Is cord cutting part of your new budget plan?- PF Friday Grab a brew #54
NOT EVERYONE WANTS THE SAME SERVICES
I have to admit that “cord cutting” is not part of our new budget for 2014 but it may be in the future. All that cord cutting boils down to is whether you want to pay for cable TV or not.
I’m a huge fan of watching movies but not as much as my wife who is a movie buff and has her fair share of DVD’s, VHS movies (boxes full and she still has the player) and the odd Blue Ray movies these days.
When she was younger she had basic cable and loved watching movies so she would buy them at the local Blockbuster or Rogers store as previously viewed for cheaper than buying a ticket to go to the movies. It wasn’t worth it to her besides she got to keep the movie and watch it as many times as she wanted.
Many people are doing away with the traditional TV packages from their communications providers simply because the pricing has become so unrealistic, they don’t watch much TV or streaming TV programs is more the way they want to roll. Throw in some free streaming and watching DVD’s and Blue Ray movies and most people can sit happily in front of the tube Monday to Sunday with a smile.
I learned about all of the different “cord cutting buzzwords” as they call them this morning while reading about Rogers moving more towards offering streaming for their customers similar to Netflix. If you are a “cord shaver” apparently that means just what it sound like, you are shaving a bit from your TV package to stream more from the internet which many people can honestly say they do.
Cord cutting
Back around September I remember being in the Rogers store where you can sort out all your communications needs. I was bringing back our internet modem box which decided to stop working and while I was waiting, I was listening. The place was littered with students wanting to get their cell phones sorted out and their internet for the school year.
A couple of young ladies were talking to a rep fairly close to me and I’ll be honest I was jealous of the deals she was offering the students with their student plan for cable TV, internet and home phone. Yes please… over here… I’ll take that package but no such luck…. I’m not a student anymore.
That just means I have to continue to call them up every year as a preferred customer to ask for those promotional specials they offer to those who take a minute to call customer relations. Sure, it’s worth it, they want your business. They don’t want you to cut the cord, they want you to stay so they will haggle a decent deal with you.
What stuck out the most was when the girls spoke up and said that there were 5 people living in the house they were renting for University and none of them watch Cable TV they all stream off the internet. They wanted to make sure they had a stellar internet package because it wasn’t worth it for them to pay for cable, nor did they want a home phone. These types of customers are called the “cord nevers”, people who have no interest in Cable TV and would rather stream from the internet.
I was a cord never in University as well but I also didn’t have internet although I’m sure if technology was as explosive as it is today that might have been different for me.
I could understand the home phone because I think eventually they will become a thing of the past or many people simply will do away with owning a home phone as it’s hardly used. My best friend owns a home phone which he only needs for a few minutes per night for work related purposes otherwise he’s paying to own a home phone for nothing as he uses his cell phone exclusively. Pity he can’t get away with it otherwise but until he finds the new career he dreams of the home phone stays I guess.
I wasn’t shocked to read that Rogers communications is going to get in on the streaming aspect like NETFLIX because they’d be silly not to. The younger generation craves the streaming so why leave profits sitting on the table when it’s what the masses want.
It’s no different from Pizza Hut in the USA using the XBOX 360 to add an app for XBOX Live Gold Members to order pizza using the gaming system without even having to pick up the phone. This brilliant move scored Pizza Hut 1 million dollars in sales in 4 months, no surprise there. If people don’t have to move, they won’t. It’s all part of keeping the focus of the customer and practically handing them what they want on a silver platter… convenience.
Life is getting much more convenient for everyone with new technology provided you own such technology otherwise you are stuck with the tried and true traditional methods.
We have Rogers cable in our house and to be honest we don’t stream movies although we do watch plenty of You Tube on our SMART TV. Now that we upgraded our internet package back a couple of months ago we might as well make the best use of it rather than paying for something we’re not using. I’m not sure if we will be doing any cord cutting as part of our budget in the future but for now we will stick with cable and see where it takes us.
Do you have cable or do you find you stream more from the internet, use Netflix or watch DVD/Blue Ray movies?
Top recipe
Every day Food Bloggers from around the world pass by my other love the Free Recipe Depot Facebook page to share a daily recipe which I share with my fans.
This weeks Top Recipe comes from a blog called “Five Little Homesteaders” with a simple recipe for “Whole Wheat Pierogies” that you must check out.
Weekly CBB Posts
If you missed any CBB posts from the week here is the list of posts you can catch up on reading!
- Life Events: Preparing your baby budget
- CBB Net Worth Update December 2013 (+1.01%): Yearly outcome on target
- The Grocery Game Challenge Jan 6-12 #2: Does a product name entice you to buy?
- Budget Update December 2013: Our year in review
- Easy Crustless Quiche
Weekly reads
Every week I share a few of the best personal finance blog posts that I read over the past week with all of you so please enjoy my top picks.
- Work from home or stay at home : How to balance the tasks– The Frugal Farmer
- 5 Dietary Changes that will make you rich– LBee and the Money Tree
- The Affair is Over- Dear Debt
- Under Employment: Big Issue or just Ego?- Fit is the New Poor
- The Unintended Benefit of Living on a Budget– Thrifty Dad
- What if your mortgage rate doubled?- Canadian Personal Finance Blog
Well, that’s a wrap for this Friday’s grab a brew #54 so happy budgeting and I’ll see you here again next week when I do it all over again.
