s such a great idea for travel, thanks for sharing your experience.