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Legal Alternatives to Cable TV

11.21.2011 by Matt Jabs //

Cable alternatives for lower bills

Let’s talk about cable alternatives I use to lower my TV bill and give you several ideas to help you lower yours.

Has your new HDTV been more like a money drain than an entertainment unit? I feel your pain. There seems to be no end to the accessory products & services you have to buy to “complete your HD experience.”

I’m at a place in life where I’m ready to sacrifice my wants for the greater good of becoming debt free. I’m not sure where you are in your journey, but one thing’s for sure – the more you separate yourself from the plague of consumerism, the more freedom you stand to gain. It may seem like you are sacrificing at first, but as time passes you will undoubtedly see your “sacrifices” turn into blessings! Not only financially, but also in many other areas of your life.

There are a few things to consider before you can start saving on your TV bills. Here are the highs & lows my wife & I had to go through before we ended up finally lowering ours for good.

Alternatives to cable TV – Our situation

Regarding television sets, things were going just fine for my wife & I. We had two TVs in the house, everything a nice young couple could ask for really. In the living room there was a very nice (& heavy) 27″ Samsung cathode ray tube set that did everything a good TV should. In the bedroom we had a little 13″ cathode ray tube TV perfect for watching on 30 minute sleep timer while dozing off for the night. No, we didn’t have the latest & greatest, but did have exactly what we needed. Until…

I’m not sure exactly when Bizarro Matt kicked in, but before I knew it I found myself on the way to ABC Warehouse to “check out” the new flat panel HD television sets. In my mind I knew I wanted a flat HD plasma or LCD TV, but honestly had very little intention of actually buying one that day! As I was walking through the store the idea of going home with a brand new $1,900 Panasonic seemed like less & less of a bad idea. Before I knew it, I had one in the back of my Jeep Cherokee and was heading home to “surprise” the wife!

After hashing out the pros & cons of the purchase we were on the phone with Comcast to cancel the basic cable package to make way for a brand new HD/DVR service from DirecTV. The existing basic cable/Internet package with Comcast was costing us around $85/month. After canceling the cable TV, keeping the Comcast Internet, and signing up with DirecTV the total amount we were paying reached a peak of $150 in January of 2009. The high amount was due in part to the extra costs I needed to incur to enjoy the HD & DVR capabilities my new TV offered. In early February I contemplated the option to cancel my TV service but never pulled the trigger. In late March I decided to call DirecTV to lower my TV bill and ended up shaving off $20, which was better than nothing. After a few bad experiences with DirecTV I canceled and went back to the Comcast basic package. Then – finally – in October of 2010 I canceled our service altogether and began my quest for cable alternatives.

Our chosen alternative to cable TV

Finances were not the only reason that led us to rid our lives of television service. Both my wife & I were fed up with the incessant commercials and endless materialism being shoved down our throats. Since canceling, we can more clearly see how the rampant consumerism was affecting our daily lives. We are happy we canceled, and encourage you to do the same. You’ll get more done and you’ll save more money.

I kept the Comcast Internet service to run my websites, but am saving $76 every month by no longer paying for television service.

Alternatives to cable TV for you

I will order these solutions by levels of effectiveness:

Cancel your television service altogether – C’mon…just do it! You won’t regret it. This is your best option for the highest reduction in costs. Shutting of our DirecTV saved my wife & I $76/month. Besides saving you money, canceling your TV service will also free up enough time for you to develop a few money making hobbies you are passionate about! You will not believe how productive you can be until you shut off your TV service. The next few solutions are things that my wife & I also do in lieu of a television service.
Buy a digital antenna – With the digital switch coming soon you must use a digital antenna to receive a signal. You can purchase either an indoor or an outdoor antenna that enables you to receive free local “over the air” digital programming. Indoor antennas are cheaper and seem to work fine, this is the route my wife & I took. They usually range between $15 and $60. Here is the indoor digital antenna I recommend, it’s only $36 and has been highly rated by nearly 400 on Amazon.
Purchase a Netflix streaming video plan – I would only advise this if you have an XBox 360 with an active XBox Live subscription, or some other Netflix Watch Instantly plan. We subscribe to the $16/month plan, but Netflix has cheaper options yet.
Watch TV over the Internet – We now watch some of our favorite shows on the same laptop I’m typing up this blog post. NBC.com offers all its shows over the Internet as soon as they have aired. Other network sites include: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, A&E, Discovery Channel, HGTV, Lifetime, MTV, and even PBS. Other sites offering up free view are: Hulu.com, Boxee.com, YouTube.com, along with lesser knowns like ChannelChooser.com, TVChannelsFree.com, and WatchTVChannels.net.
Call your service providers – Use my tips on speaking to Customer Service Reps to get your bill lowered. This has saved me a lot of money over the last 5 months. One Comcast rep even told me that I can continually take advantage of their 6 month promotion prices by simply calling every 6 months. With this tip, a lot of your success rides on how well you get along with the CSR so make sure you use my tips
Lower your television plan to the lowest they offer – Make sure you figure out the “after tax” and “after features added” price though, for example. DirecTV offered a plan for $29.99/month that turned out to cost $45/month after HD & DVR capabilities along with taxes were added. I know Comcast offers a plan my wife & I call “welfare cable” that gives you a few basic channels for around $15/month.
Bundle your services – We did this for the first six months we lived in our new home, but after awhile I grew tired of Comcast’s TV service, so I switched to DirecTV. Doing this cost me in the long run. Bundled service will lower the cost of your television, Internet, and now even your phone services.

