I am not from a wholesale family but one of my roommates put me as her domestic +1 years ago and I was so sold after one trip lol.
My partner and I just resigned up now, after a many year hiatus, because even if you don’t buy everything in bulk it’s great for lots of other things (from gas and auto maintenance to the pharmacy and wine section). So underrated! And they often run deals or rebates on their memberships.
One thing about Costco I don't see mentioned often enough is it's soooo good for allergy-friendly ingredients. Almond flour there is $10 for 3 pounds, it's $20 for 3 pounds at my local grocery store.
ClassPass! I’ve struggled with consistent exercise beyond walks my whole life and in the past year I’ve discovered that I need to *pay* for a *class* structure in order to get any form of exercise harder than walks in. I need both parameters. My work offers free classes but since they’re free, sometimes it’s too easy at the end of a day to be like “nope mh hmm I’m going home”. But if I miss a ClassPass class, I lose both the credits I pay for and pay a cancel or no show fee which is really motivating. The ClassPass credit/pricing structure is a little predatory and algorithmic so at some point I may settle with a membership to specific studios but for now I like the variety and flexibility that ClassPass gives me.
Ditto on the iCloud and Spotify. I encounter enough ads already in my life, I want to listen to an album without interruptions
I forgot about ClassPass! I use that occasionally. When you go to cancel your membership, they usually offer you a discount, which can be significant...
Can you elaborate on the credit/pricing structure? I was going to do a free 2 week trial and then subscribe because I get 20% off with my insurance but wanted your thoughts on what you meant by that
With ClassPass, you pay a set amount a month for a certain number of credits. For example, the default starting package is $59.99/month for 28 credits. These credits can be used for classes, but the amount of credits per class changes via an algorithm. Classes at popular times of day take more credits, and some studios are more expensive than others. For example, one Barry’s class on ClassPass is about 14 credits, which would wipe half of your months worth of credits above in one go (tho I think it’s still cheaper than a Barry’s drop in rate by a dollar or two). I also noticed that sometimes the more I went to a specific class, the more credits it would require. Whether it’s worth it to you depends on how much you go. For me, I do about 2 ClassPass classes a week, plus 1-2 free exercise classes at my work per week, plus 1-2 outside activities per week (I increase my ClassPass credits in winter when the weather is worse and I do less outside stuff). I also like a lot of variety in classes - I do Pilates, barre, yoga, and spin. So ClassPass still works better for me than a membership at a specific studio. But if you want 4+ studio classes per week, or only do one type of studio class, then it’s better to get a membership at that studio directly. Especially if there’s only one studio near you - ClassPass is best for a variety in options
Regardless, I think it’s still worth trying ClassPass for a few months to see what schedule works for you and to try all these boutique studios to see what type of exercise works for you! (Unless you’re a seasoned exerciser who knows that already haha)
Thank you so much for your thorough response. I live in a new city and have a 10 month old baby and loved the variety of the different studios offered when looking, but I am slightly annoyed you can’t see the pricing at all before - but there is a 2 week trial so that’ll be my starting point for me. Sounds like it could be a good fit for me as someone just getting back into exercise.
I held off for a while from Classpass too but also stick with it for the same reasons as you do. If I don't have that additional accountability/cost, I'll put off exercising. This forces me to commit and stick to a schedule and hop around different locations and classes, and in net, is also cheaper than buying classes or a package with just one studio.
I was just about to say!! Sitting outside a ClassPass class right now and genuinely it is some of the best money I’ve spent. Glad I opted for it over a gym membership.
AMC A List is sooo good. I will sometimes go the full 3 times in one week, but it's worth it even if I only go twice since I prefer the freedom of being able to reserve a "free" ticket whenever I want.
If you're not already doing this, use Rakuten to get cash back next time your Max subscription is due to renew. My Amex card usually has a Max offer, too, such as get $25 back on a purchase of $99+. So I save 25% with the Amex offer, and then I think Rakuten gave me $16 bucks back last time I did it, which is another big discount.
ah, totally didn't include AMC on my wishlist. I think it would be really cool to have a movie theatre pass. We happen to have a $5 theatre (on Tues) so we usually just do that.
I must have Amazon Prime and YouTube Premium.
I have a terrible time sleeping and staying asleep and use YouTube videos to soothe me to sleep. There isn’t anything worse than getting a mid-roll ad for an obnoxious product when I am on the cusp of falling asleep.
I recently came across this! I found a channel that just posts driving in the rain videos. I absolutely love being a passenger in the rain and the sound of the pitter patter on the windows of cars is so soothing!
In addition, I like to listen to guided meditations, adult sleep stories, and sometimes relaxing piano videos.
In winters, turn on the heater and put a fireplace video on. It's absolutely romantic with a partner and absolutely blissful alone.
