Save up to $1,800 a year by cutting the cord and using cable alternatives. Check out how to cut cable and save on your favorite movies & TV shows with these alternatives.
Cut Cable and SAVE!
Are you looking to save money by cutting cable? The truth is you can save up to $1200 – $1800 a year by cutting the cord and using cable alternatives. That's a HUGE savings that could make a big difference in your family's ability to pay down debt, afford a new(er) car, or ride out a tough financial season.
Asking friends, readers and team members revealed that a cable bundle can run between $150 – $200 a month. If you take into account that you'll need to find internet elsewhere, you'll still be pocketing around $100 – $150 a month. (WOW! Worth looking into, right?)
Here's how to save money by cutting cable – and still be able to watch your favorite shows, sports and news programs.
There are so many cable alternatives out there these days – you can pick and choose what to buy based on your family's preferences and your budget. But even if you use ALL of the options we talk about below – you'll STILL pay less than cable!
My family does the “Netflix, Hulu, Amazon trifecta” – and it serves us VERY well. We have an enormous buffet of programs to choose from when it comes to kids' shows, HGTV, and National Geographic type shows, new episodes from hit TV series, movies, and even news programs. If our home wasn't in a weird valley that gets no antenna signal – we'd also be able to watch local news, etc..
So other than sports, we don't feel even a little pinch at having cut cable years ago. (We could add sports to our lineup if we were willing to pay for Sling TV – but it's just not in our budget right now.)
FREE options for replacing cable service:
If you're SERIOUS about saving, you can definitely do it! Using free resources can keep your television costs down to almost nothing. We've been in a season where it was library DVD's and nothing else – and we survived! Here are a few free options for watching shows and movies –
- Tubi TV
- VUDU movies
- Pluto TV
- Crackle
- Xumo
- YouTube
- Redbox Live TV
- Online TV channels
- Public library (rent DVD's and movies)
Other options for replacing cable service:
If you're okay with paying something to get the shows your family really enjoys, here are some more possibilities:
1. HD TV Antenna
- Watch Live TV, local news, local sports
- One-time cost that will give you a good free way to watch TV and get more local channels!
2. Amazon Fire TV – Included with Prime for $99/Year
- We LOVE this option because we use Prime for so much already (Free shipping, etc)
- Decent selection of shows, movies, and cool original hit series
- If you don't already have a Playstation, XBox, or some other streaming stick device, you'll need to make a one time purchase of Fire Stick priced under $40
- Bonus: Amazon Prime is also offering a free trial of HBO right now!
3. Netflix – $10.99 (No commercials)
- My favorite, favorite service for price and selection!
- AMAZING selection of shows, movies and original series
- Choose to watch it on up to 4 screens for a few dollars more (We do this)
4. Hulu – $7.99 (Skip commercials for extra $4/month)
- Different from Netflix in that you can watch more current episodes, but there are also occasional commercials
- Watch Live Shows the day after they air
- Great Catalogue of episodes from many seasons (so you can binge watch shows)
- Really good selection of Movies, Original Series
5. Sling TV – Starts at $30/month
- This is the one you splurge on if you're looking for more specific viewing choices
- Live News, Live TV, ESPN
- Extra $5 to get more Sports & News Channels + Ability to watch on up to 3 Devices
- Huge Catalogue of Shows and Episodes (plus a few free live TV Channels!)
- Check out the latest Sling TV promotions here!
6. YouTube TV – Top rated
- 85+ top channels of entertainment, news, live sports, & more
- Recording without storage limits and 6 accounts included
- No cable box, contracts, or hidden fees
- Try it free (starts at $54.99/month afterwards)!
7. FuboTV – Great for families
- 107+ channels (130+ events in 4K) – including History channel, Hallmark, HGTV, & more!
- Cloud DVR Plus with 500 hours of space
- Family Share – 3 screens at once (depending on plan)
- No contract or commitment – cancel anytime
- Watch on all your devices
- Free 7-day trial (starts at $29.99-$59.99/month afterwards)
8. Redbox On Demand (and FREE Live TV!) – No subscription
- With Redbox on Demand streaming service, you can rent movies for as low as $1.99/rental!
- With Free Live TV, you can stream free Movies & TV (with ads) anytime you want!
- Choose from dozens of free channels and TV shows
- NO subscription required
9. PureFlix – Clean family-friendly shows
- With PureFlix, you can watch a mix of family-friendly and Christian entertainment that includes movies for all ages, kid’s animated titles, documentaries, inspirational, and much more.
- All titles are delivered in the highest resolution possible and with a user-friendly experience on a variety of devices – watch them on your phone, computer, and more!
- Subscriptions starts at just $6.99/month
- Try your first 7 days free HERE!
10. Disney+ – $6.99/month
- For $6.99 a month you get an enormous archive of Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Fox hot movies and shows. Or purchase an annual Disney+ Gift Subscription for just $69.99 – which comes out to a mere $5.83 per month.
- You can also get Disney+, HULU and ESPN + Live Sports for just $12.99 per month!
- Check out our review of Disney+ here!
This isn't an exhaustive list, but I really hope it helps if you're trying to figure out how to cut cable and still have plenty of shows to watch.
You can get a FREE Trial of most of these services at any time – so you can check out their programming and ease of use for yourself!
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We have tried a number of combinations, and have settled on this – we keep Amazon Prime and Netflix consistently, and then rotate a third service to keep things fresh. I normally watch for deals (right now I have a couple of channels from the Prime Day sales for 99cents/month (2 months). When that completes, I’ll probably add Hallmark for month or so for the holiday movies. It allows us to try new channels, watch what we want, and then move to something else a month or two later while still keeping a reliable “library” from our main two channels.
Thanks so much for sharing with us Michele! 🙂
We have DirectTV Now also and be cause we are ATT Wireless customers, we have the 60 plus channels for $10/ month. They now have contracts with 2 of the 3 main local stations and working on the 3rd. We can use our account to sign into the tv channel apps on Firetv and watch live shows the next day. We no longer have Hulu so the cost is pretty much a wash.
Not sure how you get direct tv for $19 a month. I have at&t and their internet. No price like that.
Hello Laurie, We have DirectNow, it’s new. We liked the Live streaming channels better that Sling and you get more. Around 60 channels for the price of $35 a month. We signed up at Christmas when they had a promo of $25 a month. You still don’t get locals but we have the anttena fo that. We also have Netflix and Hulu. We have mote TV then before for half the cost. We are saving around $100 a month. That huge!!!!
I have had Sling in the past along with an antenna. I had the blue package along with the $5 Heartland add on. Worked really well. I used in for the winter months and then cancelled…..no subscription required.
Awesome – glad you like Sling!
We have DirectTV Cable/internet bundle with the family package for the last 3 years and pay $45/month. We also have an HD antenna, Prime, and Disney Plus. So we end up paying about $65/month. But my mom just got rid of her AT&T cable bundle and switched to YouTube TV, which is $50/month. It has all the channels, sports and local included, plus you can still DVR programs. It’s another great option to have.
Thanks Laura!