Why cord cutting isn't as sexy as it sounds

Have you recently looked at your cable bill and noticed huge increases in your bill? Have you noticed the obscure surcharges that make up 20% of your bill? Have you reached out to customer service for help but walked away even more confused? Cord cutting is not for everyone, but perhaps a hybrid model might be once you get used to things.

Personally, I was a Verizon FIOS customer for 6 years before I decided I had enough. My "guaranteed" bundle price gradually went from $99.99 to over $200 a month! My first area of focus was to write down what shows my wife, my kids and parents loved. Since I only watch ESPN, CNBC and HGTV -- I was good from my perspective. My wife watched common hits like Two and  Half Men, Seinfeld and the occasion Food Network show. My kids think YouTube is TV. Their favorite shows are Ryan Toy Review and Blippi to name a few. Finally, my parents love international programming, so they were easy.

Now that I had my list of needs, I did some research into the options out there. My research brought me to SlingTV. Their new customer offer was drastically less than Verizon. I was able to get all my sports, HGTV, international programs, YouTube, Nick JR and Disney for 50% off of Verizon.

That was easy, right? How do I stream Sling to make sure my family's experience wasn't very different from Verizon. I ended up buying two Roku boxes and setup Sling since it had a dedicated Sling button on the remote -- super easy!

Whoa, everyone was happy and I was saving money but not so fast. As soon as I setup everything, my devices started freezing and lagging since I had a few more streaming devices on my network which required more bandwidth. I bit the bullet and upgraded my internet connection for an additional $20 a month. Now my $100 savings per month was down to $80, still not bad.

After a year of SlingTV, their rate went up drastically -- how shocking!

I decided to sign up for YouTubeTV since it allows for sharing across 6 accounts and works on any device. I also appreciated their unlimited DVR and intuitive user interface. I ended up scaling back on SlingTV and added YouTubeTV for 49.99 while keeping the international offerings for my parents for another $49.99 a month, and the extra $20 for Gigabit Internet. I have far more programming options, recording options and I saved $80 a month.

Like I said its not easy but nearly two years in everyone is happy. I barely hear any complaints about shows not being available.

If you have any questions or want to share tips, please let me know.

-Saj