I really don't see why anyone pays for cable television anymore. After a year without it, I've saved a lot of money; I've been able to watch all my favorite shows, and I haven't given second thought to paying for it again.

At first, the idea of having to sit at the computer to watch all my shows almost made that extra money for cable worth it. But now, there are so many options available to stream content from your computer to your TV, so I refuse to pay my cable company extra money just for content to be delivered to my house through one method, when I can get all that same content through another method I'm already paying them $75 a month for.

Plus, there are other benefits too: no commercials, the only stuff to watch is stuff you love, and access to all episodes of a show rather than only new ones.

By practically never seeing any commercials, I've found that has really made an big impact on how much I spend. It's crazy realizing how effective advertising actually was on me. Rarely ever do I want anything new anymore, and whenever I do buy sometime, it's because I need it, not because I want it. And, by not going into the store with any biases from advertising, I'm far more likely to give products and their prices an honest comparison. 

When I used to pay for cable, I did most of my TV watching via the DVR. If there was nothing recorded when I felt like watching something, though, I'd just end up watching whatever was on at that time. I watched a lot of really bad TV just so I could watch something. Now, if there's nothing recorded, I go do something else. Something productive. I don't waste anymore time watching TV just to watch TV, which has made my TV viewing experience far more enjoyable. I like 100% of the TV I watch 100% of the time. Unless, of course, one of my favorite shows airs an occasional mediocre episode, but you get the point.

Ever had a friend tell you about a good show but it's already several episodes or seasons in? You usually only have two choices: start watching at the point in the storyline that's currently being aired and have your friend fill in the blanks, or wait until the show comes out on DVD. If you download all your shows, though, you can start watching right from the very first episode whenever you want. Just download all the episodes that have already aired and watch them until you're caught up. Plus, when you start watching a new show based on a recommendation from a friend rather than because you saw a preview advertisement that made it look good, you're way more likely to enjoy it.

If you don't like the idea of downloading torrents because you're uncomfortable with the idea of possibly crossing over into illegal pirating territory, fear not. There's Hulu, and plenty of networks now put their shows online soon after it airs on TV. I watched Jersey Shore in all it's mind-numbing glory right on MTV's website. Although that method has you watching on your computer, you could use something like Boxee instead, which pulls video from those sites and can stream it all to your TV from your computer. You may not get to watch all your favorite shows if you opt against downloading torrents, but that's really no different than missing out on good shows because you have cable but don't pay for premium channels like HBO and Showtime. 

Some people don't want to get rid of cable because they watch a lot of sports, but there are alternatives to cable when it comes to that too. For starters, you can get an antenna for your TV to watch anything that's aired on your local stations like NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, The CW, and possibly a couple more. If you have an HDTV, you would be shocked at the quality of the HD picture broadcast over the airwaves. You'd spend $25 or so for the antenna once, and then you get those channels for free for pretty much forever. As for games on other channels like ESPN, there are options for streaming those too. 

If you're not already convinced, I challenge you to try and go at least one month as if you didn't have cable. You'll quickly find it's a total waste of money. 

Sometime soon I'll probably write up an explanation of how I do my setup. Which, I like to think of as a DVR without an automatic download feature.