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[juillet]

I agree.  I don't have cable - I've contemplated it for a while, but ultimately decided against it.  I do have Internet ($30/month) and a Netflix membership ($9/month) and that pretty much takes care of any TV I want to watch - streaming from hulu.com or similar, and getting unlimited movies.  It's actually now sort of a strange experience watching cable TV at relatives' or friends' houses, I never know what to turn to :)  You won't have time to watch much TV anyway.

I think what you DO need to do is decide what's important to you and make a budget for that.  As you can see different people in this thread value different things - I say I like to eat out, someone else says they don't eat out at all.  Some people have cars, others don't.  Some people would rather take out loans and pay them back in the future whereas others didn't do that...you have to assess how you want to live and what's important to you, whether you'd sacrifice eating out a couple times a month to pay for cable TV or whether you'd rather buy shoes than video games or whatever.

I think it's also important to remember that this is only a few years.  5-7 years on average.  That, in the grand scheme of things, is a very small chunk of time.  It makes me feel better to be so frugal when I realize that I'm setting myself up for the future (even if t-t jobs are not to be expected, doctoral degree recipients do earn more than bachelor's degree holders on the average).

[dr_prephd]

Something else to think about. I was just in a small town about an hour's drive away. Groceries at the store in the middle of nowhere are significantly cheaper than here in big city. If I was really trying to be frugal, a large cooler could get the groceries from there to here, and even factoring in gas money, would probably save me 50 bucks or so for a weeks' worth of groceries. The time investment isn't worth it for me, but may be for others of you who live in expensive places and have cars and a little free time.

[pink_]

I had cable, and it was worth every penny.  Not only because it helped me to be more focused (I have to have X number of papers graded before the game this afternoon), but because there comes a point where I just couldn't read any more, and I needed a way to get out of my head for a little while.  I made other kinds of sacrifices to cover the cost, and I didn't have any of the pay channels like HBO.

Public transportation, if it is an option.
Happy Hours
Coupon cutting
Summer jobs (I taught SAT summer school, temp'ed, and did some freelance writing)
Student discounts on anything and everything.
Running or hiking or walking outside instead of the gym membership, or using the gym on campus for free.
Cheap cell phone plan
No land line