You Don’t Deserve Premium Channels Because You’re In Debt
By Pinyo • Jun 17th, 2008 • Category: Frugal LivingSounds a little harsh? May be. But the truth is 300 millions Americans owe $957 billions in revolving credit debt — that’s $3,190 per person! What does this have to do with premium channels? Well, NASCAR has been showing their Cup races on TNT for the past two weeks and it will be on TNT for another four before going to ESPN for six (see NASCAR schedule). Since I only have basic Family DirecTV package, I didn’t get to see Dale Jr. win last week at MIS. I could’ve spend additional $35 a month to upgrade my package to get TNT and ESPN — but I didn’t.
Answer This If You’re In Debt
This made me wonder how many people that are in debt (or that are not saving enough money to meet their financial goals) are spending needlessly on money leaks like premium channels cable. If you are one of the many in debt Americans, I would like to ask you this:
- Wouldn’t it be nice to have extra $50-100 a month to pay down your credit card debt?
- What about saving a little extra for that elusive financial freedom?
- How about having money to send your sons and daughters to college?
Then why aren’t you doing something about it?
Take Control Of Your Money Leaks
Let’s go through the list below and see if you can’t save at least $50 a month to help you pay down your debt faster, or save more money toward your goals.
- Cable TV — Price difference between the most expensive and the least expensive package is well over $50.
- Telephone – Are you still on a plan that makes you pay extra for regional and long distance calls?
- High-speed Internet access – at least $20 a month more expensive than dial-up
- Car insurance – When was the last time you checked for a better rate?
- Home insurance
- Gym membership – When was the last time you went to the gym?
- Saturday nights at the movie – At least $25 a movie for a couple.
- Eating out — I am saving $35 a week by packing my own lunch to work
- Utilities – Are gas, electricity, and water costs eating you alive? Here are a few ideas to lower your utility bills.
- Extra car — Selling the extra car will lower your maintenance, fuel, and insurance costs immediately.
- Expensive hobbies – Reading is cheap.
I am sure you can come up with a few others on your own and I do encourage it. Please feel free to share the expenses that you are committing to reduce below.
Photo by daredevil via flickr
All posts by Pinyo
While the internet is good because I make more than $20/month blogging, there are some of those that we don’t do. We have the most basic of basic cable, for instance. And sometimes I think we should get rid of it entirely. Perhaps for the summer, at least, until our favorite shows start in the fall.
Sometimes I question the value of basic cable myself.
I would completely unplug the cable, but my wife overruled me on this one and fought to keep basic. Considering what we used to pay for digital cable with premium channels, it was a great compromise.
I am going to take the bus next week on days I don’t have lunch interviews. That should save some major moola.
Many of those we wouldn’t get if you had to pay it all at once.
Actually, selling an extra car wouldn’t save on maintenance or gas, unless you’re using it. And if you’re using it, it means you’re not using your other car so it’s all offset. Granted, if you don’t use the car long enough (like a year), you’ll have to get an oil change or other maintenance anyway, but the point it you’ll only save on insurance (and any registration/emissions/inspection renewals).
“High-speed Internet access – at least $20 a month more expensive than dial-up”
Yeah, let’s go back to Dial-Up!
Along the same lines, we could also save money by canceling all phone service and use carrier pigeons.
Let’s do it!!
I’ll admit that we pay for satellite. And I got to see Dale Jr. Win!
My husband and I agreed that satellite would be our one splurge. And honestly, it does help him do his job, since he’s a sportscaster.
Most of the other stuff you mentioned we’re doing, though. At times it’s tempting to sell the extra car, but we use it an awful lot, especially during the school year. If we had better public transportation around here, I’d seriously consider it.
I have the basic cable package because the only shows I watch are on cable (I like Discover, Travel, ESPN, Fox Sports, & History, & my wife likes the Food Channel). We don’t watch much TV, but we like to watch certain shows. We bundle it w/ our internet so we save a little. But we have no need for extended cable or premium channels.
I haven’t had TV in over a year. Any kind of TV. Not only has it improved my standard of life, but it’s helped not having that bill. When I only watched TV two to three times a week, paying $100 for it just didn’t really seem…logical.
On top of it? I’m moving soon (lower rent), will be selling my car (bye-bye car payment, insurance, and gas!), and be living downtown (hooray for walking and biking - go green!) within reach of EVERYTHING. It’s fantastic.
I’m not doing too badly on most of those - I watch free to air tv, and it’s actually cheaper to have broadband than dial up for me. I could probably cut down on my mobile phone bills by getting a PAYG phone rather than pay monthly, but it’ll just be another thing that I forget to top up.
I brew yummy fresh coffee in the morning. We stopped going to Starbucks. My coffee is much better anyway.
@Chad — Yeah, if you calculate the annual cost on some of items above, you’ll be amazed at how expensive they are.
