Cut the cord today!

[purbeast0]

Jared from Subway used to eat a lot. Is that a service he shouldn't have stopped? Just because you use something doesn't dictate that it's worth its price in GOLD. Knowing how much people pay for cable packages, (Anywhere from $80 - $180). The only way you could use it enough to dictate that much waste is if you just sat on the couch all day every-day.

Which I guess I say... congrats?

lol pot meet kettle?

so i can't say something's worth in gold (which i didn't do first of all), but you are allowed to dictate how much time the $80 - $180 is worth for people?

alright then.

 

[werepossum]

We just got Amazon Prime and as a consequence my wife is finally ready to cut the cord. Our Comcast bill for Internet and TV is damned near $180 and we actually watch literally five shows - Modern Family, Mike and Molly, the Big Bang Theory, Squidbillies and The Venture Brothers. The first three are available for free, I just need to build a home theater PC for recording. The last two aren't available outside of cable or dish, but we can purchase the seasons after the fact fairly cheaply. Life is good.

 

[T9D]

https://chaturbate.com/female-cams/

 

[T9D]

https://chaturbate.com/female-cams/

 

[boomhower]

I cut the cord around six months ago and have no regrets. I didn't really want to as I am a huge sports fan but DTV just wouldn't give me a decent deal. My contract was up and I just wanted the same offer a new subscriber signing the same contract would. I already had the equipment, just wanted the same programming price.

So I cut it out. Like many others I have Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime. For my sports I have an XBMC box. It's not HD by any stretch but it's good enough. I really have no regrets. Sling TV has me extremely interested so I can get ESPN back, I'd pay $10 just to have it.

My box of choice is the Amazon Fire TV, one in the living room, bedroom and a Fire TV Stick in my daughters bedroom. My step-son prefers just to use his playstation. I have an Apple TV and tried Roku but prefer the Fire by far. I use a dedicated Asus Chromebox converted for XBMC solely.

OTA when i first cut only got one channel. Tried it last week and get many but not Fox which is what I need the most for football. I may try running a cord to the attic and put the antenna in there to see if gives it the boost I need.

It was a little rough at the beginning but now that we have settled in with it I'm not going back. Even after paying for the boxes I'm still saved money and it only grows every month.

 

[rh71]

Given that internet alone is over $50, cutting the cord isn't a huge savings as we get all 3 for $100. We do watch some channels (HGTV, NHL Network, etc.) from time to time and need the phone line for the alarm. Going with cellular signal alarm is additional expense anyway.

Do you guys without home phone give out your cell phone number for utilities and other non-vital entities?

 

[CurrentlyPissed]

Tried that, went about 6 months. Went back to U-Verse. Convience is key.

Granted I only pay $90/mo for U-450 with all movie channels.

 

[repoman0]

Do you guys without home phone give out your cell phone number for utilities and other non-vital entities?

I do, but I do basically everything online / over e-mail and always make sure to sign up for paperless everything. I can't remember the last time I got a phone call that mattered, although I ignore everything I don't recognize .. who knows, maybe something important was buried in there :whiste:

I haven't had cable since I moved out of my parents after high school .. really don't miss it. I'd rather practice music or play video games or ....... go outside :ninja:

 

[zinfamous]

How do cord cutters supplement non-premium cable channels like USA Networks, Food Network, TNT, etc.?

don't need any of it.

at least, it's weird the things you learn to not care about when not exposed to them.

anyway, between Netflix and Amazon, most things worth watching are available.

 

[dullard]

If you can, put one up in the attic or outside. One of my biggest regrets when I had the ceiling torn out in my living room last year was not running a line to the attic for an antenna. I can still run one, but it will be far more work and not as clean.

I've been meaning to do that. I want to put one in the attic portion of the garage. But running the cable just takes time that I haven't put into it yet.

 

[dullard]

Where do you buy your episodes from and what's your preferred streaming device?

Sorry, I missed this earlier. I just buy the DVDs. $14ish on sale for a season of a show. For the price of one typical monthly cable bill, you could buy 5 to 10 whole seasons of your favorite shows. The caveat is that you have to be willing to wait for it to come out on DVD. And not all things come out on DVD. Amazon handles that part, but I rarely do it.

