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.