@Clever Dude — You’re right…I do understand your Yogi Berra’s logic.
@J — Okay, may be I am pushing it with the high-speed internet. Although I’ve been itching to cancel home phone in favor of using our cell phones, but I was overruled.
@Lynnae — That would be a severe handicap for a sportscaster not to have satellite — I hope you can deduct or expense it…it is business related.
@Patrick — Apparently basic cable is better than basic DirecTV. Unfortunately, my cable reception is horrific. I love those channels too, especially History.
@Amphritrite — That’s a great example of what I am getting it. Thank you!
@Vered — Me too. Brew 8 cups every morning. That would be an expensive Starbuck bill.
My big expense every month is my cell-phone bill. It’s about $90 for my family plan between my wife and I. We don’t pay for cable yet, but once we get our own place we’ll be paying for basic only. I don’t have any gym memberships or anything else either. I love this article though, it’s so true. I wrote something similar at Debit versus Credit that I called “Oh, America…”
Check it out, I bet you’ll like it!
I don’t use cable, but I get NetFlix ($17.00/month). I drink home-steeped tea, use the library, reduce my car speed on the freeway, and bike when I’m in town. I use the envelope system for food, gas, and incidental expenses. I rarely eat out and have increased my cooking and baking at home. Since I eat yogurt regularly, I plan to make my own at about 1/2 the cost - even less if I use powdered milk. It all adds up to real savings.
I’m just busting your chops about the Dialup, Pinyo.
Brainstorming a bunch a place to potentially save money like you did is a great idea, that everyone should do from time to time.
@Joseph — I’ll check out your article.
@GM Murphy — I used to have NetFlix as well but decided to cancel it. All in all, it looks like you have a good frugal system going on there.
@J — You got me.
Although I disagree on the little things like internet or netflix, I would say that if you are in debt you do not deserve nice clothes, new cars, flat screen tv’s, etc! Great post Pinyo..
I didn’t buy chewing gum when I was in debt.
Years after retiring my debt, I still don’t buy chewing gum.
glbl guy has written a similar post about the need to trim those expenses in the face of an econimic downturn and i agree with both of you cable TV is not a priority. Personally I would prefer to invest the money in paying off debts like you suggest Pinyo, it makes a lot more sense financially.
I’m not in debt - but I have NO TV except the fuzzy station I get on rabbit ears. I don’t miss it - I don’t miss the bombardment of ads trying to sell me something. I get news and weather via internet.
The extra car is NOT extra maintenance, fuel, etc (yes on insurance) if you are a single person household. I can only drive one at a time, and driving the old one keeps the new one newer longer… But for the $60/year insurnace, I’m going to keep my 74 Datsun pickup for going to the dump and for getting firewood - I hate putting that stuff in my forester
Eating out’s rarely on my list - and no gym membership either… altho working out gets a little creative in the rainy most of the year season here
Last movie I went to was 1991… too expensive. I get books/movies from the library - and in the winter, when we are rained in for so long, I do get the $8.99 package of movies from Netflix - just to keep from going stir crazy - not enough time in the spring/summer/fall.
My husband (http://goliathdebt.blogspot.com) and I (http://essentialsimplicity.blogspot.com) have been embracing a frugal lifestyle for a while now. We do have a nice computer (that my husband built) and a big flat-screen HDTV (that my husband bought for about half-price while he was still working a second part-time job at Best Buy).
We live in a small apartment where my husband added an adjustable thermostat so it only kicks in about half an hour before we get home from work. In the spring and fall we leave the air off completely and just open the windows. We can’t line-dry cause we live in an apartment, but I do have something from Ikea that attaches to the wall for drying set up in our laundry room. I clip coupons and do the “drugstore game” for deals and send off for freebies (I recently got a whole month of vitamins for free like that).
As far as TV and movies is concerned, we have a really good TV-top antenna for picking up the broadcast stations and besides our Monday night line-up of shows, we watch it very rarely. I get Redbox codes for free movies so we use that and the public library (I have cards for both my town’s public library and for the network of libraries for the city next to us)…so we never pay for movies. We used to do Blockbuster Online and the only thing I really miss about that (or the comparable Netflix) is the ability to get seasons of the newer TV shows to watch (since with Redbox we get all the new movie releases and with the library all the cool older classic movies).
@David — Good add!
@Squawkfox — Are you kidding about the chewing gum?
@Make Friends — Thanks.
@Marci — I miss those rabbit ears…you know you won’t get anything once they switch to digital.
74 Datsun…whoa…that’s what my dad used to drive.
@Julie — Best Buy employee get half price? Cool!
These days it is possible to watch lots of good stuff legally on the internet without paying expensive cable or satellite charges.
See how here:
http://economiccrunch.blogspot.....bound.html
I also saved a ton of money by canceling my unused gym membership and by not buying lunch out. Good ideas all.