If you’re like most Americans, you probably spend way too much money each month on cable TV. But there’s a simple solution: cut the cord and watch your favorite shows online. Cord cutting is becoming more and more popular, and for good reason. Not only are there a ton of great streaming services out there, but cutting the cord also saves you a lot of money. Here are five ways to save money by cutting the cord:

  1. Watch Your Favorite Shows Online One of the best ways to save money by cutting the cord is to watch your favorite shows online instead of paying for cable TV. There are a ton of great streaming services out there, including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and CBS All Access. You can also watch many shows on CBS’s website for free if you have an account with them.
  2. Cut the Cord and Save on Your Phone Bills Another way to save money by cutting the cord is to cut your phone bill in half by switching to a cheaper plan. There are tons of cheap phone plans available now that don’t include any sort of contract or commitment. You can also use apps like FreedomPop or Republic Wireless to get cheap phone plans without signing any contracts or having any monthly fees.
  3. Stream Shows Offline Instead of Paying for Cable TV Subscriptions One downside to streaming shows online is that you can’t always watch them when they’re airing live. That’s where cable TV subscriptions come in handy: you can usually watch them whenever you want without having to worry about commercials or waiting for episodes to air on television later on down the line (assuming you have cable). However, if you’re willing to stream shows offline instead of paying for cable TV subscriptions, that can also be another way to save money on your monthly bill! Just make sure that you have an internet connection capable of streaming offline videos so that you don’t lose any quality footage when doing so ..

One of the recurrent themes in reader comments and one, we must admit, we didn’t expect to see with such prevalence, was the number of people who had ditched cable for over-the-air HD broadcasts. Fantasm writes:

Grant uses a combination of streaming services and, like Fantasm, manages to pull in HD content with a nice antenna setup:

Geoff uses an array of devices hooked up to streaming services to get his media fix:

Things we really miss from satellite: Discovery Channel, Science Channel, History Channel, BBC America (OK only really Top Gear) and Cartoon Network. There is no shortage of things to watch, but there are a few things we want to see that we cannot. The bill is enough less, though, that it is worth it.

The closest city is only about 60,000 people, and that is almost 20 miles away, but I still get over 40 channels from 4 different states with a really big antenna, some of them from 109 miles away.

Reading through the comments one thing becomes abundantly clear: between the introduction of over-the-air digital broadcasts and streaming internet video sources, fewer people than ever feel the need to keep $100+ cable packages. Hit up the full discussion thread for more comments.