Streaming Subscription Tips - The Readers Respond
Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!
After reading last week’s post, Struggling In A Sea Of Subscription Services, one very helpful and longtime reader chimed in with some great tips of her own:
Out With The Gift Cards, In With The Gift Subscriptions
Ask for streaming subscriptions for holiday gifts: “I wanted Discovery+ to watch some HGTV shows last year so my sister purchased several months for me as my birthday gift. Also a great gift idea for that person who is impossible for shop for or hates more junk coming in their house!”
Always Look For Free and Discounted Offers
Your cable or internet provider and even your local library will often have free streaming options: “My sister received Peacock for free from Comcast for a couple years. At various times Target Circle has offered a couple months of Apple TV for free. Just remember to cancel before they start charging you![1] My library offers Hoopla and Kanopy. Another free service is PBS Kids; my kids love Wild Kratts and Odd Squad.”
Look for deals on Black Friday and other sales times: “After my Discovery+ gift subscription was up, I wanted to keep it going for a few more months. It was November, and they were offering three months for $0.99 for Black Friday. My sister also picked up a year of ad-supported Paramount+ last December for about $20.”
Discounted Gift Cards Can Be A Great Deal
Look for discounted gift cards you can use to pay for streaming subscriptions: “Costco had a great deal on Hulu gift cards for a couple years; right now it has discounted 6-month and 12-month subscriptions for Apple TV. When I pay with my Target credit card, I get 5% off the specialty gift cards they sell, including Netflix, Hulu, Apple, and Spotify. It's not nothing!”
Subscribe, Binge Watch, And Cancel
“My in-laws choose one streamer, watch everything they want on that one, then cancel and repeat. I have one current network TV show (Chicago Med) I like to watch that does not go to Hulu the next day. This past year I waited until the entire season had aired, subscribed to Peacock for one month, and binged all the episodes. Though I suppose we have a TV antenna so I could also just watch it when it airs on TV for free, but who does that anymore!?”
And now, Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:
From The Inheritance Case That Could Unravel an Art Dynasty:
[The paintings] were being held at the Geneva free port, a prisonlike complex of high-security storage facilities that is said to contain more art than the Louvre…It has been estimated that $100 billion worth of art and collectibles are held in the Geneva free port alone, to say nothing of those in Zurich, Luxembourg, Singapore, Monaco, Delaware or Beijing.
Also:
Some Travelers Abused Disability Accommodations. Now Comes the Crackdown.
Netflix Says You Can Keep Their DVDs (and Request More, Too)
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.
[1] If you can, cancel or deactivate auto-renewal right after subscribing. The only streaming service I’ve come across that cancels your account immediately if you do this, rather than at the end of the current subscription term, is Apple TV+. Very customer unfriendly, if you ask me!
Once you get how our income-based labor force really works (that high profits depend on low wages), you will finally see and understand all the reasons why a global system that can match people to jobs, resources to communities, and everyday needs and demands to local production, consumption, and recycling operations is more sustainable and ethical than monetary methods practiced today, mainly because scientific-socialism, compared to scientific-capitalism, is actually more democratic; it values and views this very basic, very intuitive belief “universal protections for all” as both a human and environmental right.