Cord-Cutting: Does it Really Cut Costs? - Comments Page 2

I cut the cord 15 years ago. After all, how many times can you watch "Law and Order" reruns with tons of commercials. At that time, just the cable/satellite was about $80.00 per month.
Amazon Prime (with Acorn) and Netflix does the job for me. I also READ BOOKS! Do I miss it? Not at all!

I cut the cord several years age when my cable/phone/TV went to $155 a month. I have a cell phone anyway and Amazon Prime for my family and shipping anyway, got CBS All Access for the local station and Star Trek Discovery. My basic Internet was $44 at the time I cut the cord. Now it has crept up to $69.99, CBS is 6.05, and Prime about $20 a month. I'm OK with that.

Had xfinity TV with internet, paid $285/mo. Had netflix ($13/mo) since 2008 and amazon prime ($10/mo) since 2012. Total $308/mo as of 1/1/2020. Cancelled xfinity TV, but kept internet for $98/mo and added hulu with disney+ for $13/mo. New total $134/mo, savings of $174/mo (56.5% reduction) Awesome.

Bob - Your article and the reader feedback clearly point to a follow on article - the best way to source internet service for us frugal types.

Some people (like me) only want a data connection. Unfortunately I live in the Philadelphia metro area where Comcast has a service monopoly. No competition means $$$$! Verizon refused to install new DSL to my residence. I need better than dialup access for my business from home.

What are the other options. Sarah L's feedback mentioned a multifamily building program. Can one buy and resell bandwidth (I live in a 64 unit condo association.) What else is outside the box?

Oh, and to get content, I have a big TV antenna in my attic, get 40+ channels and use a TIVO DVR to watch or avoid ads as I choose.

Many years ago we tried to go 'a la carte' when we wanted to add the Disney channel. We were told that the Disney channel came bundled with the Playboy channel and we could not get one without the other.
Brilliant marketing to sell you stuff you don't want!

I cut the cord two years ago, kept internet service and use VUDU and Kanopy for streaming movies (both free unless I rent a recent release).
When my internet renews, I use Trim to negotiate the terms.

I have nothing but ROKU, and I am happy. I can get local channels on Roku through Locast for free. I've always had internet, so it's not an additional cost, and with that I need nothing more, as I am not a huge TV fan anyway. Often 2 or 3 weeks go by without turning on the TV.

The best bundle for quality TV in cost as well as variety and talent and superb programming is Britbox. While we also have Netflix we never watch it compared to Britbox which we get through Roku. Britbox is quality British TV and cheaper than Netflix. Maybe because I am Canadian and thus able to understand British humor does help but the mysteries as well as humor are worth it. We stopped watching anything else
Cheers.

This is off the subject: A few days ago you recommended the Google Internet Researcher course. This is an excellent course, and Dan Russell is a terrific instructor. I learned a lot. There is a "BUT" It was indicated that upon satisfactory completion, with a passing grade, I'd receive a certificate. I did the course passed with a 5/5 score, but there was no place to submit my score, therefor no certificate. I thought to avail myself of the training to attempt to freelance in the market. No certificate, no chance.

I used to go back and forth from Comcast to DishTV until about 4 years ago when I became a "cable-cutter". We're about 30 miles from the Nashville metro area and we get about 32 OTA channels. We pay about $94/mo for AT&T internet and phone (120Mb speed). And we pay another $21/mo for Philo (57 great entertainment channels). Plus with a Roku you can watch all the archives of the individual Philo channels on their own separate Roku channels. For example the Food Network Roku channel alone has 1000s of shows in their archive and they are all available to watch through the Philo subscription. Of course, Roku has dozens more channels with plenty of free TV like PlutoTV, the Roku Channel, TubiTV, etc. I'm a news junkie, so CBSN, SkyNews, RT, France24, AlJazeera, DW (and more) are great Roku channels. For certain programming, I have found excellent websites that are not available on Roku. So between OTA, Roku and my laptop all plugged in to my big screen TV, all my live TV watching needs are met for less than $120/mo (and the phone accounts for about $40 of that).

