Since Caroline and Barbara have recently been extolling the virtues of frugal living, I thought I'd chime in and offer up a tip of my own: In this high speed internet age, you just might be able to survive without an expensive cable TV plan.
As crazy as it sounds, that's exactly what my husband and I have been doing for the past several months, and so far it's working out great! We recently downgraded our cable package from one of those 200+ channel options that was costing us around $80/month to a basic package — just the networks and a few other channels — for about $25/month. That's big-time savings for a small budget!
When we took stock of the channels that we actually watched, we found that there were only a handful that we regularly tuned into — and even then we were really focused on just a select few programs. One of my new favorite shows, Greek 
, is available via the ABC Family website so we can watch full episodes right there online. Furthermore, my husband got clued into the website www.hulu.com and found that almost all of the shows we watch regularly are available (legally!) on that site. We hooked up our PC to the TV and viola! Television content delivered over the World Wide Web!
One disclaimer is that we're not HD junkies and can handle the occasional computer freeze-up which can happen when streaming video content online. For me, it's a small sacrifice to make for big monthly savings!
What do you think? Would this option work for you?
OHHH! I love Greek! And I'm looking forward to Grey's Anatomy and 90210 starting! WOO WOO!
Hi, kathy
Yeah, Greek is a good show. The second season starts tomorrow. Ahaha. ABC Family has been turning out some good shows. Kyle XY, anyone?
I love this post! Our family doesn't subscribe to cable... and have found it to be so beneficial. My two kids aren't obsessed with cartoons, and we spend more time playing outside and reading books. Much better than sitting in front of the tube :)
We actually don't have cable at all. Sure, we miss out on some things, but we get PBS for our daughter and we have a DVD player if we want to shut off our brains for a couple of hours.
This way, too, we have less temptation to say "Wonder what's on TV?" and spend half an hour rummaging around the channels, then another hour or two because "hm, this looks like it might be interesting." I don't trust myself to exercise my willpower and resist the siren call of the box.
@ Julie and JR: I looooooove Greek! Can't wait to see what the new season brings!
@Kim and Rob: We too have found life without cable pretty liberating. While there are still a few shows we enjoy regularly, I have been reading and exercising more lately!
@Anonymous: hi right back at ya! :-)