-Mr. CBB
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Thanks for the mention! We cut our cable out a year ago and haven’t looked back! I only miss it for sports on ESPN!
I hadn’t heard of the Pizza Hut and XBox thing- how crazy! And sort of sad in a way. We have not cut the cord because there are shows that we like to watch that you can’t get on Hulu or anywhere else, but I’m keeping an eye on this because it would be nice if that changes and we could do this in the future.
I love cable tv. I know that this is a waste of budget money but we all have our vices. My cable, internet and home phone are bundled and cost me $125 each month. I have to work 7 hours each month to pay for these 3 services.
I am a news junkie and a serious channel flipper and cable tv gives me everything I need.
There is no way my husband would ever get rid of cable. I could easily do without it, him not to much (not that I don’t enjoy it!) I recently called our cable provider (to deal with a totally unrelated issue) and they gave us a wicked deal for cable for the next two years so we’ll have it at least until then! Have a great weekend Mr CBB 🙂
Thanks for the link love! I don’t have a TV and haven’t for years. It’s been good for me. We do have netflix, which we enjoy because we watch movies at our leisure.
I haven’ had cable in so long I don’t remember when I actually had it. Maybe in college? I am already overwhelmed by all of the options that I have to watch on regular t.v (NBC/CBS/ABC etc.) Also, I’m trying to start a side business so as much as I enjoy watching t.v. I don’t want to pay for it and I can stream off of HULU, or check out movies from the library. Much easier.
I’m getting super frustrated with TV. I can’t stand commercials and I find I’m watching TCM or Sportsnet all the time and I’m paying $98 (er, really halfsies with the parental units). Still I think I’m going to cut it off and just watch the massive movie collection I have, use Apple TV and take out movies from the library. Yes, our library has movies, on Blu Ray and new releases! How awesome is that? I think it’s time to cut the cord….waste of money.
I’ll have to have a look over what Rogers is offering now as hubby won’t do it. If I call them I will need to have the older boy listening in with me as I have no idea what we have anymore for internet coverage. It goes right over my head….
Seriously I live for the day I can tell Rogers to go fly a kite! We looked at satellite years ago and at that time it wasn’t any different than cable but I really dislike Rogers. Where we are, if you want high speed internet, you have Rogers…..period. If it was just me all I would have is the phone and internet. I don’t watch TV much at all. I will at our daughter’s place if I’m babysitting the grandson but then I’m watching Teletoons!! Lol!!! She has Bell satellite and is quite happy with it. She talks to Bell regularly to get the best deals.
I think if we could get just the stations that hubby and the boys watch and nothing else with a lower Rogers bill I could live with that.If we could do that with another provider at a lower cost I’d be thrilled!!
That recipe looks good!!!!! It looks like I have some reading to look into this weekend!!! Those blogs look interesting!!! Have a good weekend!!!
Thanks for the mention, my friend! We’ve been cable free for nearly 18 months now, and don’t miss it a bit. We did, however, get Netflix last month, and it is kind of nice to have an extra selection of movies and shows to watch, all at your fingertips. And the $8 monthly fee is a lot friendlier on our tight budget than the $60 a month cable fee was. 🙂
We still have satellite and have always viewed it as a part of our entertainment budget. We like to watch a few shows on HBO and I like to have it for football games, but it does get expensive. We’ve been with DirecTV for 4-5 years and have the same DVR as when we first started with them and thankfully are no longer on a contract. We called in for something else this week and they offered us their new and better DVR, but said we’d have to sign a two year contract to get. That’s what I don’t like about these companies – they seem to spend a ton of money to get new customers, but don’t extend the same deals to loyal customers. That said, I think we may cut the cord in the future, I just need to find a good and legal option to get what we want to watch. Have a great weekend Mr. CBB!
We’re not planning on cutting the cord either. We watch enough time that it’s worth keeping it for now. Some day … who knows! And like you said, it’s a bit of a pain but you can normally call your cable company and they will give you a good deal to keep your business. Have a great weekend!
My husband and I lowered our satellite package now stream all our movies and favorite shows. It saved us 50.00 a month even with the addition of Netflix. We are thinking about lowering our package again this year. I also just lowered our phone bill by calling Telus and switching plans. We will save another 50.00! We still have the service we need for TV and phone but will pay a 100.00 less a month and I even got them to throw in 150 minutes of long distance within Canada as we both have family that live in other provinces. I find January is the best month to review service plans. 🙂
Thanks for the shout-out!! I’m not ready to cord cut either. I do call Rogers every year to ask for promotions as well. It’s so worth the time. Glad to hear they’re putting up a streaming service though, hopefully some better selection than what’s out there. Although I am a bit surprised, they opted to go there, seeing that if they do offer everything and are at the same competitive rate as Netflix, it’ll probably hurt their bottom line, when they could have just raised the overage charges on bandwidth, to discourage people from streaming. Wouldn’t surprise me.