I'm in the UK and we have the excellent Freeview and Freesat options which give us all the terrestrial channels and much more for free. I still have a Virgin TV and Broadband subscription with a TIVO box and I keep toying with the idea of giving this up but the hassle of reprogramming all the devices which use the Virgin broadband connection has prevented me from doing so so far. However as Virgin gets more and more expensive I will probably disconnect from it sooner rather than later - or at least perhaps just keep the broadband and lose the TV options

Have cable internet-100 @ $30/mo.Bought approved modem & router last year($150)-so no more rental fees. Have Netflix ($10) and locast w/o their ads ($5.50) since poor antenna reception - With Roku and magic jack -almost all set!
Add Wyze security camera, wi-fi thermostat, google mini, alexa and myfit watchbands and it's starting to feel like the 21st century. Loads of choices and ongoing cost around $60 when you factor it over long term. Can't get much better than that.

Forgot to mention Kanopy and Hoopla (via roku)-free with library card and prepaid smart phone($30) many free apps available. Can find lots of news, more movies etc. with laptop -use VPN and Brave and duck duck go browser for privacy and less ad tracking. Don't stop looking for more ideas.

My current cable/non-cable is as follow: I use a DVR for recording any off-the-air some 42-44 channels at no cost.
Living in a senior building, I can get free channels from 2 to 12. For an addition $27, I can get an additional 48 channels from 25 to 73.

Actually, I usually tune to the local network stations. When getting poor reception from OTA, I use the in-house system as an backup.

Just want to say that I am 77 yrs young and cut the cord about a year ago. I have Roku, and love it! I was already an Amazon Prime member, so I don't consider that a cost. My internet is through a phone co. with a for-life price at half my cable internet cost.
Except for prime I do not pay for any channels. I don't have time to watch all the free things. I'll have to save them for my old age!!
I really enjoy your newsletters. Thank you.

Last year our son surprised us with a 65" smart TV. One of the apps it came with was Sling TV. Looked good so we signed up. Got an OTA antenna, cancelled our Dish Network. BIG mistake. Did not realize Sling used the internet to watch their programming. My internet package comes with 1000GB usage per month. Before Sling TV I was using an average of about 200GB per month. With Sling TV that jumped up to close to 900GB used in 3 weeks. Any overage above 1000GB would cost me $10.00 per 1000GB. Needless to say we dumped Sling TV and re-signed up with Dish Network. So cord cutting did not work for us. Do your research before you cut the cord.

I dropped Cox cable TV and just kept the internet as it's either them or Centurylink here in Omaha, and Cox higher speeds are far less expensive and faster for the money!

Went to Hulu and just used the WiFi which is 6 feet from the Firestick Live new stick, so strength was very good.

Hulu is buggy, freezes now and then, drops a channel now and then, and requires removing power now and then to reset. The remote and it's actions are wonky at best.

All I saved was about $26 a month and got a troublesome Firestick/Hulu combo.

Thing is once your first year plan at Cox is done, YOU MUST CANX their tv package for a month or more IN ORDER TO come back as a fresh customer to quality for the much lower pricing -- as they jack your pricing year two.

It's a racket, this cable business. They gotcha. So the Firestick/Hulu is useful to use for that time frame to reset pricing at Cox.

I'm very computer literate and can operate my Firestick/Hulu easily. It's just buggy. Might be better on a TV with the built-in ap.

I was paying XFINITY $212 monthly (TV, internet, and modem rental). I bought my own modem on AMAZON (saved 14 buck a month), bought an antenna (also on AMAZON-$20), and subscribed to "fubo". My XFINITY bill is $77 (for now) with 200 Mbps internet.
"fubo" is about the same price, with a couple of add-ons. I do not watch regular TV just sports. The only important channels missing on "fubo" are ABC (college football) and PBS. I have the antenna to cover those. As far as sports, the coverage is overwhelming good, especially soccer. One worrying caveat is that I used 1 TB of data my first month. I will be more prudent this month and not leave streams going unwatched. Hopefully I can enjoy the changes that I've made without a Grinch (data usage) coming to take it all away.