Cutting Down Your Cable Bill Significantly

Planning & Saving
on May 25, 2012
In the past, the only way you could watch most of the shows you want to live close to it one of the most expensive cable subscriptions and then pay your bill religiously every month. Luckily, today you have some other options to consider that can save you quite a bit of money on your cable bill. If you feel like you’re paying too much money in cable expenses, consider using some of these techniques to reduce or eliminate your cable costs. Get Rid of the Premium Channels

One of the biggest things that people waste money on is paying for premium channel subscriptions. Do you currently pay for HBO, Cinemax, Showtime or any of those other premium movie channels? What about any premium sports subscriptions for extra channels that allow you to watch more games? If you want to save money on your cable bill, consider cutting these things out. Most people are so busy that they never have time to watch the primary channels like networks and the other basic cable channels. Very few people have enough time to watch premium cable channels on top of those. If you are subscribing to these channels, do you ever actually watch them? Many people pay an extra $30 to $50 per month for these premium channels and rarely watch them. Consider cutting them out and you’ll be able to save quite a bit of money on a regular basis. Stop Buying Movies

Another way that people waste money on cable is to purchase on-demand movies. With this technology, you can find a movie with the help of your remote and then purchase it. The movie is then available for you to watch right then. The problem with renting movies in this manner is that they are typically quite expensive. You could pay anywhere between $4 and $8 for an on-demand movie rental.

By comparison, you could rent a movie from Redbox for about $1. You could even use one of the online streaming services and watch as many movies as you want for only a few dollars per month. Many people get in the habit of getting on-demand movies because they don’t have to come up with the money right then and there. Then when they get their monthly cable bill, they get a big surprise. Cut down on the unnecessary on-demand purchases, and you will cut down on your cable bill.

Ditch the Cable Completely

Another option is to completely ditch the cable subscription. Does this mean that you’re not going to be able to watch your favorite shows or live sports anymore? In reality, you can get most everything that you watch for free if you have an Internet connection.

First, purchase an antenna for your TV. This will allow you to get over the air television channels for free. This gives you access to all of the network shows that you want to watch, which are where over 80 percent of the shows that people DVR come from.

Then get a subscription to PlayOn on your computer. This is a media player that compiles many different online videos from various sources and then sends them to your TV. You pick up the signal for your TV with a device such as an Xbox 360, PS3, Wii or Roku. This makes it possible for you to get access to all of the videos from network websites and from services like Netflix, Hulu Plus or Amazon Prime.

With this setup, you can get pretty much everything you could ever want to watch streamed to your TV for almost no cost to you. This even gives you access to many different kinds of sports programming through channels like ESPN3. You can even download a plugin for PlayOn that makes it possible to stream channels to your TV live instead of having to get the videos after they have been uploaded to the Internet.

With this option, the only cost that you’ll have is the initial subscription to the PlayOn service, any subscriptions for services like Netflix or Hulu Plus and the cost of the device to stream the content to your TV. This might make it so that you have a little bit of initial cost when you get set up. However, after you get started, you will only pay a few dollars per month for Netflix or Hulu Plus. By comparison, this is much cheaper than paying for a full cable or satellite subscription.

Watch Online

Another option to consider is simply watching all of your favorite shows from your computer, smartphone or tablet. With this option, you won’t even have to invest in any hardware to hook up to your TV. If you already have a laptop or mobile device, you can watch from anywhere that has an Internet connection.

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