Not having cable seems like a great idea…except for all those times when you wish you had cable. Like during football season. And season premieres. And season finales. And the State of the Union. And Tuesdays.The hidden costs of not having cable can be sneaky at first. You head down to the bar to catch the game and end up ordering four beers for yourself and two for Bob, the maybe-kinda-sorta-homeless guy who hangs out on the last barstool. Fine if you do it once, but if you're a hockey fan and your team makes it to the playoffs, that's a lot of beers (and a lot of Bob's alien invasion theories). Other cable-free lifestyle decisions can have more insidious costs: to your wallet, your liver, and your psyche. It's all just the tip of the cable orphan iceberg. Luckily, there's a treatment for this annoying, but curable, affliction: Sling TV. But more on that later. Here's a more detailed run-down of the hidden costs of not having cable: not just in cold, hard, American currency, but also in blood, sweat, and tears.

The true suckage of not having cable can hardly be contained in a single infographic…but when you weigh it against cable's hefty price tag, it's like being stuck between The Rock and a hard place. Fortunately for TV-loving humans everywhere, there's now a perfect compromise: Sling TV, which live-streams TV in realtime for just $20 a month.

This lifesaver (and money-saver, and face-saver) of an invention includes instant access to 20 channels including ESPN, AMC, HGTV, TNT and more, so you can stuff your face with sports, events, and entertainment without any of the blood, sweat, and tears. (Not convinced? Try it for a week for free and watch your wallet swell and your bodily fluids remain conveniently inside your body.)

Anna Schumacher is a freelance writer and the author of the YA doomsday series End Times, out now from Razorbill Books.

This post is a sponsored collaboration between Sling TV and Studio@Gawker.