Not too happy with your last television entertainment bill? We’ve all found ourselves there a time or two!
You sign up for these awesome entertainment packages only to receive a bill that still seems to be way over your original budget.
While it could be a matter of additional services you’ve chosen or essentially the fact that your promotional offer has run out, paying even a few pounds each month over budget is money down the drain.
One of my favourite way these days is to watch television programmes via the internet on my laptop. I still have to pay for my television licence or streaming networks subscriptions, but having fast speed optimum internet makes watching my programmes much more convenient than on a traditional television set.
The good news, there are plenty of ways that you can cut back your spending in this area without too many adjustments to your household entertainment needs.
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1. Sign Up for a New Offer
Many cable and satellite providers now offer consumers the opportunity to sign up for package offers that do not require a contract of any kind. Ideally what this means is that you’re entitled to a certain amount for the term of the offer and you’re not obligated to sign up for a one or two year contract.
This is ultimately one way in which you can save money. Every time your promotional offer is nearing an end, start shopping around for offers that can save you even more money. You can easily contact your television service provider and ask them to switch the package for you.
2. Bundle Your television Services
Another option you have to save even more money would be to bundle your services. Both cable and satellite providers offer consumers the ability to bundle their home phone, internet, and television subscriptions.
This means that you’re getting three types of services for one low monthly fee. Many of these bundle offers are designed to save you more money than if you had purchased all three services separately.
3. Switch Your Television Package
If you have all the latest premium and sports channels through your television provider, you may want to consider downgrading your package. You can easily review your service provider’s website to see which packages are available to still accommodate some of your needs.
You can look through the channel lineup to make sure that you’re not discarding some of the channels you’re really interested in. If you don’t find a package online that matches your desire, you can always contact a local cable or satellite television provider to see if they can customize a package that works within your budget.
4. Minimize Your Television sets
Though an additional television for each room would only cost you about $5-$10 or £8 a month, over the course of a year you’re looking at an additional $60-$120 or £75 for each additional television you have.
An easy way to cut back on this cost would be to minimize the amount of televisions you have. Think about all the rooms that have television. Do you really need a separate set in each and every room? Removing even one television can save you a decent amount of cash.
5. Switch television Providers
If your bill keeps going up in ways that you cannot explain, then it may be time for you to consider switching providers.
There are several cable and satellite tv service providers in the area and finding the best one is as simple as searching the internet. Look for companies in your area and compare prices to see who will offer you the most service for the price you’re willing to pay.
6. Contact Your Service Provider
Last but certainly not least is the option to contact your service provider by phone. A company’s job is to keep you happy as their customer, and many of them are willing to go above and beyond to do just that.
If you’re unhappy with your bill, contact the service provider and tell them. They are going to try to do everything they can to help you bring those costs down so that they can keep your business, and they may be able to offer you a deal that is not available online.
Now that the cooler weather is upon us, watching television and movies is certainly a favourite family pastime. Rather than part ways with your home entertainment altogether, find ways to make it fit within your budget.
With a bit of research and determination, you’ll be surprised what you can find online about ways to save on cable and satellite television services.
Stay in touch
Hope this post inspires you and of course, I’d love to know what you think! Let me know in the comments below or find me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and add the hashtag #practicalfrugality so that I can see your post.
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Magdalena
Hayley says
We use DirecTv and even though it’s nice to have, I really don’t feel like we need it. Especially since I’m the one home all day and I don’t use it often. If I watch tv I prefer Netflix or another streaming service. Our internet with UVerse is bundled with out satellite, but we are paying something like $120+ a month which I think is OBSCENE. Unfortunately our last service provider was Comcast and we never had a reliable connection, but even worse, they somehow lost our payment, two times. We called them to pay a third month in a row (it was never shut off or anything) and they said they hadn’t received payment for two months. But there is no way we would have free internet for that period of time. We spoke to everyone we could, spent a few weeks desperately trying to find where our payments went because they wanted us to pay a bill for three months service when we had already paid the first two months. They were of no help at all. So we left for DirecTv but now of course owe some ridiculous amount of like $500 to exit our contract on top of the bill balance. When it’s time to renew our DirecTv next year, I’m going to see if we can have just the internet, tv is one of those unnecessary luxuries, at least in our home.
Amber Ludwig says
We just don’t have tv anymore!! Its way too expensive!! We have wifi and stream everything offline!! Makes life so much easier and its so much cheaper!!
Tamra Phelps says
I really wish DirecTV would just let us choose the channels we actually want, but of course they won’t. If they did, a lot of channels would just go under, I suspect. I swear, with over 150 channels, there’s less I want to watch than when I was a kid watching 5 channels! (Cable started when I was about 12, in 1977, in our area. Before that, we got ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS & a wild card channel out of Lexington that only came in if the weather was good, lol.)