The First Step to Getting Out of Debt (Also a Money Saving Tip)

The following is a guest post from CJ at Wise Money Matters.

If you are striving to get out of debt or just save a few extra dollars, I think the absolute best first step is to cancel your cable/satellite TV. Now, before everyone goes postal and threatens bodily harm on me, let me explain why you need to get rid of it and why you don't need it anyways.

The Cost

I've been getting more and more surprised at the cost of cable/satellite TV. My wife and I were paying $65 per month for Dish Network. For that $65, we spent approximately 2 hours per week watching programming. This means we were paying Dish $32.5 per hour for their time. I don't even make that much at my job.

All I really wanted was to watch a few shows; maybe the History Channel and some Discovery Channel. Other than those there's a few shows I watch occasionally, but usually miss an episode or two and don't know where the story is at. Of course, I can't just pay for a few individual channels. I have to get the whole America's Top Whatever package just to get the 2-3 channels I actually watch.

On top of that, I found that I was paying $32.5 per hour to get 45 minutes of actual programming. There is at least 15 minutes of advertisements. So even then I'm not getting my money's worth. If I want to skip ads, I can pay an extra $10/month or so for a DVR option, but why spend that money for 2 hours worth of entertainment? The other downside of a DVR is that since I can record all of my favorite shows, I will most likely become less productive due to the ability to watch more shows at my leisure. Many see this as an advantage to the DVR. I see it as a detriment.

The Real Cost

My wife and I canceled our satellite about 1 year ago. Since then, I've noticed an even more profound effect on my finances than the bill itself. Since we were subjected to all of the advertising that we were, we found ourselves wanting more unnecessary things.

I found that whenever I was hungry, I'd see a Chili's commercial (my favorite restaurant) and get the sudden uncontrollable urge to spend $30 eating out rather than spending $5 eating in. When I saw the latest Wii fad that was out, I absolutely couldn't live without it.

Now that I've been satellite free for 1 year, I don't need the latest Wii game. While we still eat out occasionally, it's on my terms, rather than my stomachs. Our excess spending has decreased dramatically purely because we don't have the desires for stuff like we used to. Since we don't see the advertising, we often don't know a particular is available.

We've also become more productive. I now spend a lot more of my time reading finance and investing books or writing on my blog. Much more satisfying than losing brain cells in front of the television.

The Alternatives

The best part is, I still get to watch all of my favorite shows. I now have a subscription to Netflix which allows me to get my favorite TV shows on DVD or streamed online. And there are no commercials either! Due to the frequency which we watch TV, we opted for the one DVD at a time program which costs us a measly $9 per month. A huge difference from $65. Even if you watch more, you can get the 2 or 3 DVDs at a time to fulfill that and it's still cheaper.

There is also this website called Hulu.com. It has lots of free programming. They do run commercials but they are 15-30 seconds by a single sponsor as opposed to an average 5 minutes of multiple commercials per break.

I still get my complete fill of TV entertainment without the commercials and without the expense.

So drop the Cable Company and start saving money NOW!!!

Comments

[Billy]

>> My wife and I were paying $65 per month for Dish Network. For that $65, we spent approximately 2 hours per week watching programming. This means we were paying Dish $32.5 per hour for their time. <<

Huh?

65/month
2hours/week = ~8hrs/month
65/8 is approximately 8/hr

Had to stop reading the 'finance' article at this point since simple math and units of measure problems tend to through me off...

[TheJapChap]

Yep, the article lost credibility pretty quick when I read that. I did finish it though, because I agree with the premise and even $8/hr entertainment is still more expensive then I'd like... I guess it just didn't "through me off!" ;-)

[Skott]

Just about every show on cable or network TV can be found online for FREE.

[Larry Burkett RIP]

The -FIRST STEP- if you're in debt is to stop doing what's getting you into debt.

[Mr. Budget Wise]

I totally agree with your main point. Your math was off but so what (who cares?)! The main point still stands! I stopped watching TV in college because I literally had no time to watch it because I was so busy even on the weekends as my major required me to do a lot of "research". Truth is you can be much more productive if you're not sitting in front of a TV not to mention your not subjected to the propaganda of television ads. I do like to watch movies and so at first I started to get them free from the library. Then after I graduated I got blockbusteronline.com. I can get movies in the mail as well as free movies from the store. So I always have entertainment when I need to wind down without the expense of costly cable television.