A few extra tips to make/save some money

Sell your HDTV – if you do cancel our TV service you may want to get rid that HDTV altogether. If you are to go this route make sure you don’t sell it for pennies on the dollar; if you’re going to do that you may be better off just keeping it.
If you must purchase an HDTV go with LCD – LCD TVs use way way way way way way way less power to run them, which will save you a lot of money over the long haul

Using all or any combination of the above techniques will help you lower your TV bills!

MTV,

Help When Overwhelmed by Personal Finances – DFA Tip of the Week – 4/13/2009

04.13.2009 by Matt Jabs //

There are many ways to reduce costs in our every day lives, so to help do just that each Monday I will post a money saving “Tip of the Week”.

“And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” Luke 19:17

This weeks tip involves…Getting Started. I want you to consider the following quote, then read the rest of this article. By the end you should be well equipped to get started on your very own Debt Free Adventure!

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!” ~Lao Tzu

The Trap…

All of this Personal Finance business can be overwhelming! Debt repayment vs. Reduce Monthly Bills vs. Saving & Investing, etc. While all of these topics require your necessary attention, it is important that you do not focus on everything all at once. You need to start somewhere, so here are a few tricks you can employ to get yourself started without falling into the trap of idleness.

Tips to Avoid the Trap…

To get your finances in order break them down into the 3 following main groups:

Debt Repayment – Make a simple list of all the “consumer debt” you have including auto loans, credit cards, department store cards, student loans. Write down each debt, how much you pay toward it each month, and then add the debt of each up to come up with your total debt amount.
Monthly Expenses – Write down all your monthly bills and how much each costs you per month (if amounts vary, come up with a guesstimate average).
Savings and/or Investment Accounts – Make a list of all your savings accounts and investment accounts and write down how much you contribute toward each.

Once you have the above completed you are REALLY CLOSE to having created your very own budget! That is the next step…finish these steps to complete your budget:

Write down your monthly income – Do not budget weekly, bi-weekly, or any other way…budget monthly. Write down how much monthly income you have from all sources.
Write down all outgoing expenses – In a 2nd section, copy the information you compiled above regarding your monthly debt & expense costs and jot them all down and subtract them all from your income.
Add any other expenses – You may have forgotten to write down groceries, gasoline, etc. Figure any other expenses you have each month and add them to your “outgoing expenses” section to arrive at the total amount you spend each month.

Now that you have your first rough draft budget done, go celebrate by eating a cookie, dancing the jig, or doing anything else to express the joy you feel that comes from getting started on the path toward financial freedom! When you are done dancing and eating dessert, look over you budget one last time to make sure you didn’t forget anything. Ask your spouse to proof-read it as an additional check to see if you have left anything out.