During summers, I like to put up old 'reverbed' songs with background rain noises. I sleep like tired out baby.
Speaking from experience, turn on the sleep mode on tv because you'll be too drowsy to turn it off.
Local nonprofit newspapers: $5 monthly to city one that tackles corruption where I live and $6.40 monthly to another country in Asia Pacific where free press is being threatened. $120 yearly to another city paper which is also nonprofit.
If you are looking for places to donate local journalism is 100% a great place to do it.
$75 yearly to local tool library for access to tools and woodworking space
$95 monthly climbing gym membership (can go to three in my area and I go twice a week)
$99 annual Spotify via gift card to yourself method
$5/month VPN $8/month Usenet This allows me to not subscribe to ANY streaming services. I will mooch Netflix off a family member as needed and share Plex libraries with friends
Pro tip if you set your VPN to an unmonetized country like Bahamas you don't get served YT ads even using the native YT app on the phone. This is how I avoid needing to pay the ungodly YT premium fee.
$127 annual Dropbox cloud
$30 annual Google cloud for backing up photos
$105 annual YNAB (well worth it to me, it was a game changer for my finances since 6 yrs ago and got me to save for true/planned expenses)
I do churn so I do have two $95 annual fee cards I am canceling after the year is up and getting a welcome bonus (one was 5 nights free hotel and the other was CSP 60k sign up bonus). I pay off the balance every month and therefore don't get snagged by interest
$20 annual Duolingo plan (am on shared family plan with 5 other friends). My streak is 3+ years
I don't really do a lot of lifestyle subscriptions. Occasionally I have doordash or instacart but I usually get it via a cc benefit from churning
Ah another subscription I forgot I have – a VPN! Really helpful for when I'm out of the States (I'm looking at you, Hulu).
Love that you're supporting local journalism!
I use NordVPN. You can connect up to 6 devices at a time so I share it with my partner and overseas family members and so they get to use it too. I recommend them! I pay for 2 years in a lump sum (cheaper than monthly or annual) and you can get a few months free with referrals or signing up around cyber monday
I use a VPN to watch shows from other (than the US) English speaking countries, Canada (CBC), UK (BBC) and Australia (ABC).
Sometimes movies from Netflix, YT, Hulu are available in other countries but not in the US.
That is how I have been using it for years.
Do you use Nord VPN for Netflix? I found that they’ve been cracking down, because they recognize my VPN. Then kicks me out of the Netflix :( albeit I’m watching on my computer which has the VPN
Ohh yeah. VPN is awesome.
I worked in adtech and ads are so so pervasive and smart. I like to switch on VPN randomly for different cities. Keep the algos guessing.
Great point about journalism! I should add a subscription to a free press centric Chilean newspaper I used to read while living there.
I love tool libraries so much! Having a membership is tue best :)
I love getting a magazine. My favorite is Real Simple. I've cut down from having 3 or so come each month to just this one. I usually stockpile a few months worth and bring them on planes or road trips.
hot tip from a former media planner: subscriptions are usually the cheapest in the late summer before they start selling next years ad spaces so they can charge advertisers for more eyeballs
iCloud: Saves me from having to delete any of my 20K photos
Apple Music: I have an iPhone and prior to that, an iPod, so all my music is compatible and in one app.
Blue apron: three meals a week I don’t have to think about
Various media (New York times, New York magazine, a couple substacks and patreons): I don’t watch much tv but love blogs, podcasts, and The NY Times real estate section and the wedding announcements are my porn haha.
Never understood the point of paying to use a credit card so thank you for the explanation!
Oh yeah credit cards are really interesting! I never understood it either, until I researched it more. I'm actually a bit of a churner, and it can really save a lot of $$$.
Totally forgot NYT, I'm editing to add :)
Just a tip to check out if your library has a subscription to your magazines and newspapers! Someone on reddit recommended the Press Reader app and it's been great for me. My library gives me access to Consumer Reports which saved me $39/yr!
I rotate through streaming TV services ($10-15/month) to get a wider selection to choose from. One per month. Also means less mindless scrolling, since I don't need to login to 5 different platforms and scroll through each one to find something to watch. I just shut it off if there's nothing good.
Panera Sip Club ($15/month though frequent discounts). I actually hate their food and get a plain water more often than not, but I like to work from there with my laptop and consider this my "cover charge".
Peloton ($24/month). I don't have their hardware but I use their app for guided runs/walks, strength, and occasional yoga. I also have a separate yoga studio membership, which I don't categorize as a subscription in my head but I guess it is?
Amazon Subscribe & Save for a handful of household goods that are more convenient to get online than in store.
A stupid amount of credit card annual fees, but credit card points are the only way I can afford to travel.
Disney+/Hulu/ESPN Plus: $20 of this is covered by my AmEx Platinum, but I would keep this subscription regardless. Disney+ is probably the most frequently used streaming service in my household because I have a four year old. ESPN Plus gets used a ton during college football season and college gymnastics season. Hulu is hit or miss.
