We canceled cable years ago. I didn’t notice if spending went down as I generally wasn’t real influenced by commercials anyhow, but I don’t miss paying that bill every month. At this point we have probably saved around $3000 just by not having cable. Nor do we take the newspaper that just kept getting skinnier (I do miss the comics and am always happy to find a used paper to read) so that is saving over $100. What do we do with the money we ‘saved’? We keep making ends meet.

Today, I can get a substantial amount of content for free. Yes, I have to sit through some commercials to get it, but some websites offer a chance to watch a 1 1/2 minute commercial, and then see the entire program commercial free. Is this as easy as plopping myself in front of the TV? Not yet, but it’s getting there. There are also dozens of media download software programs you can use to “slurp” streaming audio/video from the Web. I have a 1/2 terabyte backup drive on which I store many programs to watch later, and have half a dozen 2GB+ memory chips for my phone/PDA to watch things on the go.