I'd love to give up my subscription to XBox Live, but I need it to stream Netflix. They really need to change that requirement. They could at least have a cheaper yearly subscription where you would only get Netflix access, but pay something like $1-2/month instead of $50/year.

I'd like to turn off my iPhone data planes (2 x $30) but AT&T tells me I can't - for another year - Yay!

I'm not hurting, but I have definitely decided to try and pare down my monthly expenses. I just got rid of my 2 HD cable boxes w DVR service and have internet only. My bill went from 140 a month to 45. I also upped my netflix subscription from 1 to 3 out at a time, cost jumped from 10 to 20 a month. I don't miss cable at all except for basebball games but with the wqy the Mets have been playin, I haven't been missing much.

Cable TV (not internet...that's used to find a job)
Data plan on the phone
Netflix
Maybe Vonage

All those go over the side.

@metsarethe...: Agreed. The cable bill is included in my rent. Otherwise, I would drop it and go over-the-air and streaming shows. I don't have digital cable, and they've been dropping channels on the analog side (including 2 of the 3 PBS channels!).

I could definitely live without my iPhone - in fact, I've been contemplating canceling it and just go prepaid. The extent of which I use a cell phone is so miniscule, I wonder why in the hell I bought it in the first place.

@aph3x: I feel you buddy I'm in the same boat. I wanted to cut out $60 in my plan (2 iphones) but no can do...
They should consider allowing you to cancel your data plan

@squinko: If you get a Roku player, you'll only pay $100 once instead of $50 a year.

I dumped my landline last year, and last month I finally got up the gumption to dump cable (unfortunately my TV doesn't have a digital tuner, so until I get a converter box, I've got no TV at all for now). Unlike the other 99% of the country, I only use my cell phone once a week if that, so once the contract's up, I'm dumping it as well in favor of a go-phone.

But you'll have to pry hi-speed internet from my cold dead hands. That's the one thing I have to have.

@aph3x: Im on my iPhone right now and my data plan has been worth it's weight in gold. I'm in limbo with work right now and I have no access to the outside world. I couldn't even read news online because I had no Internet at work. My iPhone has rescued me from being under a rock.

@squinko: I figured out how to connect our computer to the TV because it's asinine to pay for a service that you get for Free on the PS3... or might have had Sony made a deal with Netflix. It's like holding your friends hostage: you can talk to them, but you can't shoot (CGI)people with them. Sigh. But I guess this is how they pay for all the extra content that has shanghai'd my husband into trading his PS3 Fallout 3 game for an Xbox360 version. *Cries* when the PS3 is a better media player, simpler, less annoying product.
I just want to agree with squinko.

Actually already went through my lists several times last year and trimmed the fat. The things I nixed were:

TiVo
Netflix
Fax service
Home phone service
All subscriptions (newspapers, magazines, etc)
Pool cleaning service
Weekly landscaper
Cigarettes
Booze
Eating out
Shopping for the sake of shopping
Jetski (not a monthly expense, but a big expense nonetheless)
Health insurance
Maid service (soon to be reinstated)

And if I need to trim further, the next things on the list will be:

DirecTV service
Goodies for the dogs
Phone plan drop to pay-per-minute only
Maid service again

That's really all I can trim out. Internet is a fact of life. Required for business. As is office lease, various licenses, payroll service, etc. Shutting those down means I'm unemployed and homeless.

@lilyHaze: Hulu all the way! Who needs cable?

We pared down our cable because Cox has a stranglehold on our new area and even though we are paying more than we were on satellite, we pared down so we have basic cable with the expanded channels they know they can sucker you in on and We dropped DVR and we have the second tier of Internet. We pay about $110 a month. It's managable and we get a lot of use from TV so it's worth it for us.

I was frugal when I had a job- no cable or landline. Now my cell and DSL are each both $30 and I really need them to look for a job. I don't have a data plan on my cell and even shut off texing.

The only other service I could cut would be Netflix, but a $17 it really isn't going to make a bit of difference(and I like it).

@pecan 3.14159265: I should clarify that there's no wifi for me to access in my building either. Sigh.

Too bad the iPod Touch doesn't have a microphone. It would make a great Skype Phone.