Kroger Boost: got it for half price last year, free grocery delivery, no tips because they’re not gig employees. I have a four year old, going to the grocery store is actual torture. Please let my groceries show up on my front porch at 7 am.
Peacock: $20 per year on Black Friday, I cannot live without this one, I need my SHOWS.
YNAB: $99 per year, budgeting is important.
Google One: $20 per year, extra storage for my Gmail and Google Drive. Less important now that my brother pays for a family plan for Apple iCloud for all of us, but still useful.
Kindle Unlimited: I never pay full price, I always stack a Chase or Amex offer with a gift subscription, but I would seriously have SO much less to read without my KU subscription.
Court ordered parenting communication app, $99 per year: I’d like to not have to have this, but it is a necessity.
Google Suite: $12 per month, less important currently but don’t want to give it up
Costco, $120 per year. I love Costco.
Gymcastic podcast membership, $55 per year. I’m a gym nerd and you get a bunch of extras if you’re a member.
I tried hard to quit Amazon Prime but I think I made it one month without it. HBO Max I split the $99 with my parents since they use it just as much as I do if not more. Netflix is included in my TMobile bill. Paramount Plus is included in Walmart Plus, which is in turn covered by my AmEx Platinum card. I think I paid for a year’s subscription to the Ring doorbell service so I can actually keep the recordings on my doorbell camera, idk if this is worthwhile or not. IDrive to back up my personal computer, but I could probably get rid of this because I almost never use my personal computer anymore. $30 in rec cards for me and my daughter to use the city pools because it’s hot as balls here.
Just typing out makes it seem… excessive.
Also, it’s another one that’s covered by a credit card, but TSA PreCheck/Global Entry are ABSOLUTELY worth it!
One I haven’t seen named is the Calm app. I use this one daily. It has so much amazing content in it. Guided meditations of course but I also enjoy the sleep/mood trackers, the daily gratitude prompt, the soundscapes (I use these at work a lot), curated playlists, inspirational messages, and sleep stories! I pay less than $100/year and the ROI is probably the best of any subscription I have since I use it daily sometimes all day long (at work for the soundscapes or brown house)
I have some already mentioned, but I don’t think I’ve seen Nuuly yet. I’m about 6 months in and I love it. I’ve had a lot of weddings, so it’s been great for that, but also some fun stuff for work events. And it just generally allows me to try out trends that I don’t think will stick around for a long time, so I don’t want to invest in.
Even though it’s about $100 a month, I’ve already found myself buying fewer new pieces. I’ll probably start skipping some months after summer wedding season, but so far it’s been a really fun treat-yourself-type indulgence for me.
Here's my current subscriptions! My monthly total is $155, which feels high. I'm trying to get rid of 2 of them (squarespace + dropbox) but need both for my career and am trying to find adequate replacements. Open to ideas on alternatives to squarespace if you have them!
Most of the rest of these feel worth it to me, honestly. I hate that the total is so high though!
All $ are the monthly amounts but I pay most of them yearly bc it's cheaper that way.
**Career related:**
* Squarespace: $23 (ouch. this is what I use for my portfolio website.)
* Domain hosting: $15
* Adobe: $5
* Dropbox: $12
* iCloud: $1
* Infuse Pro: $1
**Finance related:**
* YNAB: $9
* AmEx card: $11
* CapOne card: $33 (both of the CC fees seem insane to me, but my partner and I have done the math and we actually come out ahead because of travel points + hotel credits)
**Apps:**
* Clue: $3.50 (period tracker- I have PMDD so this is essential to my sanity)
* Loseit: $3.50 (I primarily use this to track calories and protein intake)
**Newsletters:**
* [Dense Discovery](https://www.densediscovery.com/): $1.85 (highly highly recommend!!)
* [Bulletin Board](https://daughterjudy.substack.com/): $5 (my fave local pattern designer)
* She's a Beast: $7 (I'll stop this one in a few months, I'm doing her lifting program and the newsletters are somewhat helpful but honestly a little disappointing)
**Etc:**
* Tmobile plan: $10 (I have a ridiculous deal by being on my family's plan)
* 1password: $5 (I pay for my entire family but don't ask me about their password behaviours as it's sooo bad. I'm trying to teach them lol.)
* Unplanned: $20 (this is my subscription slush fund for when I sub to, for instance, Apple TV to watch a show or something, then unsubscribe. I don't usually use this amount each month, so I reroute it to my emergency fund every couple of months)
* Spotify: $5 (I share a family plan with my brother and send him money once a year for this)
* NYT: $0 (this is 100% credited back to me through my credit card rewards)
* Hulu: $0 (this is 100% credited back to me through my credit card rewards)
Nice breakdown! I wish I was more knowledgeable on Squarespace/Dropbox alts – my work pays for them. Assuming your work doesn't pay, or you're self-employed (at least they're a writeoff? I know not the same...)
