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TV watching habits range wildly from person to person but almost everyone can save money on their Satellite or Cable television bill.
A quick call to your provider might save you money without changing your channel lineup. Most of the large Cable and Satellite firms have trained customer services representatives to respond to the customer question "I'm looking to cut back my monthly expenses, how can you help?" They sometimes have surprising options that are not generally advertised that allow for savings on monthly television services.
You can also call your provider and simply threaten to cancel your business. This will send them into retention mode and you can usually negotiate for better services or even in a reduction of the fee for your current services. They will often offer free months or recurring discounts.
You can take matters into your own hands and analyze your habits and cut back your channel lineup in intelligent ways. Premium cannels are a great place to start. Analyze your viewing habits and determine how many premium programs you actually watch and what types of programs you watch. Cutting the HBO/Showtime package alone can often save you $20/month.
Modern Movie Renting
If you primarily have premium channels for viewing movies, consider renting. Renting movies is more convenient than in times past. You can, of course, still go to a brick and mortar rental place like Blockbuster and rent movies as you always have. However, there are also new options. Many newer companies like Redbox now rent new release movies from automated kiosks for $1. You can walk up to a kiosk or you can rent the movie online ahead of time.
Most people have had the experience of being excited about a particular new release, only to arrive at the video store to find all of the copies already rented out. The online kiosk rental has the advantage of searching through the entire inventory of any kiosk without actually having to drive to the kiosk and look. Also renting online guarantees that the movie is there and waiting when you arrive at the kiosk - you've paid for it so nobody can rent it out from under you while you drive to the kiosk. After you're finished viewing, you can generally return the movie to any kiosk regardless of which kiosk originally rented you the movie. You can even return movies to kiosks in different cities or states making it idea for traveling.
Renting Media Via U.S. Mail
Some rental services like Netflix or Blockbuster provide DVD rentals through the U.S. Mail. Different pricing packages let you tailor your costs by how many movies you think you will watch in a month and how many movies you need to have at a time. Both services have unlimited rental plans for less than $20/month. They also have distribution points throughout the country so that movies often arrive the day after you request them. Netflix also has the popular option of streaming many of their movies (over 12,000) live from the Internet instantly, without commercial interruption or advertising on the screen.
Purchasing Your Programming
If you have HBO not for the movies but for their original programming like ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm', then you have fewer options. However, consider this: You can purchase the entire Curb Your Enthusiasm Collection (Seasons 1-6) on DVD for about $100. So if you can live without HBO for 5 months, you can offset the purchase of the entire Curb Your Enthusiasm collection! Almost all original programming releases past episodes on DVD you can purchase. You can also rent most of these releases with the Netflix and Blockbuster services discussed above.
Stream Your TV From The Networks Directly
Network programming is another service that most people can live without more easily than they realize. Many of the large networks allow you to watch full episodes directly from their websites CBS.com, ABC.com, NBC.com. You can usually watch previously aired episodes and sometimes watch content that never actually aired with the regularly scheduled episode. These online network shows usually have commercials but they are often shorter than the commercials in the regularly aired episodes.