 

[dullard]

why do people who "cut the cord" is something that they need to brag about as if it's some awesome and amazing thing?

Because it is awesome and amazing once you do it.

You realize that no you don't really need to wait days / weeks / seasons just for the next episode to come out. You realize that no you don't need to watch XYZ rerun for the 20th time. You realize that you aren't paying $100+ a month for infomercials and crap. You realize that if you are just willing to wait a little bit or miss one or two shows that you save thousands and thousands of dollars.

You realize that if you finally convince enough people to do so, we'll finally get pay per channel so we can watch exactly what we want for $20ish a month (see the ESPN deal with Dish for example) instead of subsidizing hundreds of junk channels for $100+ a month.

 

[mmntech]

My Diseqc switch for my satellite setup got fried late last month so I was out TV for a week. Honestly didn't miss it that much. Just watched Netflix instead. New switch arrived yesterday, back up, still a load of rubbish on the TV.

I could get away with cutting the cord but other people in my house couldn't. If you watch a lot of sports, you pretty much need cable. Cable companies were smart buying up the rights and pushing games away from broadcast and on to cable only stations.

TV is moving online though, and as much as its trying, I don't think big cable is going to be able to put the genie back in the bottle. That's why they're trying to get net neutrality killed. Anybody with half a brain knows it only benefits them to the detriment of other businesses and consumers. I guess we'll find out next month who paid off the FCC the most.

 

[drez]

Purchasing just aired shows is ridiculously expensive. $2.99/episode for HD... gtfo...Even the season passes don't save you that much cash.
$2.99 may not seem like that much until you start to realize just how many shows you watch.

The value is only paying for quality stuff. You're assuming you’re going to buy total seasons of garbage like "Keeping up with the Kardashians."

Broadcast is covered by the Antenna, but Hulu Plus is also a decent substitute. Every Year I buy complete seasons of "Mad Men", "The Walking Dead", "The Americans", and "American Horror Story". Buying 4-5 shows a year + Hulu is a monthly cost of about $20. Factor in Netflix (which most have even with cable) and you’re at $29. Also remember I OWN the shows so I can watch them whenever I want forever. Considering the average America spends about $70 on the cable portion of their bill alone, I consider it a good value. .

Even if you look at it from a non-frugal standpoint . $70 bucks a month = $840 a year. That’s 24 complete seasons of shows in HD that you now own. It’s about 32 if you buy in SD. That’s around 300-400 hours of fresh new television hand-picked by you. That’s an hour of new TV every single night of the year that you definitely want to watch. I’ll take that over the crap shoot that is cable television.

 

[drez]

Originally Posted by rh71
Do you guys without home phone give out your cell phone number for utilities and other non-vital entities?

You don't have to. You can get a 5 year Voice over IP contract for as low as $2 a month. Yes, $2 is not a typo. If you don't like long commitments then 1 year of service is only $3 a month with Magic Jack. Skype is pretty reasonable too.

 

[Sonikku]

I'm probably going to cut the cord this month (to the tv). Time Warner still holds the only cable to my internet though. Is that really cutting the cord?

 

[drez]

I'm probably going to cut the cord this month (to the tv). Time Warner still holds the only cable to my internet though. Is that really cutting the cord?

Almost everyone is in that situation. We cut the cords we can.

 

[T9D]

https://chaturbate.com/female-cams/

 

[cbrsurfr]

No regrets here. Tivo Roamio w/OTA, Netflix ($8), Hulu + (Free from Bing), and Amazon ($8.25) + 50mb Comcast internet ($45). Went from $155/month to $61.25/month.

I live out in the boonies so a good antenna was a must. I have it mounted in my attic and also amplify it. I get all the channels I should be able to including CBS Chicago which is hard to get from far away.

I did have a large upfront cost as I paid ETF to Direct and bought the Tivo with Lifetime. So the first year I will only save about $240. Next year total savings will be $1125.