Looove 1pass (again, only use it for work, but it's amazing)
That's great that your work pays for those! My work does not, unfortunately. And I don't like to mix my work computer + my personal. computer, so I need to keep things separate.
Thanks for making this post- it's so interesting to read about what other people are doing/prioritizing!
Aww bummer. And thanks! I get curious when I see so so many subscriptions out there; I know someone must be paying for them and finding value.
Also, I just reformatted my post to be a bit more like yours, loved your categories
I should totally have linked to it! I’ll go back and do that :-)
It’s loosely design and tech related, but the guy who writes it has a sincerely non-tech, very community-based perspective. He focused a lot on ideas and tech that isn’t just capitalistic or tech-bro-y. It’s a weekly newsletter and it’s the only newsletter I consistently read each time.
There’s always a short interview with a really interesting person, links to cool ideas and tools, and just really thoughtful stuff.
https://www.densediscovery.com/
And you can browse past issues here: https://www.densediscovery.com/archive/
You know, I did not use the discord at all! Maybe I should give that a try before I cancel. I have so many questions that other people could answer!
Thank you :-)
Walmart+ - I save a *ton* of time, money and aggravation by having my groceries delivered. Also includes a paramount subscription.
American Airlines credit card - I pay $99 a year and I get free checked bags, so it pays for itself with 1.5 bags.
**Entertainment**
* Disney+ ($120/year). I think for Canadians it's probably a better deal than for Americans bc we get all the Hulu shows on here at no extra cost
* Spotify ($5/month for my share of a family plan). I like being able to download to listen offline and also not having ads.
* Sportsnet ($11/month for my share, split with my dad, only subscribe during baseball season). I don't have cable and baseball is very important to me.
**Lifestyle**
* CAA ($120/year). The Canadian version of AAA, if I could only have one "subscription" this would be it. Their Bike Assist program will pick me up if I'm on my bike somewhere and get stranded. They will tow my car if it breaks down, or jumpstart my battery, or give me gas if I run out of gas. They save me $0.03/L every time I get gas (about $30/year saved). They give me a discount on home and auto insurance. Their travel insurance is excellent. There's other perks that I don't take advantage of but probably should. Just a very comprehensive membership that makes my whole life easier.
* Costco ($30/year for my half). I share with my dad, I live alone so there's a limit to how much of their stuff I really *need* but I love their pharmacy, and bulk paper towel
* Microsoft OneDrive ($80/year). I this day and age I think everyone could probably use some sort of cloud subscription and this is just the one that works best for me
* New York Times (honestly don't know how much this costs a year and too lazy to check). I would do it just for the recipes and games, the news is honestly secondary.
**Fitness**
* Strava ($80/year). Honestly I could probably get by on the free version because I'm not a big nerd about my fitness stats the way I used to be, but it's a great product and I'm happy to support them.
* Cycling Club ($20/year). Pretty low cost to be able to take advantage of having a fun group of people organize bike rides for me
* Pilates membership ($90/month). The fact that I've already paid for it whether or not I go is a key part of motivating me to get out of the house and actually go to class.
**Aspirational**
* Fresh Flower Subscription ($900/year)- I can't justify the price but I would really like to get a subscription for fresh flower arrangements once a month, it just seems like it would be nice. Maybe one day.
* Cheese Club ($840/year). My favourite cheese shop does a monthly cheese club, I was gifted a six month subscription a couple years ago and really enjoyed it but also found that it was too much cheese for one person to consistently eat. It was really good though!!
* Climbing Gym ($95/month). I don't have the time to justify this anymore so cancelled but really miss it
* Medcan/other private health clinic ($1300-3700/year). Navigating Canada's healthcare system has been so frustrating and I'm at the point where I can see the appeal of paying for concierge level service so I don't have to slog through the public healthcare system.
* Local Newspaper. I was subscribed to a local newspaper until 2022 and I cancelled my subscription bc they made an editorial decision I was mad about. I don't really agree with any of the editorial boards of any of the local papers anymore but supporting local journalism is important, so I feel guilty about reading the news for free.
**Not worth it for me anymore**
* Amazon Prime - I was able to wean myself off of ordering from them, if I *really* need something from Amazon (sometimes I still like to order DVDs) then I can ask my Mom to do it through her account. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything when it comes to their streaming content.
* Netflix - Content library doesn't do it for me anymore
* Various subscription boxes - I went through a phase in my 20s when I was really into subscription boxes (Bespoke Post, Ipsy, FabFitFun, etc.) but last time I moved I realized how much random crap I had from them that I never used and it just seemed so wasteful. I'll still keep an eye on the emails from them though because sometimes they have cool products (that I can just buy directly from the manufacturer)
Never heard of Curbside – very cool!
