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Are you interested in saving money on your tv entertainment by cutting the cord? We had been exploring the idea for months, but never could find the right mix of devices and streaming services to satisfy our entertainment needs.

Finally, at the beginning of this year, we decided to cancel cable and go with a combination of YouTube TV and Philo. This change has saved us ~$60/month (~$720/year) and provides more features and entertainment options than our local cable provider.

Please keep reading to learn how we saved money on TV entertainment by cutting the cord.

Best Streaming Media Player – Roku Ultra

Before starting our streaming service comparison, we decided to purchase a streaming media player, so that we can try out each service. After reading reviews and talking to friends, family, and coworkers, we decided to purchase a Roku Ultra. I love this thing! The remote is simple to use, the device is very responsive and I have yet to have a problem with it. Roku has access to pretty much any streaming service and I was able to use it paired alongside our Xbox One S. Here’s the one we currently use:

Cable Versus Streaming Service Comparisons

To start, we first looked at what parts of our cable package we currently watched. For us, this was mostly sports channels, local broadcast channels, Lifetime and Hallmark.

Then we researched the streaming services that contained the channels we were hoping to replace in our cable package. For us, this ended up being a combination of YouTube TV and Philo (if you’re interested in Philo, you can receive $5 off by clicking through this link).

We tried other streaming services like Sling TV, fuboTV, Hulu, and frndly TV as part of this process as well to see if we liked any of them more, but ultimately went with YouTube TV and Philo because of the price, selection, and unlimited DVR feature with YouTube TV.

After picking the streaming services that had what we wanted, we compared the prices to our current cable provider. Even with the increase in internet cost for not bundling with cable, we still saw an immediate savings of ~$60/month.

Negotiating with the Cable Company

We called the cable company to talk to their “retention” department to discuss what programs were currently available for reducing our cable bill. We’ve had Time Warner Cable and Comcast offer discounts in the past, but this particular provider chose not to offer any kind of promotions or other discounts to retain us.

Cutting the Cord and Ditching Cable

After all of that, we called up the cable company and notified them that we would be canceling our cable, but retaining our internet. I dropped off the equipment the next day. It was painless and only took about 15 minutes.

How We Saved Money on TV by Cutting the Cord – Conclusion

We cut the cord the beginning of January 2020 and I wish we would have done it sooner. The service has been better than what we had with cable and the ~$60/month ($720/year) in savings makes a difference in our monthly household budget.

If you haven’t already, I would recommend you at least explore the possibility of cutting the cord because it has the potential to save you significant money on your television entertainment budget for the year.

Have you or are you considering cutting the cord? What streaming services do you have or are you considering?

Related: How to Watch Your Favorite Premium Shows Using Free Trials

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