[WiseMoneyMatters]

Hehe. Sorry about the math error. My wife normally tries to proofread my posts, but she couldn't get to this one before the deadline for submission.

Regardless, I hope I got the point across.

[Billy]

>> guess it just didn't "through me off!" ;-) <<

What can I say, I'm good with math but my english could use some work. I would of kept reading the article if the spelling was wonky...

Now that I have read the full text, I do agree that selectively renting/borrowing the shows that you once watched is a good way to replace cable/sattelite tv. This does assume that you are willing to wait for the season to come out though.

I have watched some shows on Hulu.com but I do find that the quality can be a bit low espicially watching something like Battlestar Galactica which has a lot of dark coloured scenes and a lot of special effects.

[WiseMoneyMatters]

>> This does assume that you are willing to wait for the season to come out though. <<

Billy,
The other thing about not having TV is not knowing which shows are out. I don't usually find out about a particular show anymore until between 1 or 2 seasons are out on DVD. Since I'm not constantly watching advertisements about the latest and greatest show I can't miss out on, I find I don't have the urge to watch it. If it's highly recommended, I will check it out on Hulu first. If I really decide I like it, I will either buy a Season, rent it through Netflix or watch it online through Netflix (which has much better quality than Hulu).

So while it takes a little getting used to at first, it pays off in the long run.

[Mike B.]

One more point about cable is that you can get a lot of channels by just having a digital tuner (which you'll need anyway in less than a year). You get like 6-7 PBS channels alone. I always find it more interesting than cable and best of all its FREE!!!

[Ann]

I gave up satellite TV 3 1/2 years ago and haven't looked back. I now have time to read 5 books per week, sleep better, and have even lost a little weight---being free of the commercials. Not to mention all the $$ saved..
What's not to like?

[Andy]

I think subscription services like Netflix are almost as bad. I still feel compelled to watch more to get more of my money's worth which translates into time wasted. Breaking the habit of turning on the TV is where the real savings are. I bought the complete set of the Buffy spinoff, Angel, last Christmas. It will probably take me years to get through it at the rate I'm going, but I think it was worth the money. I plan to sell it and get a decent chunk of the cost back when I finally finish it, but I don't feel compelled to hurry through it. I just try to avoid subscriptions and paid memberships as much as possible because I either feel guilty for not using it or feel guilty for using it too much. Ownership is usually the way to go for me.

[Dave Farquhar]

An even cheaper option is Redbox. My wife and I watch maybe three movies a month, so we go to the nearest Redbox (in the grocery store a mile away) and rent a movie for a buck. Total monthly expense: $3.

I completely agree with this post. The cost of cable and satelite keeps going up and up, mostly to give you channels you don't want. I've never had pay TV of any sort in my adult life. When I first moved out on my own I couldn't really afford it, and I found I didn't miss it so I never subscribed once I could afford it. I figure I've saved at least $4800 since 1998. What would you do with an extra $4800?

[Start-Up]

This is a great idea in theory, since you can netflix entire tv seasons and watch without commercials. And you can watch most shows online pretty soon after they air live. The main problem I see with this is how do you watch your favorite sporting events? How do you follow the olympics? Stuff like that makes it worth it for me to keep using cable.

On a related note, I stopped playing video games in college because I just couldnt find the time to play them. Now that I've graduated I do have time. I'm four years behind in video gaming so I pay ten dollars at most for a game rather than 50 for a new one. It's amazing.

[Andy]

We get NBC with our antenna so we can watch the Olympics. We also get Fox and the other main networks, so we don't really miss much football. Living near a relatively large city makes it pretty painless to go without cable or satellite. I can watch all the primetime shows that our friends pay $60-$100/month to watch and I don't pay a dime. There's definitely enough programming available to take up more time than I should spend on it. I know there are a lot of things on cable that I'm missing -- HGTV, SciFi, History Channel, movie channels, etc -- but since I haven't had it for years, I can't even imagine trying to fit it into my schedule.

[Tanya]

Thank you for the information. I've been thinking about getting rid of my cable for months, especially since I am out of work. Money is limited so cable needs to go. I just have to let my girls know what the benefits are of not paying for cable month after month; more disposal income to buy the things they need, e.g. clothing and emergency money.

Thanks again,

Tanya