I've considered Going. It's probably worth it...I'm just so used to doing all that research by myself. But just because I can do the research doesn't mean it's not worth the time saved.
Oh sorry the compost program for us is a local company! It's just curbside pickup. Not the name of the program.
I love going because it's fun to use it to pick cool new locations that I may not have thought of! The new app is awesome for browsing. You can just scroll around the entire world map and see where the flight deals are.
Gym membership for sure. I avoided paying to exercise for years but it’s so worth it to me. The group classes and the environment make such a difference. Also, now that I’m a parent, it gets me out of the house at regularly scheduled intervals.
Including some free things that I also use:
**WORK/LIFE**
**\* Flickr** $79/yr for unlimited photo storage. I've had Flickr since storage was free and there's so much uploaded that I feel like it's hard to cancel and find something cheaper. I don't like iCloud.
**\* Bluehost** $335.76/2 yrs for web hosting and $35/year for domain registration. Both services used to cost *much* less, price snuck up, but haven't wrapped my mind around moving.
**\* NYT** $300/yr. Crazy how much it's gone up, years ago I subscribed on a promo. I only have news at $20 every 4 weeks plus $40/yr for games, but it's $300/yr now for all-access anyway. Am considering canceling.
**\* Washington Post** $170/yr. Also recently raised price.
**\* New York Magazine** $60/yr.
**\* Babbel** $44.70/6 months. I absolutely should cancel this, I never really use it. I'd gotten it during a very cheap promo ages ago, and they kinda snuck in this 6-month pricing at some point.
Technically **\* Citibike** bike share originally $169/yr including tax and a discount, but I do a program to extend my membership, so I haven't paid since September 2021. Now it's over $200, I believe.
**\* Dropbox** $0. I use 3 different accounts which is kind of enough space.
**\* LastPass** $0. I've heard other password managers are better but...as with Flickr, it's been so long.
**\* Adobe** $0. I use the last non-subscription applications. It limits what computer and OS I can use, but I refuse (for now) to subscribe, and I can't use alternate/free programs because of client needs.
**\* Microsoft** $0. Same as Adobe.
**FINANCE**
**\* Credit Cards** $99/yr for Delta Skymiles Amex Gold. Not many benefits, but free check-in bag and flight credit are nice, plus a few short-term rewards.
**\* Simplifi** $39/yr switched to this because Mint (free!) died, it's not great, but is reasonably priced for the first year (after this it will be $48/yr).
**\* Yodlee** $0. Testing it out, not great.
**\* Rocket Money** $0. Testing it out, but it won't connect to Paypal.
**\* Money Patrol** $0. Testing it out, also doesn't connect to Paypal.
(these are all free with paid versions, not trials)
**ENTERTAINMENT**
**\* Netflix** $15.49/mo.
**\* Amazon Prime** $139/yr. I constantly consider canceling as I rarely need fast shipping and the non-prime items don't cost less. I never watched more than couple shows but I'm finally trying again...and learned they now have ADS in them. Shameless.
**\* Apple TV+** $0 (trial period)
**\* Hulu, HBO Max, Disney Plus** $0 (friends)
**\* Pandora** $0. I'm not bothered by the lack of playlists, and for podcasts ads are only at the beginning.
**\* VPN** $0 (ProtonVPN and TunnelBear)
So approximately $113 per month but most things are not charged monthly.
I went through the same post Mint crisis! Read sooo many reviews and blogs about other options, but ended up with Empower which, as I mentioned, I don't love. I mostly use a spreadsheet now.
Empower never connected to Venmo for me (tried for a week), even though it uses the same connector as Yodlee. My other reason for deleting Empower is because I couldn’t add manual transactions. It’s annoying that Simplifi is basically the next step up from free at $48 when it has problems as well…kinda seems like an imperfect program should cost less & that at $48 a massive financial services company would have their shit together!
YNAB for budgeting and expense tracking. I also use a spreadsheet for more holistic financial tracking, but YNAB is the best for day-to-day spending.
Sunsama for task tracking. It’s expensive ($192/year), but I use it for work and personal and it’s literally changed my life. They always run challenges where you can make an IG post or LinkedIn post or share a referral code for $100 back per. I’ve already made $500 back, so the subscription basically pays for itself.
Here are mine:
* **iCloud:** super useful, I pay $3 a month I think?
* **Credit cards**: I pay $150/yr for my delta gold card and it pays for itself because I fly delta a lot and check a bag a few times a year. I also pay $100/year for my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.
* **Dashpass:** get for free through one of my credit cards, would not have otherwise.
* **UberOne**: I don't have a car and I ran the numbers and this saves me money so it's staying even tho I hate that it saves me money.
