Could you say no to $480? Wall Street Journal media and marketing editor Martin Peers couldn’t either — becoming a cord cutter saved him $40 a month, which is a dinner out every few weeks or one free car payment a year.

“Two months after cutting the cord, I can’t see us going back to pay television,” writes Peers.

And, Peers’ savings are on the low-side of what Forbes writer Amadou Diallo’s cord cutter discount — he’s now paying $48 a month or $576 a year and will save $1,356 in the first year.

Another take on the cord cutter math is my family, which pays $53 a month for broadband and $79 once a year for Amazon Prime. That’s an average of $63 monthly.

Cord Cutter: Big Savings, Big Content

When it comes to streamed content in the living room, both Peers and Amadou are Apple TV ($99) users, while I’m using a Roku (from $49) — see the content available Apple TV and both official Roku and private Roku channels.

On the sharing side (Mac to living room), iTunes and Apple TV, as well as various iThings (i.e. AirPlay), all get along easily — content flows easily if you live within Apple’s nicely manicured walled garden. Roku users, such as myself, can install the Plex Media server, which provides most of the same sharing functionality plus a very large number of commercial channels, including Food Network, TwiT, The CW and many, many more.

And, one thing Peers, Amadou and I all share — having kicked the pay TV habit, we’re never going back to cable. That said, at the very least, you owe it to yourself to spin the cord cutter numbers and see how much you can save…

What’s your take?

Related Posts:
— Apple TV Discounts, Roku Deals
— Young Adults Flock to Netflix as Cable’s Luster Fades
— Cord Cutter Tool Kit: Get Started with Streaming TV, Digital Broadcast
— Pay TV Loses Another 113K Subscribers
— Review: Roku LT + Plex Media Server