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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 for other ways to save money by cutting cable? The truth is you can save up to $1,200 – $1,800 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 watch your favorite shows, sports, & 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 –
- Amazon Freevee
- Tubi TV
- VUDU free movies
- Pluto TV
- Crackle
- Xumo
- YouTube
- Redbox Live TV
- Reelgood
- 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. Peacock TV – $4.99/month
Peacock TV is a video streaming service owned and operated by NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The best part is you can enjoy FREE live sports, news, TV shows, movies, and more – NO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED.
Here are a few more perks of Peacock TV…
- Watch 40,000+ hours of hit movies, TV shows, and more (FREE)
- Enjoy 50+ always-on channels (FREE)
- Unlock all 60,000+ hours of hit movies, TV shows, and more ($4.99/month)
- All our live sports and events, including Winter Olympics, Super Bowl LVI, Premier League, and WWE ($4.99/month)
- Next-day access to current NBC hits ($4.99/month)
- Download and watch select titles offline with Peacock Plus ($9.99/month)
- Watch ad-free with Peacock Plus ($9.99/month!)
2. Paramount+ – $4.99/month
- Watch hundreds of hit shows on demand, exclusive Paramount+ Originals, LIVE sports & breaking news, and hundreds of movies.
- Features a library of more than 20,000 episodes and movies from the ViacomCBS family, including CBS, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, and more.
- Try Paramount+ for FREE HERE!
- After your free trial, memberships start at just $4.99 per month for limited commercials OR $9.99 per month ($99.99 annually) with no commercials. The best part is that you can cancel or change your plan at any time – NO commitment required!
3. Apple TV Plus (Apple TV+) – $6.99/month
- Apple TV+ is a streaming service (similar to Netflix) that features Apple Originals — award-winning series, compelling dramas, groundbreaking documentaries, kids' entertainment, comedies, and more — with new Apple Originals added every month.
- It's completely ad-free!
- Stream across multiple devices.
- You can try it completely Free for 7-days HERE (just $6.99/month afterwards)!
4. Amazon Prime Video – Included with Prime
- 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.
- Bonus: Amazon Prime is also offering a Free trial right now!
5. Netflix – $6.99 to $19.99/month
- My favorite, favorite service for price and selection, but the prices have gone up quite a bit over the years. 🙁
- Watch a large selection of shows, movies and original series on up to 4 screens for a few dollars more (we do this).
- Choose from Basic with ads ($6.99/month), Standard ($15.49/month), or Premium plans ($19.99/month) – watch on any phone, tablet, computer or TV.
- Basic with ads – Good video quality in SD (480p).
- Standard – Great video quality in Full HD (1080p).
- Premium – Their best video quality in Ultra HD (4K) and HDR.
6. Hulu – $6.99 (Skip commercials for $12.99/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
7. Sling TV – Starts at $20/month (Reg. $40)
- 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!)
- Try Sling TV Free + Check out the latest Sling TV promotions here!
8. 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 for 2 weeks HERE (starts at $54.99 for your first 3 months afterwards)!
9. Redbox On Demand (and FREE Live TV!) – No subscription
- With Redbox on Demand streaming service, there are several Free on Demand options or 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
10. 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 under $5.85/month
- Try your first 7 days free HERE!
11. Discovery+ – starts at $4.99/month
- Enjoy instant, unlimited access to more than 55,000 episodes of 2,500+ current and classic shows, including HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and more.
- Includes exclusives and discovery+ Originals – exciting, can’t-miss series and specials.
- Watch award-winning natural history series, including exclusive streaming access to the BBC's largest natural history offering, featuring shows like Planet Earth, Blue Planet and Frozen Planet.
- Features popular shows from A&E, History and Lifetime, including The First 48, Dance Moms, Ice Road Truckers, Married at First Sight, 60 Days In and more.
- Stream on most smartphones, tablets and desktop browsers, and most connected devices, including Amazon Fire TV streaming devices and Amazon Fire TV Edition Smart TVs.
- Try your first 7 days free HERE!
12. Disney+ – $7.99/month
- For $7.99 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 $79.99 – which comes out to a mere $6.66 per month.
- You can also get Disney+, HULU and ESPN + Live Sports for just $12.99/month with ads or $19.99/month without ads! OR just get Disney+ and HULU for just $9.99/month with ads.
Check out our review of Disney+ here!
13. fubo TV – starts at $74.99/month
fuboTV is a little pricier, but it broadcasts live TV over the internet on ANY device, ANY time, ANYwhere and NO cable is required. You can watch your favorite teams, network shows, news and movies on 100+ channels. Plus, access on-demand entertainment including full TV series!
- Watch Your Favorite Shows, Movies & Sports on ANY DEVICE.
- 107+ channels (130+ events in 4K) – including History channel, Hallmark, HGTV, & more!
- Watch and DVR the channels you love ~ NO contracts, NO commitment.
- Prices vary based on your plan and selected add-ons (their most popular plan includes 100+ channels, Cloud DVR, and goes for $64.99 per month).
- Try a Free 7-day trial HERE!
14. Philo – $25/month
Philo offers 60+ channels for $25/month, with Unlimited DVR and NO Contract Required. Plus, Philo offers a 7-day free trial for new users. When you sign up for the free trial here with your cell phone number, no credit card is required at sign up. Here are a few more features of Philo –
- Record an unlimited amount of live or future shows to your DVR and save them for up to 1 year.
- Stream on up to three devices at the same time.
- Create up to ten profiles per account.
- NO contract, so you can cancel or restart your subscription any time you’d like.
There ya have it! 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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I just cut out HuluLive as it was going up and up. And found Freevee with lots of choices.
That’s great! 🙂
I have just discovered FrndlyTV. 30+ channels – plans start at $6.99 up to 10.99 per month.
That’s great Michelle! We’ll have to check that one out.
If you have Spectrum cable you can get Peacock Premium free for one year. If you have Spectrum internet you can get Peacock Premium free for 90 days. I hope this helps someone save some money!
We have Spectrum internet. Do you know how we go about getting this for free?
We need info on great internet providers that are reasonably priced. Can you help?
We are a BIG sports family, mainly football. which of these is better and cheaper for watching College games?
We have Fubo and it is abundant in sports channels.
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! 🙂
Ya i do
something simular. I keep those 2 and hulu. Fyi u can usually get a good deal on hulu for black friday. I use a couple different emails and you can usually qualify for the deal.
Frndly Has all of the Hallmark channels plus a whole lot more.
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.
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.