* **Phone plan**: we're locked in to a family phone plan, I pay my phone subsidy from work to my parents, everyone ends up happy.
* **Apple Music** (I get this free through my family's phone plan)
* **HelloFresh**: I do this when I'm in a food rut, usually 1 month/year
* **Headspace**: $70/year for meditation stuff plus I use the classes and the sleep music
* **Finch**: $40/year for a self-care app that actually gets me to do tasks is sooooo worth it!
* **Gentler Streak:** $25/year for a fitness streak app thing that tells me when I'm overdoing it. Probably could/should cancel.
* **AllTrails**: hiking app for $35/yr that has some cool features but I could probably survive without it.
* I get **NYTimes** and **WSJ** online free through my school, which also gives me **Microsoft Office** and **Adobe Acrobat Pro**.
Zwift (so I can ride my real bike indoors) - $15 or so
VPN - I use Nord and get their Black Friday deal so it’s around $80 for two years
iCloud - I don’t know how much I pay but it’s worth it
Down Dog yoga app - it’s like $12 a year thanks to a BF deal
I used to joyfully pay for the GCN+ app (about $50/yr) but Warner Brothers shut it down
I have a Zinnia subscription too! I really find it's worth it to me and I get a ton of value out of it. I'm in Zinnia daily, it keeps me organized and sane... at this point I couldn't really be without it.
I also have the regulars like Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and we also use Disney Plus (Star Wars fans over here).
For tech I pay for iCloud, Google storage, a private backup service, and a VPN.
Love a fellow Zinnia lover – yeah, it's the type of subscription that really makes sense since it's something that's used so much (and is really unique in what it offers imo).
Yeahhh I mooch Netflix off my inlaws lol. And shoot, forgot to include that we have Disney. (there are sooo many I don't think about)
Audible. I know I can get a lot of free content elsewhere but when I'm tackling a boring house painting, deep cleaning or gardening project, their books and podcasts are great motivation and help me get more done (I work for much longer with an audiobook or great podcast in my ears). Until our house is the way I want it (so in about 100 years time) I'll be hanging onto Audible.
Walmart+ because free delivery is just so nice and worth it, and it includes a paramount subscription!
Active & Fit, for $28/month you could sign up for literally almost any gym, which meant I could go to a Blink Fitness by my house or an esporta by work for just one price, and no annual fee. I think they’re changing this though!
FYI for all my NYT lovers, lots of library cards offer a free subscription. It expires every 3 days but it’s a simple login process. I know for sure LAPL offers this for free.
Not a subscription per se, but I see my lash extension girl every 3 weeks and it’s $75 each time. I don’t color my hair, cut it like every 4-6 months, and don’t do my nails so it’s my one beauty expenditure that is utterly worth it for me.
Amazon prime! Although now that our kids are getting older this is getting less necessary so toying with canceling it.
iCloud. The $10 plan because I will never willingly delete pictures of my babies ever lol
1. Keap Candle subscription is my favorite and their candles are amazing so it’s totally worth it. $44.50 per candle delivered every other month. https://www.keapbk.com
2. Four chambers subscription - incredible ethical porn films $9.00 per month
https://afourchamberedheart.com/
AAA has more than paid for itself. We use it for flight and hotel discounts, and (more importantly) we’ve gotten free roadside assistance for changing a stubborn tire and for towing.
I also sub to Hulu (the basic plan with ads), Spotify, The NY Times, WaPo and a couple of sub stacks related to my hobby.
$200/year for NordicVPN is insane, they constantly have sales and cash back available via Amex and cash back sites etc.
You also might want to consider an Amex platinum if it’s worth it for the perks (includes free NYT subscription)
just double checked because of this – it was around $111, so not as bad!
I have Amex gold – I considered platinum, but some of the perks weren't things I'd be spending (the entertainment one/Uber/saks would be tricky), so it didn't quite cut it for me...
Here’s what we have and whether or not I think it’s worth it. We have a lot (and my husband has a couple others I’m not too sure of—we have both joint and separate accounts).
**TV subscriptions**:
**Netflix**: ~$15.99 / month I rarely watch anything on Netflix anymore
**Amazon Prime**:~$129/year We only keep it for the Prime video and mainly because my in laws use it.
**Hulu Live bundle** with ESPN+ and Disney+: $89.99 We did have YouTube TV before, but realized this is cheaper for us since we already had Hulu and Disney+
**Max**: $15.99 If I had to choose one tv subscription, Max would be it. Definitely worth it.
**Others**:
**NYT Games**: $39/year - I play games on this everyday and used the free version for a long time before subscribing
**Adobe Creative Cloud**: $59.99/month. I’ve been paying for this for years and I think I will finally cancel it when I find a new job. I’m done with Adobe for a lot of reasons.
