When jobs are hard to come by, unpaid internships prevail, and expenses never cease to multiply, it behooves recent college grads like myself to step back and prioritize when it comes to spending money.
There are some sacrifices I am unwilling to make. Food enthusiast that I am, I refuse to eat ramen and some easy-mac for dinner every night. I also don’t think that I would limit myself to once-a-week showers or lights off at 9 p.m. to save money on electricity. Recently, though, a friend brought his cable bill to my attention, in what is soon to be his first apartment: $100 per month for basic cable. His decision: to do without. I began to think about it too. Could I live without cable?
I’ve done it before. I lived without cable for two of four years in college (mooching off of friends was easy enough!). In fact, even though I had cable during my last year—complete with HBO, on demand, and DVR—I still found myself watching programs I had missed on Hulu and downloading shows from iTunes. Plus, my subscription to Netflix gave me more than enough options of shows and movies to watch.
Even watching the news doesn’t require cable. Most major news networks now have streaming coverage of their broadcasts, and sports (games themselves plus commentary, real time stats, and archives) are also accessible, either through packages that can be purchased online, or for free through memberships, as is the case of NBA All-Access. These options seem like more than enough to sustain me during the few hours of TV time I’ll be having. In our June issue, we showed you four apps for geting TV for free on mobile devices: Cartoon Network, HGTV To Go, ABC Player, and HBO Go.
There are drawbacks, of course. While I do think I’d be fine with not knowing the umpteenth winner of "American Idol" at the very moment Ryan announces it after the umpteenth commercial break, no cable also means a disconnect from the current goings-on in television media. I wouldn’t be able to talk about last night’s "Mad Men" with co-workers or see the newest HBO movie until it comes out on DVD. At this point in my life and career, though, I think saving $100 a month is a little more valuable to me.
Holly S
12:59:37 PM on Fri Jun 29 2012
This really speaks to me; in February, I convinced my husband that cable was an unneccessary expense. I looked into getting a whole house antenna. It cost about $300 for the antenna, including installation. We have since recouped the cost and have Netflix to satisfy our craving for movies (many of which I didn't see while paying for cable). I don't see us going back to cable any time soon; our kids didn't even put up a fuss about missing their shows. Now there are more books read and more time for family game nights! And when we want to watch TV, there are MANY (of course not as much as cable) channels to choose from and it seems that every time I re-scan I get a few more channels. We are very glad to be saving $100 per month as well.