“Subscribe for free” is one of those phrases we’ve all heard, in a multitude of contexts. A lot of us have reached the point where we subscribe to everything, without really wanting the service, or fully knowing what that service is. It’s not a bad thing, you are likely to learn something new from clicking ‘subscribe’ on a list of newsletters, and if you don’t, the ‘unsubscribe’ button is always at the bottom of the emails.
Not all subscriptions are free however, and the majority of Americans have these kind of subscriptions. For example, the process in which your TV bill gets automatically payed is a subscription, so even your grandma is subscribed to something. It’s certainly convenient, but what we consider an upside of not having to remember to pay something every month can easily turn into a downside.
Today, a large portion of us have so many subscriptions we lose track of some of them.
Yes, you might be paying $9.99/month for services you don’t use at all, or rarely do. 10 dollars is not the end of the world for most people, but that’s $120 (plus tax) you waste every year, even more if you have multiple such subscriptions. For high school and college students, that money is important. It’s money you could have spent treating yourself during a stressful time, or the missing amount you could’ve bought your friends or family a Christmas gift with this year.
There’s a service called Trim that says its “users save an average of $180 per year by cancelling old subscriptions” and while asking Trim to cancel stuff for you is definitely convenient, convenience is what caused this in the first place. You grew up using the Internet, you can do this by yourself. Look for emails that have the word ‘subscription’ in them, or simply check your credit card statement. (It’s not that hard.) You’ll soon realize a large portion of the money you spend each month is going towards services you may have forgotten about, or simply spend too little time using for them to be worth paying a few tens or hundreds of dollars yearly.
Here are some things you could give up:
- Music streaming services. I know it’s hard deciding between Spotify and Apple Music (and/or other services) but pick one and buy a physical or digital copy of the album that’s not available on the streaming app of your choice. You’re still saving $100.
- Video streaming services. You don’t need to be subscribed to Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, Amazon Instant Video and YouTube Red at the same time. Make a list of the shows you watch and see where they’re available and where not. Paying for two or more of the above is wasting money.
- Monthly makeup subscription boxes. If you have more than one of these and you’re not a YouTuber or makeup artist, please pick up a pen and do some math right now. It may seem really cheap, but you’re paying money for things you probably won’t love, while you’re still going to be buying the expensive eyeshadow palette you wanted simultaneously.
- Print/online publications subscriptions. You don’t need to get all of your information from the same source. Check out stories from one paper, and when you hit the paywall, move on to the next. Major newspapers are all reliable, no matter what Donald Trump says. A very fast and reliable source is Twitter, although you shouldn’t believe everything you read. (President-elect Trump’s tweets, for example). And there’s always Affinity Magazine.
- Cable TV subscriptions. When was the last time you watched television on an actual TV voluntarily? With so many young people watching television shows online, on websites like Netflix, cable is simply not a necessity anymore. Plus, cable is overpriced.
Now that you’ve just saved some money, go treat yourself (or others) by going online shopping. Just because… it’s so convenient.
