Cutting the Cord: How I finally did it

For the last 10 years (10 years and 10 days to be exact), I've had a cable and internet provider at my house; from Comcast (now xfinity) to RCN and now Verizon FiOS. I've paid large amounts of cash out to these three companies with varying levels of service usage - at times being away from the house so much within a month that I literally could have suspended service for that month and saved the money. Since the beginning of this year I've toyed with the idea of "cutting the cord", the new trend in not only cost savings but also convenience for customers. I did tons and tons of research before finally deciding to pull the trigger. I decided that the best course of action was to do the following:

1. Completely turn off cable service
2. Increase the internet speed to a usable level for home and work activities
3. Create a solution that minimized contract obligations
4. Create a solution that required minimal effort to use
5. Create a solution that maximized my service value and my savings

Taking a step back, here is a breakdown of my monthly costs for services as of January 1, 2016:

$271.24 per month on services that I barely used (with the exception of the internet that, because I work from home 100%, I used quite frequently). $3254.88 per year! That had to stop. Looking at my setup prior to any changes, you'll see everything (TV, Internet, and Phone) was dependent on Verizon:

The most expensive component of that was the cable. Researching OTA (Over the Air) HD options, I came across the Mohu Sky 60 TV Antenna, which has a 60 mile range for pulling in OTA signals in clear HD. Once mounted (details to follow), I was able to pull in 77 HD channels (only 7 channels were blank or offline) from my house just outside of Philadelphia, PA! Through the rest of my research on signal loss, I figured that I would need to amplify the signal to transmit it throughout the house. Although it came with an amplifier, I purchased two amplifiers (2-Port Bi-Directional Cable TV HDTV Amplifier Splitter Signal Booster and 8-Port Bi-Directional Cable TV HDTV Amplifier Splitter Signal Booster) for a total of $220.73. The antenna is an outdoor antenna that can also be mounted in the attic, which is where I mounted it. The cable connections start in my basement three levels down, so the 2-Port splitter was mounted in the attic to boost the signal going to the basement, and the 8-Port splitter was located in the basement to boost the signal going back throughout the house:

Attic Setup: Mohu Sky 60 TV Antenna, 2-Port Amplifier, Cable jack to basement and power supply for the 2-Port Amplifier

Basement Setup: 8-Port Amplifier

(Note: Out of its normal place in order to take the picture)

A few things to note:

• I will be moving my office up to the finished attic and mounting a TV on the wall, which will use the now unused 2nd port on the amp.
• The amps are powered using normal coaxial cables (the wires you use to connect to cable boxes, TVs, etc.).
• It's important to label the wires in your house so that you know which cable wire goes to which room. I did this prior to disconnecting the Verizon service by turning on all of the TVs and then disconnecting each wire to see where the cable stopped working at. For the rooms without TVs I plugged in my internet router and noted whether the coax cable light was on. Then I disconnected a cable until the light went off. Then reconfirmed it came back on when the wire was plugged in.
• I tested the quality of the signal by removing the amplifiers from the connection. With just the attic amplifier no signal was received. The distance was too great to get a quality signal from the attic, into the basement and back throughout the house. With just the basement amplifier I received signals, but not at many channels were found (50+).

Now that the setup for OTA HD channels was done, I had to look at possibilities for other non-OTA HD channels. Through my research I came across SlingTV. Sling offers a $20 package (Sling Orange) with 30 channels, a $25 package (Sling Blue) with 45 channels and a $40 package (Sling Orange + Blue) with 50 channels:

Also, because I love to watch my sports, Sling has an add-on package, Sports Extra, for $10 per month:

RedZone Channel! Yay!!!

Depending on your viewing style Sling has a number of packages for you to add on. Sling works on a number of devices. I've viewed Sling on my FireTV, iPhone and Windows-based computer (you can view on 3 simultaneous devices at a time with the Sling Blue package, only 1 device with the Orange package):

So here is my new setup:

OTA HD and SlingTV supply TV service (note: internet is require for SlingTV) and Verizon supplies the internet (upgraded from 75/75 to 100/100 speed) and phone (I need to fax).

So, let's get down to brass tax; how much does all this cost and how much does doing all of this actually save me? If you look at the data below you'll see that by the end of next year I will have saved $1000!:

Net Standard: The difference between the costs for that month versus the cost I was paying monthly on January 1, 2016.
Net Savings: The rolling difference between the total costs I would be paying since January 1, 2016 if I had changed nothing and the total cost paid through that month with the changes.

A few notes:

• September was the month I purchased the equipment for the cut the cord initiative.
• October is the month I started the subscription to SlingTV. They were running a special where you would get a discounted Apple TV (the latest one) if you prepaid for 3 month of service. Because of that I do not have to pay for Sling in November and December, so my costs drop way low those two months before leveling out to it's normal level for all of 2017.
• I won’t be actually saving money (compared to if I did not change anything) until February of 2017 because of the equipment I purchased and the prepay package; but those are the upfront costs of cutting the cord.

Here is a chart that shows the services cost:

Note the bumps in cost in September and October and the drop for November and December before leveling out in 2017.

Here is a chart that shows the Total Monthly Costs, the Net Costs and Net Savings:

So there it is. This is how I cut the cord and will save $1000 by the end of next year; $1200 annually. A few notes:

• SlingTV is a month to month service that can be stopped anytime. I can go totally OTA HD and save another $53 per month just by cutting that service.
• SlingTV's Sports Extra package can be removed anytime saving $10 per month.
• For certain series on HBO and Starz that we watch, HBO and Starz can be added to the Sling account for $15 and $9 per month, respectively; with the ability to stop them anytime.
• The Verizon internet/phone package price is locked for two years.

I'd love to hear other stories and compare how others cut the cord and compare savings. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions and your story on cutting the cord!