> May I tell you something: As a graduate student I have so much work to do that I hardly have any time for entertainment. Thus rather little money is spent on it. Could this be a hint for curbing the expenses for this kind of people?

No, it is a hint that you are making the wrong choices in life.

Entertainment in the form of television is cheap and widely available. Somehow people still like to argue that the poor should sell their televisions and stare at the wall.

Children also have a pretty constant demand for entertainment.

PBS alone is reason enough not to sell your TV.

Entertainment is a necessity. It has always been this way. From the Colosseum of Rome to Shakespearean theatres to television. People need it to relieve stress.

A little money is still money.

> There is so much educational stuff available on the internet and public libraries that I can't see a reason why there is a lot money to spend on.

> As a graduate student

You've presumably spent money on college, textbooks, etc.

> You've presumably spent money on college, textbooks, etc.

First: You have to distinguish between learning stuff (which can be done mostly freely or at least in a rather cheap way) and getting social recognition for it (the latter is why you go to college and pay masses of money for tuition).

Thus: You don't have to pay a lot for education but for getting social recognition for it.

Otherwise: I admit that in Germany, university is nearly tuition-free. I only bought few textbooks, since many of them were either available in the library or the lecture notes were pretty good. If no "official" lecture notes were available, students often agreed that everybody TeXes notes for one week to make an unofficial student-made lecture notes.

Thus: Yes, some money was spent, but there are options to keep the spending down.