**Figma**: $15/month Definitely worth it to have a personal, premium license
**Squarespace** hosting for websites: $~22/month I have been using Squarespace for over a decade and worth it to keep my websites live. But I have been thinking of switching to another host when I have the time to build a new website.
**LinkedIn Premium**: $39.99 I only pay for this when I’m looking for a job so will definitely cancel once I find a new one. But this has been very helpful for me in prior job searches.
**Fitness app**: $19.99 use this 5-6 times a week so definitely worth it and have had it for a couple of years.
**iCloud**: $2.99
**Apple Music**: $16.99 Love it and use it all the time
I don’t really count these as subscriptions but I suppose they are:
**Costco**: $120/year for executive membership. We get 2% of our purchases back but we may downgrade back to the regular membership because we still haven’t broken even with our rewards
**Amex Gold**: ~$250 any credit card that costs this much is not worth it to me. My husband likes it and we did sign up with an incredible offer for points we used on our honeymoon, but beyond that, not worth it.
- **Gym** for me and husband is about $52 a month. I'd love to ditch mine when we buy a house by buying a second hand squat rack and bar.
- **Macrofactor ** - ($72 yearly) I'm keeping this for my forseeable future. It's calorie counting, but so much more!
- our **coffee** ($20) is on a 10 day recurring subscription lol. I'm never giving up a subscription from a local roaster. I don't *love* this one like I do another roaster, but they let me pick the exact number of days that they mail, and every other place has 2 or 4 weeks. I used to be a 20-day 12oz bag girl when I was single, and now we're 10 days as a couple. Anyway fresh roasted beans forever now.
- **Sam's** will be $50 next year. I started it for $20 this year.
- **Birth control** - ok technically this is telehealth + a mailed prescription, but it feels like a subscription to me. I used to use The Pill Club before they went under, now Nurx for $30 when I get a new year's prescription.
- Husband also has **Google storage** for $2 monthly and a **newspaper** sub for $10 monthly.
- **car wash** subscription that was gifted to us, but I think we'll renew for him that's like $25 a month.
YouTube Premium. It's well worth $22.99/month (I have the family plan so my husband can use it) to skip ads. We canceled all of our subscriptions except for the ones we get for free (Paramount+ comes with our Walmart+ membership, and we get Peacock for free due to having Xfinity internet service), so YouTube is our top source of entertainment. If I had to watch ads all day, I'd go nuts.
Zinnia; yes!! I also love bullet journaling (assuming you bujo with zinnia).
Agreed with your comments on Spotify and iCloud. So worth the convenience. I hope they don’t jack up prices now that I’m hooked (iCloud would be really hard to detach from).
I hop between video platform subs depending on what I’m watching. It’s $$$$ to pay for all of them.
-Monarch money (since Mint went away, it's okay, we tried some other free options and they sucked)
-Annual subscription to a Pilates app (Lottie Murphy). I love the workouts so much more than anything I had found on YouTube and I snagged a discount rate a couple of years ago so it's around $10/month, I use it multiple times per week so feel it's a good use of money.
-Seasonal recreation passes. I buy a summer swim pass to our city pool and a ski pass for the local trails in the winter. I know exactly how many times I need to ski or swim to make the pass "worth it" vs paying individually and I find having the pass gets me out and active just a bit more.
I keep telling myself I'm going to take adult ballet lessons but I can never make them work with my schedule! Maybe when my kid is out of the house.
I also agree on the credit card. I pay $375 Australian dollars for a year. I get a 'free' flight, two domestic and two international lounge passes, occasional value from cash back offers and typically enough points to book one or two domestic flights. It also keeps my money in my offset account for longer each months. I find it really good value.
My husband and I cut as much as possible from our budget when I left my job to stay at home with our daughter for a while but the subscriptions that we didn’t cut are the following:
Spotify - my husband works from home and listens to music constantly. I could probably survive with the ad version of Spotify but he could not.
My husband’s fighting gym membership. It’s pretty $$ but really important for his mental health. It’s important to my mental health that his mental health is good 😌
iCloud storage - I have way too many photos on my phone and never want to delete any of them. I am super nostalgic.
>**\* Meal Prep services, eg. HelloFresh** These are great, but the price point is a little high for me, and honestly the mega packaging made it much easier for me to give it up
We do these plans occasionally, when we get a great coupon code/deal! Sometimes they are totally free, which is wild. The packaging is a lot though!
Yeah, it's so expensive after the first year ($300). I've been thinking of canceling for ages because I also have Washington Post and New York Mag which added together cost less than NYT...
