In a few days my brother-in-law will be emailing to tell me I owe him $100.
It’s for my annual renewal of Sirius satellite radio.
(Note: we share a Sirius account with him, for reasons that are way too boring to discuss here. But sharing an account does save us money, at least I think it does.)
I never even considered satellite radio until I borrowed my brother-in-law’s car for an extended period of time when we first moved back to Phoenix. But I became a Sirius sucker for life after experiencing a few months of good music sans commercials.
Speaking of music, there are umpteen million channels on Sirius satellite radio.
The options are endless! So endless, that I only listen to ONE station on Sirius, seriously (you know that pun had to be done).
That’s right, I pay $100 per year for a single music station. But it’s a good station. And, it exposes me to new music so I don’t become an old fuddy-duddy who is unaware of what the cool kids are into.
So essentially, that $100 buys me instant indie cred (the station I listen to plays independent music, or “indie” music), which is important to me at the old age of 32. But this year as the due date for the annual fee was approaching, I was thinking of canceling my subscription.
Enter my new frenemy to help me talk this out, his name is Devil’s Advocate. I’m finding that conversations with Devil’s Advocate, or DA for short, are a financial right of passage.
Here is the conversation we recently had about Sirius radio…
DA: Lindy, do you really need to pay $100 a year for one radio station? Did you know that you can stream Pandora on your phone and achieve the same effect, for FREE?
Me: Yes, DA, I’ve thought of that. But do you know how complicated that is to achieve? It involves plugging in cables and finding a station to stream through, and pushing lots of buttons, and dealing with weak signals. I usually don’t have time to mess with all that.
DA: But what about CD’s, you have a whole cabinet full of them, like I said, FREE.
Me: Hmmm. That is something to consider. But I did that before, back in the days before mp3′s. I think I’ll leave that technology in the past, and take my instant tunes at the turn of the ignition. No CD’s or cables to fuss with. Just simple pleasures, and convenience. Good ideas though, keep ‘em coming (*thinking – terrible ideas DA, terrible*).
We have a similar conversation about canceling HBO, or heck, cable for that matter. Watching a good HBO series is a simple pleasure I indulge in every Sunday night, when I spend an hour folding laundry. And as for cable, well, this article at The Writer’s Coin explains it best.
DA: Lindy, did you know you can stream Netflix through the Wii? You probably wouldn’t even miss cable. You could save $1124 a year!
Me: DA, I know, but what about the kids? What will they watch? And will I have to navigate through lots of screens just to find something for them? Will that drive me crazy?
DA: The constant Nickelodeon already drives you crazy. When has less TV ever ruined a child?
Me: Sometimes I hate you Devil’s Advocate.
Another example, A-Rob has been contemplating buying Apple TV for $100 with his Christmas money. Apple TV is basically a box that makes it easier to stream iTunes from your computer to your television, which means your music, movies, and pay-per-episode television shows. Here’s an excerpt of a conversation we had a few nights ago…
A-Rob: If I had Apple TV, we could be listening to this music from the nice TV speakers right now, instead of these crappy laptop speakers.
Me (playing the role of DA): Don’t you have a set of speakers to dock your phone to?
A-Rob: Yes, but it’s in my car…and my back hurts.
Me: Can’t you stream iTunes through the PlayStation?
A-Rob: Yes, but the connection is terrible. And it’s my money. Leave me alone! (I may have added that last phrase to be more dramatic)
So with these three examples, Devil’s Advocate has offered to save us $1324, most of which would be annually, if only we agreed to sell our souls. Well, maybe not our souls, but at least our conveniences.
Simple pleasures and conveniences in life can be expensive. But weighing the pros and cons is a good way to determine what’s important to you. I don’t buy a lot of new clothes. A-Rob can attest to this because at least once every morning I’m griping about having nothing to wear. Not buying clothes allows me to justify my satellite radio addiction.
As for cable, Devil’s Advocate and I are still hashing that out. It is likely I will one day give in to DA and cancel the darn cable box, I just have to take the plunge. Actually, I have to wait until the final season of Big Love is over.
HBO, they have my number.
Do you find yourself talking to DA too? If so, who’s winning?
January 13, 2011 at 6:25 AM
I say keep Sirius, we have it. And I love it, but we live in a town that has 1 oldies station and a gajillion country stations. I am not particularly fond of country, but this makes me dislike it all the more. It is true, I do only listen to 1-3 channels, but they are great. Plus if you think about it it is only $8.33 per month for you that is a great deal, I pay a little over $14.
Your other devil’s advocate would like to say you can’t afford not to do it.
Cable, ahh. We did a test run of no cable. Only streaming the Wii or watching Hulu, for a week. We figured we could live without it, so we made the plunge.
January 13, 2011 at 12:31 PM
I agree…the whole point of watching our pennies is so we will have $$ for those things that we DO value!
January 13, 2011 at 8:37 PM
Oh am I ever sympathetic. On one hand I can say I don’t spend much on luxuries- we don’t have cable, new cars, clothing, and I have the cheapest pre-paid cell phone available….the list goes on. But I have a hard time cutting back on my hobbies.
January 14, 2011 at 3:47 AM
I’d love to get rid of cable for a while just to teach them a lesson. I just canceled my mom’s service because she’s going out of the country for a couple of months. Time Warner sent me a bill saying that not only is our premium going up another $5/month but they could also save us money if we move more of our stuff to them. That’s almost $80/month for basis now. (My area doesn’t have competition, so they do as they please)Sorry. I wish my husband would cancel cable but I doubt he’d give up his sports programming.
We did get a Blue Ray player so we can stream netflix. My initial observation is that although there are a lot of titles available, there is also a TON that is not. Most anything that’s popular, you can’t stream on your tv. (So, the new TV shows, popular cartoons, etc). It’s cool, but does not replace TV.
January 14, 2011 at 4:28 AM
Thanks for the link/mention! Cable is definitely one of those things I’d love to cut out but it’s not happening any time soon. And as for music…I’m quickly becoming a fuddy duddy because I don’t listen to stations like this. I’m relying on Pandora and Slacker.
January 15, 2011 at 4:00 PM
I am no help here but I just wanted to say that I would not pay for a radio station $100. But! I am the one who has Kindle and spends $20 and more on books a month. It is weird what people would pay for… Just a thought.
January 16, 2011 at 9:00 PM
And I don’t think I’ve bought a book in over a year. :)
January 17, 2011 at 11:20 AM
I have a serious addiction to Starbucks. So my conversation goes something along the lines of “It’s not the coffee, per se, but the experience. I get exercise riding my bike over to get my coffee which increases my health and lowers my health cost over my life time.” Versus, “You can save way more money making it at home.” Oh, decisions, decisions. But like you, I’m not a big shopper and don’t own a horde of clothing so I can justify my little expenses this way. (I think.)
January 17, 2011 at 1:14 PM
The Devil’s Advocate can be really useful. Sometimes annoying, and my experience has been that chronic DA-types can be persistently annoying.
That said….when I choose to listen, I often get either good advice or at least good food for thought, if nothing else. It’s worth the time to listen to such advice on occasion, as it can be helpful financially and otherwise.
Sometimes the DA makes a great point that you act on, other times the DA makes a really good point that is sensible for others but not for you. Some advice is universal, some is individual specific.
For me, I don’t want want to cancel cable (my daughter would be none too happy!), but I’d be able to do without the satellite radio. Again, that’s me:)