For many people, including us, It has been very hard to make ends meet because the economy. We have started our own garden to cut down on food costs and have eliminated as many bills as possible. One of our most recent removals is currently taking place - the disconnection of cable television.

We really like our TV, it's basically the gathering point for us at the end of the day. It helps us unwind and forget some of the troubles of the day. The only problem is that the cable bill is freaking HUGE! $150 per month for the 'bundle' package that seemed like such a great deal not too long ago. We decided to ditch the bundle and just have internet access, which costs a relatively small amount of $40 per month. How can we do this and still get our TV? These three websites have come to our rescue:

Netflix.com: You can watch almost any TV series and Movie you want either through their mail delivery service or through their streaming video service. The cheapest package that gives us the service we want is $8.95 per month.

Hulu.com: Totally free, and has the recent episodes of many of the shows that we watch

ABC.com: Most of the shows we like are here, and are available the same day that they premier - also free!

The only down side to this setup is that we have to give up our normal land-line phone number and switch to Skype. That's going to be interesting, but at least we can make our calls for free!

If you think we are watching our TV on our tiny computer screens, think again. Our television has a VGA input port, which our computers are more than happy to connect to. We now have the biggest computer monitor on the block, and it plays HD movies :)

Previous expenses: $150 per month
New expenses: $48.95 per month
Total savings: $101.05 => $1212.60 per year

Food for thought during a tough economy.

Chris