Struggling In A Sea Of Subscription Services
Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!
My latest credit card bill has 11 subscriptions totaling about $150/month. This doesn’t even count our cellphone, internet, or meal kit subscriptions. Including those, a large share of our monthly spending comes from recurring charges. And I’m sure many SMwA readers are in a similar boat.
Three years ago, in The Annual Subscription Check-In, I urged readers to scour their credit card statement for subscriptions they could cancel or negotiate downward. Today, with streaming services starting to aggressively raise prices ($17.99/month for ad-free Hulu, really?), this advice is more important than ever.
Ethan Mollick (a great Substack author) recently linked to a new working paper finding that inattention causes us to spend vastly more than we want to on subscription services. None of us are immune—I’m so overwhelmed by the many streaming services we have for our kids that I’m pretty sure I mixed up Peacock (American Ninja Warrior) and Paramount+ (Spongebob) for the past three months, and the dollars at stake are rising rapidly.
And so, it’s time yet again to review your credit card statement and identify each of your recurring subscriptions. Ask yourself, zero-based budgeting style, “if I didn’t have this subscription, would I start it?” If not, it’s time to cancel. If you’re not sure, consider setting it not to auto-renew at the end of your current month and see if you notice when it’s gone.
And if you keep a subscription, try to figure out if you can get a deal. Some services won’t negotiate, but many will and will often give you as much as a >75% discount that you can renew each year, as my adventures with the NYTimes revealed. The same is true of many other services, though you may need to start the cancellation process to get to the deal.
And finally, if you subscribe to a streaming service for a single show, make sure to cancel after the season ends. I routinely set reminders in my favorite To-do app (Todoist) and use Gmail’s “snooze email” feature to remind myself to cancel unnecessary subscriptions. I shared my best tips for using reminders effectively in Don't Let Money Slip Through The Cracks (Of Your To-Do List).
Do you have any big wins, either from cutting unnecessary subscriptions or getting great renewal deals? I’d love to hear about them.
And now, Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:
A great profile of New York City’s enigmatic mayor, Eric Adams.
How Kroger Became the Biggest Sushi Seller in America
And a great performance of “Live and Let Die” by one of the world’s greatest cover bands, The Hindley Street Country Club:
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.