Over the last five blog posts, I’ve detailed my changes as I cut the cord. Here is the list of changes, and you’ll quickly see what prompted the commitment to make drastic alterations to my setup, mostly triggered by conversations with a few key friends and family members who got me thinking about alternatives, even though many of them haven’t done this yet themselves!
The other posts give you the details, blow by blow, etc. This just shows the bottomline. How much did I save?
- Internet: From Rogers to TekSavvy, same basic setup, slightly less than “unlimited” but faster speeds, $80 a month to $55 a month, $200 in hardware, $100 saved in first year, $300 saved ongoing;
- TV: From Rogers to Kodi, streaming through internet instead of cable box, much more manual, $85 a month to $0 per month, $300 in hardware the first year, $700 saved the first year, $1000 saved ongoing;
- Home phone: From Rogers to Ooma, VOIP instead of landline, slightly reduced quality, $40 a month to only $4 a month, $125 for hardware, $325 saved this year, $450 saved ongoing;
- Cellular: Stayed with Rogers, tweaked package, better service, no change in cost; and,
- Internet hosting: From Netfirms to GreenGeeks, same or better service, $15 a month to $5 a month, no hardware costs, saved $120 per year ongoing.
Where does that leave me? I saved $25+$85+$36+10 = $156 per month. Which equates to $1872 a year. This first year, I spent another $625 in hardware so I’m only saving $1250 the first year, but that’s not chicken scratch. I’ll take either number. And, more importantly, most of the services are only slight downgrades from the previous option, or actual improvements in service.
I honestly had no idea I could save that much without sacrificing the farm to do it. The TV part was the major part for me, more so than for the family, but the replacement options work just fine. Particularly when it costs me $1800 less per year.
