Television Cost Getting Out Of Control

If you're like me you love TV and have a lot of shows that you try and keep up with.  However the cost of enjoying TV is getting to be a little out of hand.

I love to watch TV.  Over the last couple of years I have really started to follow quite a few shows and love watching them.  But looking at my cable bill month after month is a bit unsettling.  I have digital cable and along with that I have DVR and internet, all included on the same bill.  I love DVR, I don't think I would be able to live without it, but lately I have been wondering if I can.

I want say my monthly cable bill is around $125.  Along with student loans, car payment, rent, cell phone and various other bills it really adds up. Obviously I can't go without paying my rent, I would have no where live.  I also need  my cell phone so I can, well keep in touch with the world.  I also need to be able to be reached because of work.  If I stop paying for my car I have no way to get to work, that would lead to no money all together and that's another issue entirely.  So I get to the cable bill.  Now that has internet included, so I knock off about $40 for that since in this day and age you really can't live without the internet.  Do I need a million channels though?

Maybe I just cut out the DVR, since that would save around $20 a month. Perhaps I could just cut out cable all together.  There are other options out there.  Verizon is quickly coming around with their Fios TV service, and the cost is far less than what I have now, except it's not yet offered in my area.  Satellite isn't really an option since I live in an apartment and they don't want the dishes on the buildings.  So I am stuck.

There is always the option of just using an antenna and getting the basic channels.  That's all we had for most of when I was a kid.  Now you can get up to 20 channels with just an antenna, so that's actually pretty appealing.  Plus there are cool networks like Antenna TV that play all kinds of classic shows all day long.  I also subscribe to instant Netflix and watch it through my Wii.  That is only around $10 a month and I get a ton of TV and movies to watch 24/7.   So I have plenty of options to cut my bill.  Very refreshing especially since most of us are pinching pennies in order to fill our gas tanks these days.

So all in all I guess I can live without the big cable giants bill and features.  If you are like me and looking to cut cost on TV, Yahoo finance has some great tips that you can find here.

Featured image via Flickr user canthc.