How to Save On Your Bills: Cable/Internet

Did you know that the average household monthly cable bill in America is $217 dollars? According to DecisionData.org, that amount now exceeds the average cost for all other major household utilities (electricity, gas, water, sewage, garbage).

What that tells me is that the average American cares more about watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians than it does about heating their homes. That's a scary thought.

At the rate of $217 per month, the average household spends more than $2,600 per year on cable television. That amount of money could buy you a cheap vehicle or probably even feed you for the year if you're a single person.

That's just considering the cable, what about internet? According to Move.org, the average internet bill is $60 per month.

All told, you're looking at an average of $277 per month just for entertainment, news and posting your latest moment on TikTok.

There have to be ways to save on those cable and internet bills though. If you're looking to trim the fat from the cable and internet bill, keep reading.

1. Review your bill

This one seems obvious. But with so many people setting up automatic payments on every bill, make sure you're taking a detailed look at every bill. Start with cable and internet.

There are always surcharges for services and equipment tacked on. Review those charges to see if there are any that you can remove. The biggest one is the internet modem.

Providers will charge between 8 and 10 dollars per month for you to rent a modem from them. That's between 96 and 120 dollars per year just to use their equipment.

A quick way to save is to buy your own equipment. This way, your equipment can go anywhere with you should you move, and as long as you maintain cable internet you have the equipment to connect to. Here's a cost-effective option from Netgear.

The total cost of that modem/router is $74, so after month 10 of service you'll have paid for the equipment and then be saving a couple of dollars per month on your bill as long as you maintain service.

You might be able to check with your provider as well to see if there are any incentives that you aren't utilizing. Things like AutoPay usually knock a few dollars off of your monthly bill, where applicable.

2. Update Your Service Level

According to CableTV.com, the average cable package comes with 237 channels. You can watch anything from the evening news to news about chimpanzees in China.

However, do you really need that many channels to watch? I'm a fan of Bruce Springsteen and on his 1992 album, Human Touch, he opined about having 57 Channels But Nothing On. How many times can you really surf the stations to find something to watch?

Your biggest savings will come from trimming down the number of channels you receive.

What if you can trim that cost down to $0 and still be able to watch Sunday afternoon NFL games, the evening news, morning news and a wide variety of the day's best dramas and sitcoms?

You could take the approach of cord cutting, but that might feel a bit extreme. How about cord trimming as an approach. Cut your cable back to just the locals, or the traditional basic package. That can cut your bill in half right away, possibly more.

For your internet package, you can effectively do the same thing. If you are spending your time browsing Facebook, checking email, and occasionally FaceTiming with your family and friends, you don't need the 500 MBPS plan that costs you an arm and a leg.

Look at your usage and scale your internet plan accordingly. You can probably get away with a 50 MBPS or 100 MBPS per month plan and see no loss in speed for what you are doing. This can save between $10 and $50 per month if you're on a maximum level high-speed plan.

3. Cutting the Cord

Information overload is a huge concern in 2020, and there are a plethora of choices for where you decide to get your information.

While it may feel extreme at first, cutting the cord might not be the worst possible solution when you look down and see the money that stays in your pocket.

If you living in a non-remote area, there's a strong chance you can get over the air television via an antenna. If you're in an urban area, you can get upwards of 50 channels with just an antenna.

An high-quality antenna will cost you approximately $75, to pick up channels within 60 miles. A quality antenna is the Mohu Leaf and this specific model is $60 and gets channels within 60 miles.

If you're curious about what channels you can expect to receive, visit AntennaWeb and put your address in place to see how many channels you can receive.

This is an option that pays for itself in days, and will show you an incredible savings on a monthly basis.

You can even purchase an over the air DVR to record television shows for watching at a later time.

If you have high-speed internet, you have other options for entertainment. There's Amazon Prime Video (free if you're a Prime Member), Hulu, Netflix and a wide range of other choices. You can add a few services to get everything you want and need, while saving a decent chunk of change over your current cable bill.

There are even options for watching television for free online. Options like YouTube, NBC's PeacockTV and PlutoTV provide you with plenty of entertainment options for no cost. All you have to do is be willing to sit through a few ads.

Just beware that if you choose to watch television over the internet, you'll want to make sure you have an internet connection speed that can support that use.

Check back with us later in the week for more handy advice on how to save on your monthly bills.