With the cheap cost of netbooks and the iPod Touch, and all of the free wi-fi available it makes sense not to pay the premium for a cell phone data plan.

@BZMedia: You got rid of health insurance?? Are you covered under your spouse's plan or something? If not, I worry that you'll face bigger financial headaches if you suffer an injury or catastrophic illness.

@BZMedia: You gave up health insurance but kept DirecTV and reinstated Maid Service? What if something terrible happens?

@NewsMuncher: Don't get me wrong. I love XBox Live as a service, we use it all the time to stream movies and my husband uses it sometimes to play with friends, but we don't do enough of either to justify the cost. I will look into that Roku player though. Thanks He!

@quail: Could you use a jailbroken iPhone as a skype phone?

@BZMedia: Don't take anything away from the dog! What did it ever do to you? ;)

Also, chiming in with "why the hell did you get rid of health insurance" group.

@Gene Gemperline: At least he has the maids to come and clean it up.

@squinko:
@Gene Gemperline:
@quail:

I dropped the health insurance because I had no choice. Structural company changes and a move from Maui to California left me no option to keep it. I simply haven't gotten around to setting it up again under the new deal. Wasn't chopped because of hardship. I probably shouldn't have lumped that in with the rest.

@BZMedia: Im not a dog owner but I can imagine treats for multiple dogs would get pricey. Maybe break a treat in half and split it between the dogs instead? I think my rabbit would mutiny if I stopped buying him carrots and parsley.

OMG NO! No data plan? Next thing you're going to start telling people is that they don't need text messaging! Everyone knows that it's impossible to live without text messaging!

At least I know that I'll never hear on Consumerist that you don't really need a cell phone or that you could just go with a pre-paid per minute plan and not be like this guy:

@metsarethe...: Tell me about it, man. It has been BRUTAL watching them. But I just can't quit them...

I guess I'd trim back my cell phone plan. We don't have cable; our landline costs us 50 cents a month (we pay the line charge and various fees to have DSL, and even with all that nonsense it's cheaper than cable internet); we don't have any home services; our only subscription is Consumer Reports (which I could avoid renewing if I needed to but I think I renewed for 3 years last time and paid it all then).

Other than that all the monthly bills are utilities. Man, at a certain point I got real boring!

I've gotten lazy about watching my grocery spending carefully, I suppose that'd be where I'd focus next.

@pecan 3.14159265: "...I can imagine treats for multiple dogs would get pricey..."

Indeed. A typical Costco run yields more dog supplies than stuff for ourselves. Chicken treats, bones, massive bags of food, boxes of biscuits.... right now they only get one treat each in the morning and a giant bone each every other day, but they'll go through a 50 lb bag of food in a week and a half. The bones are the killer. I think it's like, $25 a bag. If we run out and need to grab some at Safeway, it's around $6 for just a couple bones.
But we're good in the toy department. I've got a huge outdoor storage chest full of dog toys. (that they could really care less about) ;-)

@pecan 3.14159265: No internet at work?

*gulp*

Where do you work? A chinese shoe factory?

I wish I could cancel my data plan.But I don't have a computer and am looking for a job,so my cell is the only way to stay connected to the world at large.No TV,home Internet,or netflix/game subscriptions .

@quail: If you buy headphones with a microphone attached (IE the headphones they sell for the Iphone) you CAN use the Touch as a Skype phone.

@chris_d: I think most people do need a cell phone. Not everyone needs a landline but cell phones do what landlines can't - they go with you. I spend 10 hours of my day outside my home so like others, it's important to be able to communicate with people right away, without using company resources to make personal calls. I'd say that people need the landline less.

I examined a pay as you go and the savings were decent but not being able to port back to a contract stopped me from going that route.

Say what you will about "needing" things but a cell phone has more benefits than problems. I would never pay for a landline. My phone is not only used for calls, it's a mobile reading device and an source for entertainment.

@MostlyHarmless: there's Internet...I just can't get access to it yet, which has left me bored and without much to do. There are extenuating circumstances so it's not like they hired me to do nothing, but hopefully in a week or so I'll be up and running. But if I didn't have my iPhone I really wouldn't have a clue about what was going on out in the world. Thank goodness for my AP mobile app and alerts.