I don't watch very many sports and after looking over a list of all the shows I recorded most of them were crap. There's only about 3 I care about outisde of OTA and Netflix. An example of one is Gold Rush which the new season is on Amazon for 20 bucks.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Being surrounded by huge pine trees, we can no longer reach OTA channels Otherwise, we would have resumed our chord cutting lifestyle.

I will say, it's nice to just turn on a show to have in the background without having to search for something. You can take my freedom, but you will never take my food network.

 

[*kjm]

We did it over 3 years ago and just went with Netflix and cable internet. Don't miss a thing and have saved over $4,000 so far... $100+ a month adds up quick.

 

[SunnyD]

We did it over 3 years ago and just went with Netflix and cable internet. Don't miss a thing and have saved over $4,000 so far... $100+ a month adds up quick.

Wondering how you save $100/month when these days:

Bundled internet+tv ~= roughly $80/month in most localities

Or at a bare minimum...

Standalone internet ~= roughly $60/month in most localities
Netflix = $8/month
Total ~= $68/month

Total savings per month ~= $12/month

Things get worse when you decide to add in other services such as Hulu, HBO streaming, Amazon, etc. When it's all said and done cutting the cord can end up costing you more than a tv+internet bundle from your local provider, with a lot more integration hassles.

 

[TwiceOver]

Wondering how you save $100/month when these days:

Bundled internet+tv ~= roughly $80/month in most localities

Or at a bare minimum...

Standalone internet ~= roughly $60/month in most localities
Netflix = $8/month
Total ~= $68/month

Total savings per month ~= $12/month

Things get worse when you decide to add in other services such as Hulu, HBO streaming, Amazon, etc. When it's all said and done cutting the cord can end up costing you more than a tv+internet bundle from your local provider, with a lot more integration hassles.

It's highly dependent on area. For my area:

Expanded Cable + 60mb Internet: $155
2x DVR boxes: $30
$185/mo

Now:
60mb Internet: $50
Netflix: $9
Amazon Prime: $8.25
Hulu+: $8
$75.25/mo

$109/mo Savings $1308/year

Now... That also doesn't speak to the fact that even with cable I had Netflix and Prime.

Also, my cable subscription above was nothing special. Basic expanded cable and two TiVo DVRs (which were cheaper than what was provided by my CC). I had no movie channels or any sports packages. The only lower package was Internet + Basic local channels in standard definition with no boxes.

$1300/yr, yeah it wasn't worth it for my family. I was actually the hold-out, my wife was the one pushing it. We are at a year now and I have not found a single reason to go back. Should also note that I use Bing Rewards to pay for Hulu so smack another $100 in savings on there if you want. If you'd like a referral, PM me.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I cut the (cable) cord a few summers ago. I went TVless for a few months, then got my FTTH service installed, and it has TV service too so I went with it. So technically not a cord cutter, but if I could save lot of money by not having the TV service I probably would. It's not that much more expensive to have though.

I pay about 150/mo for home phone 50/30 Internet and full blown TV package. Lots of free on demand stuff and such too. Honestly I don't even use it as much as I should considering all what I get.

 

[purbeast0]

Because it is awesome and amazing once you do it.

You realize that no you don't really need to wait days / weeks / seasons just for the next episode to come out. You realize that no you don't need to watch XYZ rerun for the 20th time. You realize that you aren't paying $100+ a month for infomercials and crap. You realize that if you are just willing to wait a little bit or miss one or two shows that you save thousands and thousands of dollars.

You realize that if you finally convince enough people to do so, we'll finally get pay per channel so we can watch exactly what we want for $20ish a month (see the ESPN deal with Dish for example) instead of subsidizing hundreds of junk channels for $100+ a month.

you enjoy losing all of the conveniences of having cable.

you are right, i don't HAVE to have any of that. but for a small fee a month, the convenience and ease of turning on the tv and watching what i want is definitely worth it. the only thing any of us "have" to have is shelter, food, and water. many of us need cars for transportation. anything else is for fun and entertainment for the most part.

you're basically saying you just wasted away all of that money when you weren't getting anything out of it. me, i'm definitely getting my money out of it. if i wasn't, i wouldnt be paying for it.