Cable Conundrum

[TexasHusker]

Cable is $125 per month if you want the "good" channels like the ESPNs.

I watch tons of sports and college football, so $125 a month is cheapo entertainment for me.

We practically never spend money on entertainment outside of our golf club membership, so $125 isn't so bad.

If I downgraded to $75 per month, I'd miss out on a lot of good games.

Now, what DOES irk me is $75 for my internet service. yikes.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I was told that it would be all inclusive around $20 because adding on the cable channels like before worked out to something like $5/month over just the cost of our internet with FIOS. It might be the same now but I haven't looked into it lately. I might do that later this week.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Here is my TV & internet bill, $84 total. I can only speak sports, don't now about cartoons but Sling TV only provides ESPN, doesn't come with Fox sports, FS1, probably not ESPN2, and other college channels. For a sports lover, cable TV is the only way to go. Unless you go the route of MLB TV ($120 for the season), NBA league pass ($150 for the season), not sure if NFL has a season package as well but I'm guessing in the $300 range.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Starter TV (basic TV) for $28 doesn't include ESPN and the other sports channels with Time Warner Cable. Upgrading to the Standard TV for an additional $45.99 does include all the sports channels. Being a sports fan myself the sports channels are a must. I'm using just the digital adapter (not a set top box). The digital adapter doesn't have TV guide, which is an inconvenience. To get the TV guide I'm using the free TWC app on my iphone which display a TV guide. A little inconvenient but saves me $11.75 a month not having to rent a set top box. Also I save a lot by going with the Everyday Low Price (ELP) internet services for $14.99. It is the slowest speed internet service but it works for me. I don't need blazing fast internet for my needs. My TV and internet bill used to be $175 a month combined. I shaved $90 a month off my bill by downgrading.

[sv2007]

So we have internet for $65 a month with the only cable/internet company we have. Can you say monopoly? And we use so many GB of data averaging 200 GB we can't just use cell phones.

So right now we have amazon prime to watch and use an antenna to watch regular shows. But my kids are asking about disney jr and nick jr. They would love to watch shows. We allow 1-2 shows a day, usually one in morning and one in the afternoon before dinner. Otherwise the TV isn't on. DH and I barely have time to watch tv so we usually turn on TV maybe 1 show a night if that. DH does like to watch sports and with the antenna he's got trouble catching all channels. We have the best flat antenna out there for "cord cutters".

Anyway a friend suggested SlingTV for watching disney jr but it's $25/month. $20 for slingtv and $5 for kids package. But I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper for us to just get a regular cable box for $25/month then we'd have local channels and stuff like TBS, USA, Disney/Nick jr etc for the same price?

We wouldn't have to worry about streaming? The question right now isn't should we spend the $25/month, because I think we're coming around to indulging the kids a little. Cost less than buying the stupid shows on amazon. But what's the most cost efficient way?

My friends who are getting slingtv do it out of principal because it cost them the same as regular cable but they hate the cable company and won't give them a penny more than internet. Because I said $25/month is as much as adding cable and they said they had run the numbers and it's about the same honestly.

Thoughts? Experiences? Cutting our internet can't happen and we're stuck with only one company providing service.

Wow 200GB /month. That's just amazing to me.... unless you've got teenagers in the house

Anyway, I hate cable internet (but it's the cheapest at $55/month regular price). All other internet options are wireless and cost more than $55/month. Recently, my speical ran out (every 6 months), so I called Comcast and got another special for $35/month.

I.e. just call your cable company, chances are you don't have to pay full price.