Cord Cutting For Dummies

Chapter 10

Ten Ways to Save Money in a Cord-Free World

IN THIS CHAPTER

Scaling down your hardware and Internet

Reducing your subscriptions

Getting (a little) money back on streaming fees

Learning savvy subscription strategies to save big bucks

You might not have many nice things to say about the cable company, but you have to give cable its due when it comes to simplicity: You get a set number of channels for a fixed monthly fee. Done and done. Sure, that so-called fixed fee started high and seemed to get higher all too often, but at least you knew what you were paying month to month.

You can replicate that simplicity when you cut the cord. For example, you can elect to watch just over-the-air TV, which gives you a fixed monthly “fee” of precisely zero dollars. Or you can elect to go with a single subscription, whether it’s a streaming service such as Netflix or a cable replacement service such as Hulu + Live TV.

It's more likely, however, that your cord-free experience is going to be more complex and, in general, the greater the complexity, the greater the monthly expense. Although ...