Goodbye Cable TV! Hello Tablo??

A few months ago, the wife and I made a pretty big lifestyle change; we got rid of cable Tv ... forever!

A way to earn more dividend money per month is to save more money each month that can be invested. I have been looking at a way to stop spending over $100 a month on Cable TV and internet. Especially since our family only watches a few programs. Our main love with Cable TV was the DVR. Skipping commercials saves time and annoyance.

Previous Situation:

We had Charter for internet and basic TV. The total each month was $100 which we had been paying for the past 4 years. We had our local channels and an expanded tier including Discovery, Disney, HGTV, TLC, etc.. most of the popular channels (which we hardly watched). We also had a DVR and 30mbps internet. It was a good deal and with a young child in the house, cartoons were necessary from time to time.

One day, our "promotion" ran out I guess and our bill jumped to $140 per month. I called Charter several times and even got through to the cancellation department who helped me in the past maintain my current rate. They said couldn't do anything about the price and instead wanted to offer me more channels. I repeatedly said I didn't want more channels, just a lower price. After several calls, we just couldn't see eye to eye. So I canceled.

Current Situation:

I started doing research and I looked at the shows on our DVR to see what we were recording. Most of it happened to be on Over The Air broadcast channels like NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox. We are lucky to have a couple of major cities within 50 miles from our house so all the local stations are easily received at our house.

I will save you the details, but I ended up with the following items:

2 Tuner Tablo System bought at NewEgg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815510001&cm_re=tablo-_-15-510-001-_-Product

RCA Yagi Antenna:
http://www.amazon.com/RCA-Compact-Outdoor-Yagi-Antenna/dp/B0024R4B5C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433638038&sr=8-1&keywords=rca+antenna

WD Passport Hard Drive:
http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Ultra-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B00E83X9P8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433638069&sr=8-1&keywords=wd+passport

Tablo:

The Tablo is awesome! It is basically a DVR for OTA signals. You pay Tablo $5 a month to use their guide to setup your recordings just like you do on any Comcast or Charter DVR. The only catch is that you have to watch Tablo through a device like a Roku or Amazon fire stick... or even a Chromecast I believe. This is because the TAblo itself cannot connect directly to a TV. It connects to your router via Ethernet or WiFi. This is a good thing though, because it allows you to access DVR functionality on your home PC, Laptops, iPhone, Android Phones, TVs with Roku, etc etc...

I have been using it for a few months now and we dont miss cable at all. The interface with Roku is being updated all the time and they have a great and responsive community to help troubleshoot.

Savings:

I have about $450 invested in the entire system but that is a one time cost. The only other fees you pay for Tablo are for the guide which is optional but well worth $5 a month.

Previous monthly fees: $140 (or even $100 before the rates went up)
New monthly fees: $65 (Still need internet for $60 a month, looking at options to reduce here)
Savings: $75 per month to invest in dividend Stocks

Not bad.

In conclusion: 

We gave up a lot of shows to make this switch. HGTV, Discovery, and Local Sports. It was the best choice we have made and we don't regret it at all. Send me a message if you want more info on this!