Landlords know that when it comes to choosing which bills tenants choose to pay first and which are set aside, the rent is usually near the top of the deferral list for tenants - new brakes for their car, cable/internet etc always seem to be a higher priority.
For us, it's always been the opposite, and I have very little understanding towards people who would act like you describe below. What good is a working car if you have no home to go to? Same for cable/internet, if you lose access to the property, how can you use the internet or the cable that you paid for? Rent is usually the biggest single monthly expense for tenants (I could be wrong, but it is for us, and always has been), so if you fall back on that, you might get yourself in serious trouble, as you might not be able to pay 2 months at a time, if your landlord would be to kind enough to accept one month delay. So once you get behind on rent, getting back on top of that might be easier said that done.
I would rather use other means of transport or go by foot than not pay my home on time...
All that above being said, my father-in-law is a landlord, whose all tenants are from here. I have heard some "nice" stories, I would not want to be in his shoes...