You spent $150 on WHAT!

One part of my job is processing expenses for employees of my company. As some people work from home, they'll send in their internet bill for reimbursement, which is often the same as their cable bill. I'm stunned when I see the numbers. Some bills, once you add up the premium cable package and the pay per view, can run $150 per month, not including the internet. As someone who might spend an average $10 or $15 in a month on TV, this seems pretty much unbelievable. I haven't had cable for years, and I don't miss it.

Here's my reasoning why. I was already paying for high speed internet, the purveyor of nearly unlimited entertainment at minimal cost. My cable bill was about $50/month, half of that because the only channel that I felt was worth having - Discovery - was in a premium package. I found I wasn't watching much, mostly Mythbusters, and reruns of That '70s Show that were on while I was cooking dinner. It just didn't seem like $50 worth of entertainment in a month.

Of course, I still like to watch TV sometimes, but I can get that from the internet, too. I'm not talking about illegal downloads, but cheap or free sources of commercial TV shows and movies that are completely above board.

For Free

Lots of great TV shows are available for free from their makers almost as soon as they air on TV. Unfortunately, where to find them usually depends on what country you live in. Americans can find a lot of these shows on Hulu, or the website of the show. In other countries, check out the network that airs the show. CTV, the Comedy Network, and CBC all offer a wide selection of their top shows. If you don't like watching TV on the computer, you can hook up your computer to the TV. Many computers already have the right plugs, or you may have to invest in an adaptor. Even if the adaptor costs $50, about the most you could reasonably spend, it cancelling your cable should pay for it in just a few months.

Know what else is free? Mooching off friends. I've discovered that my extended group of friends owns more seasons of TV on DVD than I will likely ever get around to watching, and they charge nothing for borrowing them. I contribute to the system by buying the occasional DVD as well. At a rate of maybe 1 per year, it's far less than I was spending on cable, and I might well have bought it anyway.

Low-cost alternatives

Sometimes that's not enough. Maybe you like to keep up with the latest episodes of a show, and don't want to wait for the DVD. ITunes provides the answer. Recent episodes are available for about $3.50 per episodes. With movies, they have a "rental" option - download a file that will delete itself after a few days - for $0.99 each.

What about movies, or what if your friends don't buy DVDs? There's great options through Netflix and their imitators. In Canada, I've been very impressed with zip.ca. Canflix is another option, though I'm not a fan of their one size fits all package. These websites will send you a DVD through the mail, which you can keep as long as you want, for a set monthly fee. The cheapest packages will give you 1 DVD at a time, 2 per month. That'll run $5 in the US, C$6 in Canada, $4/C$5 extra for no monthly limits. You can also rent TV shows through them, usually a whole season only counts as a single DVD.

Dollars and Sense

How much will you save? Depends on what you're spending now. Let's look at someone who's currently got basic cable, and lives in my area. The basic cable package here costs $33.95, plus 5% sales tax - that's $35.65. If you cancel your cable, and instead buy 4 new episodes from itunes every month, and get an unlimited 1 DVD at a time package from Zip, you'll spend $26.25 after taxes. So that's $9.40/month, about a 25% discount, or a little over $110 per year. Not much, but it all adds up.

It's more pronounced if you have more channels. Full cable - all the channels, except for the ones with commercial free movies - runs $58.95 here ($61.89 with tax). Replace this with the same 4 new TV episodes, and Canflix's 3 DVD at a time package - more than enough to keep you busy regularly. You'll spend $37.80, and have $24 every month to redistribute. Over the course of a year, that can be an extra weekend out of town, or a meal for two at a decent restaurant every couple of months.

What's to miss?

Even if those numbers seem small, I ask you...what will you miss? I remember a time when I used to schedule social events so I wouldn't miss a favourite show. And when it didn't work out, I'd sometimes miss a critical story development. I know people who still do that. But with all of my entertainment is on-demand, it's a non-issue. If the phone rings, or I have to change a load of laundry, I hit pause, and don't miss anything. If I'm not home, my DVDs will still be there. It's wonderfully liberating.

Not to mention less advertising. Unfortunately, not none, but certainly less. Most shows are available without interruptions. Those that aren't, it's usually only one commercial where you'd get 5 on the broadcast. This translates into saving time, too, since the shows are shorter as a result.

So give your cable company a call. You've nothing to lose, and you might find that not having cable can completely revolutionize your lifestyle, as you'll probably end up spending more time with friends or actually doing things.