Cable Misguided: Your Television Could Be Draining Your Money

Think about the most significant wastes of money that currently reside on your budget.

How about that weekly salon appointment?

Do you think that $200 massage is helping your budget?

What about that car payment that is dangerously close to a cool grand, even though you don’t make that much in two weeks?

Sure, those all should be on the chopping block as part of your budget and losing those expenses for good so that you can translate that into saved money but perhaps you’re overlooking two key points: the importance of enjoying yourself and certain utilities are dragging down that quest to build that emergency fund.

For starters, a budget can’t be just working and paying bills. If that’s the case, and you’re not spending money on things like an occasional massage, your hair appointment or even having a car that is modest. Your budget has to include a “fun factor, ” or you’ll always be tempted to overspend or splurge.

Instead, look at some of those expenses, utilities specifically, and wonder aloud if some of those could be lowered or eliminated. Almost in unison, you can hear every cash-strapped individual or family budgeting for college funds cry out one word.

Cable.

More specifically, the idea that your cable bill is killing your budget and you can look squarely at your flat screen TV and know it costs you money is realistic. In the last five years, the average cable television bill has gone up nearly 40 percent according to published reports, and the days of the $50 per month cable bill from 20 years ago have been replaced with bills more than $200.

This, of course, leaves consumers without something they enjoy, and that’s access to their favorite television shows, movies and entertainment on a stray Friday night. But lately, the call to action has been to dump cable altogether and start looking at less expensive alternatives, which leads you toward the likes of streaming. Streaming service is a fraction of the cost, and still, gives you access to television and movies and a fantastic way to save money over the course of the next few years. If you’re spending $30 on streaming services, a variety of them (and don’t forget you have to pay for internet to run streaming services), and about $100 overall with internet included, you’re saving about $1200 per year to start when you rid yourself of cable.

Your television has been taking your money for long enough, and rather than deprive yourself of what you enjoy as it relates to spending money, why not just save it by getting rid of a service that is costing you far more than it’s worth.