Now commit to the following…

Now that you have your budget, you have your expenses, debt, income, & savings all written down and can start to wrangle everything in. Commit to the following:

Give 10% to the Lord – Read my Testimony to the Tithe and see how the Lord promises to bless you if you give, but also promises your indebtedness will continue if you do not.
Contribute any amount to savings automatically – Transfer any amount, no matter how small, into your savings each month. Even if it is just $20/month, make a promise to yourself that you will pay yourself that $20 instead of paying it in interest to some big bank. Try to make this an automatic thing. I HIGHLY recommend switching your banking to Capital One 360 to make all this easier. Read about how I use Capital One 360 for debt repayment and emergency fund savings…and remember…this is all spoken from personal experience!
Reduce your monthly expenses – follow my advice and work to reduce each of your monthly expenses, but do so one at a time. Commit to calling one service provider a week to see about either switching, reducing your plan, or discontinuing that service altogether if possible.
Tweak your budget – Your budget is a “living document” and should be given attention on a weekly basis. Think about how you can reallocate your money after you reduce your monthly bills as we discussed above. Continue to contribute more and more toward your debt repayment, and I advise you to focus the majority of your funds on this until your debt is greatly reduced. Once your debt is considerably lower, begin contributing more toward your savings each month. I currently employ a 75/25 plan where 75% of my available funds go toward debt repayment and 25% go toward savings. Do what works for you, but again…I urge you to focus the majority on debt repayment!

Follow these simple steps to get started and remember to break tasks into their respective groups and tackle things one at a time.

Memorize the following quote:

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!” ~Lao Tzu

Click here to see all our past DFA Tips of the Week.

5 Minutes to Lower Monthly Bills – DFA Tip of the Week – 3/30/2009

03.30.2009 by Matt Jabs //

There are many ways to reduce costs in our everyday lives, so to help do just that each Monday I will post a money saving “Tip of the Week”.

“And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” Luke 19:17

This week’s tip involves…saving money on monthly bills by simply calling & asking for a price reduction!

How much it saved me…

I started with Comcast and DirecTV whom I have for Internet & television providers respectively. The reason I use both companies is a little complicated. Originally I had Comcast for both Internet and television, but was not happy with being changed an arm & a leg for service, so I decided to switch to DirecTV. Since DTV did not provide Internet service and because DSL is not offered in my new subdivision, I had to keep using Comcast for Internet. Regarding television, I skeptically entered into a 2 year contract with DirecTV because I didn’t really have a lot of other options.

Now over a year after all my shifting around of services I was paying $63.95/month to Comcast for Internet along with $75/month to DirecTV for television – and so there went my other arm & my other leg. Being armless & legless was making it quite difficult to get around so I finally decided to get off my lazy butt (pun intended), and make the calls to demand better prices!! I did just that and ended up getting my Comcast bill reduced to $37.99/month and my DTV bill down to $55 creating an additional $46/month for me to put into my savings!

Now I’m just going to buy an HDTV digital antenna and get TV for free!

Use these tips when calling…

The CSR’s (Customer Service Reps) are trained to try to dissuade you from your dream of reduced expenses so I will now give you a few pointers in dealing with them:

Maintain an excellent spirit when dealing with the CSR – The old adage, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” is quite true. Just think of how you would like to be addressed then give the CSR the same respect and courtesy.
Maintain separation between the CSR and the company itself – This is quite a successful tactic that I have not ever heard anyone else mention. Basically you want to create a distinction between the CSR and the company they work for. This allows you to voice your displeasure with the company, while not attributing any of the displeasure to the person you are dealing with on the phone. For example instead of saying, “You are charging me too much for Internet“, say something like…”I am just really unhappy with how much Comcast is charging me for service, especially with all the other options out there.“
Get the CSR to empathize with your situation – Now that you have created that separation between the CSR and the company they work for, you are better able to place them in your situation. Say to them, “What would you do if you were me?” Or simply, “How would you feel if you were in my shoes?“
Use the company’s competitor’s prices and services against them – If you use Comcast for Internet, talk about the low prices AT&T is offering on residential DSL service with similar speeds. Say to them, “I will stay with Comcast if they can match AT&T’s prices, otherwise I’m going to have cancel and go with AT&T. I mean, what would you do if you were in my shoes?“
Be willing to discontinue the service – Ultimately if you are not truly willing to leave your current provider, you will be less authoritative and they will be less likely to oblige you. Make sure before making this decision you discuss it with your wife and/or family. Be sure to explain the alternatives, and also key on possible benefits of cancelling the service altogether.
Be confident and persistent – Just as you are much more likely to listen to someone who delivers a confident and meaningful argument, so the CSR will be too. Before you call, make a plan of action. Write down the reasons why you need the price reduced along with price quotes from several other providers. If you are prepared and resolved, the CSR will have a hard time denying your request…it worked for me!!

I saved $46/month doing this…how much did you save by employing these tips? Make sure to let us know by leaving a comment below.

Have you already successfully gotten your prices reduced by calling? Let us know about that too.

Click here to see all our past DFA Tips of the Week.