@pecan 3.14159265: "I examined a pay as you go and the savings were decent but not being able to port back to a contract stopped me from going that route."

I've been on the fence for a while now about it. The savings are borderline. The only way it pays off is if you barely use your phone at all (like me). I calculated that it would in fact be at least marginal savings for me, but not enough to justify paying ETF at the moment. So, when ETF is no longer a factor, I'll probably do it, but not before.

@pecan 3.14159265: so... you are getting paid - in this economy - to check news stories on your fancy iphone...

...

... are they taking applications?

Heh, I did the whole nine yards and tossed the cell phones too.

We dropped Netflix a bit over a year ago after doing some math and figuring out that it'd be cheaper just to buy the DVDs (which we're not) at the rate we were watching them.

Then AT&T started offering their TV service here and Comcast freaked out. They had door-to-door sales reps offering some amazing bundles. Now we have TV, internet, phone, and DVR for the price of what just our cell phones were costing so we did that and then dropped our cell service.*

On a grad student budget with a family, we're shedding 'necessities' like a dog sheds a winter coat. Suddenly there are nowhere near as many sacred cows as we once thought, about the only one is internet access.

If I time things right, I'll have graduated and gotten a job when the Comcast bundle discount expires and I can continue on at the new price. If not, well there's a lot of stuff in the bundle that can be shed then.

*We've got a prepay phone for emergencies. And that's a subject of a future rant. I love how the prepay minutes expire after 30 days, basically forcing you into a faux subscription.

@bdsakx: I am doing that this weekend. T-mobile really has the best prepaid that I have researched. I'm buying their $100 of minutes pack and a sim card. Transfer my number and save some cash.

@BZMedia: I make calls daily. Not having a landline means every appointment is made on a cell phone. Most carriers charge for daily use and if I have to spend 20 minutes on hold with customer service, that's costing me money. I can see the benefits but I really do enjoy having a smartphone and the ETF isn't worth it. If push comes to shove we will drop unlimited text.

@squinko: You could also try XBMC. But that does involved a little bit of work to install on your XBox.

@BZMedia: Yeah, I started out with pay as you go, so it didn't involve any additional fees. I pay the $100 per year in advance and never use it all, so I would probably actually do better with smaller incredments.

@squinko: You can generally get XBox Live 12 month (sometimes 13) at decent discounts -

[video-games.pricegrabber.com]

WalMart's also been known to have them in their discount bins for $20-30. I have no idea what's gone "bad" about them, but there they are. Just something to look into since you already have the hardware.

@MostlyHarmless: Haha. I got here and everything was set up...but then it wasn't and I'm in limbo. I do have work though.

Cable and Cable Internet. My mobile costs me less than $100 per month with full data for TWO phones and they are invaluable when on a job search.

However, I can get dry loop for cheaper than cable internet, possibly even if I up the speed to try to match the comcast internet reported speeds I don't come close to.

I don't need Cable TV at all. It's a pure luxury. Just kill the cable would save me $90/month or more.

@Silversmok3: Could you get a netbook for $300 or so and a low tier Internet plan for $30? it's more up front but if you switched to a prepay phone then you're only paying for Internet and the initial cost of the netbook.

We're not hurting too badly so we backed down our TV. It was cheaper to go to Dish's just HD package and it contained the channels we watch, and just those channels. That seriously saved us about $30 a month for right now (promotion).

Next, I switched to dry loop DSL with AT&T (small town IL, all we have). Supposed to save me $5 a month but is actually saving me $10 a month.

We're keeping Netflix because $13/mo (2 at a time plan) is reasonable for how much we watch.

I think the next thing to go is texting. We don't use it enough to justify what we're paying.

And at this point we REALLY need to cut back on eating out. That got out of hand the last couple of months.

@cartagenero: As much as I hate me some Sprint, I enjoy the $15/mo data plan. Does your job give you a discount on cell phones? Mine does.

@bdsakx:

It's Apple's marketing.

@pecan 3.14159265:

I don't think that would save him any money...The $30 internet service would offset dropping the data plan, and you'll have to dish out $300 for the netbook. Not to mention any kind of possible contract with your internet provider and the fact that the home internet doesn't travel with you.