[Dick Holmes]

Now, Joe needs light, energy, heat, and air conditioning to run his home. According to the Energy Information Administration, the average US household used about 920 kilowatt-hours per month in 2008. At a national average price of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour this comes to a monthly electrical bill of $101.20.

The mistake here is that a lot of houses don't heat with electric. They burn gas or oil.

Later in the article, Joe needs to pay 300-400 a month for cell phones, cable TV, internet and such. This is not a need. My wife and I have prepaid cellphones. A thousand minutes lasts a year, for $100. Mine carry over and I pay less than $100 a year. My wife uses her cell phone more, but still keeps it down to ~250 a year. This is about $30 a month for both. Our TV, Internet and land line are bundled for $100 a month plus fees, but in a pinch we would just have Internet and use Vonage for phone; there is no reason to "need" cable TV, especially if you have Internet.

[SeekAndFind]

there is no reason to "need" cable TV

Yep, that's true right there.

Cablevision in my area already costs $160/month for triple play of phone/cable/internet. That's close to $2000 a year right there.

Why do you need cable when you can get all your TV for free on the internet via HULU ?

Better still, go to the library and borrow a good book. It will be better for you than the trash you get on cable.

[cynwoody]

The mistake here is that a lot of houses don't heat with electric.

Electric heat would cost a lot more than $101.20.