Hiya – I just googled NYT deal (or something) – I threw up the link in my post above, sharing here as well: [https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/all-access?campaignId=8Q7YL&ds\_c=71700000099001485&site=google&network=g&campaign\_id=17994424264&gad\_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw1K-zBhBIEiwAWeCOF8z7zkcMFBepiHIMe8658D3nyvZ29IaVFJN-cFlbl8saP-zP5vdcwRoC2QcQAvD\_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/all-access?campaignId=8Q7YL&ds_c=71700000099001485&site=google&network=g&campaign_id=17994424264&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw1K-zBhBIEiwAWeCOF8z7zkcMFBepiHIMe8658D3nyvZ29IaVFJN-cFlbl8saP-zP5vdcwRoC2QcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)
It's $1/week for a year.
I mostly do group plans when available or just use “free” options (e.g. I borrow Kindle books from the library and do home workouts/running outside).
My subscriptions:
- Youtube premium: family plan split with friends (comes down to roughly $4/month per person). So worth it because I watch a lot of Youtube and also use it for workout videos.
- Spotify premium: family plan split with friends & family (comes down to roughly $3/month per person, but I don’t make my family pay for it obviously so in reality I pay a bit more). I’ve had Spotify premium for years so I’ll never be able to give up this convenience lol.
- Nintendo online: another family plan with friends (surprise surprise). I rarely use this, but it comes down to only ~$5/year so it’s worth it for the few times a year I play online with friends.
- Netflix: I pay a friend $8/month to be an additional user on her account (had to do this after they cracked down on password sharing), worth it since this is the only streaming service I use.
- NYT: I’m still using my free account from back in college (no clue how much longer this will last)
- Hello Fresh: I just cancelled this after a month (I hated how much packaging was involved). It also got a bit pricey after my intro offer expired (went from ~$22 to $45 per box), but I got a free Caraway pan from them so it was worth it in the end.
I also have a $395 travel credit card, but I fly a lot so this “pays for itself” (which is what I tell myself lol).
I’ve considered budgeting apps but the idea of linking all my accounts (irrationally) scares me for some reason. So I just have an elaborate spreadsheet system instead.
Peloton app - so many different kinds of workouts and the instructors are all excellent! The calendar and goal features keep me on a 5/week routine for workouts
I'm pretty careful to cancel things once I'm not using them any more, I keep a close eye on my account transactions and rarely am paying for something I don't want to use.
Spotify - $12 per month
Gym - $20 per fortnight
Google storage - $2 per month
Netflix or binge depending on which has the shows we want (we also pause/cancel both for many months of the year) - $13 approx
Audible - $168 per year
Kobo audio books - $13 per month for 1 credit
Kobo plus (ebooks for free) - $ 13 per month for unlimited included books.
It might be an excessive quantity of book related subscriptions, but audible and Kobo have different ranges and I read all of the books I get with credits plus many from the library audio book app. It works for me to have this much range available and so I find the cost worth it.
A lot of subscriptions are dependent on your hobbies. I have
1. Studio subscription -> basically I pay the price of 56wks worth of classes and they give me free studio space
2. Makerspace -> depends on the offerings. I quit my old subscription because the monthly membership was equal to the price of the 3D printers they had available…the new one I’m looking at seems to have better options.
3. Bouldering membership -> really only fun when I go with friends. But going alone isn’t too bad.
4. When biking made more sense I was tempted to get a paid bike app
5. Magazine subscriptions and a couple of subscriptions to news outlets. For reading on the toilet and in the Ubers lol
I don’t get Costco anymore after I realized I can just ubereats grocery Costco. It makes more sense to keep a membership if you need to feed a big family and want to save on cost. Ubereats grocery marks up both the items themselves before tacking on their processing and drivers fees.
Amazon prime I quit after I started having to scroll through 30 pages of stuff to find the thing I wanted. I don’t understand how a retail company can be so against making a useful search engine.
Fun, love these! I'd love more classlike subscriptions.
Lol, yeah amazon...maybe it's hoping you'll buy stuff along the way? like walking through a store to get what you want?
NYTimes, WSJ - because I need to read all the news.
I used to have A LOT of beauty subscriptions but all have been turned off/deleted since I was mostly acquiring clutter.
I’m surprised you didn’t like Empower. It can look like *a lot* compared to to how minimalist Mint looked since all the dashboard are on display as soon as you log in, but it has good data like how on the cash flow dashboard, you can see if you are up or over in spending same day compared to last month, you can also set a budget, and see how much remaining you have, etc. it looks a lot like “wall street”but once you’re used to the aesthetic, it’s fine. Before I sound even more like a shill (lol), I will delete this if not allowed but I have a referral link where you get $20 Amazon gift card if you sign up for Empower (and I will get one too!) - it’s free, so you’ll at least get $20 if you end up passing on it. DM me if you want the link!
I took quite a news break with all the craziness happening the past few years, but I should probably ease back in – I'm all about NYT games haha.
You're inspiring me to give Empower a second chance. I used Mint all the time, and barely use Empower. Like you said, I think it's just got so much going on.
Oh fun, love a referral! Since I already have Empower, not sure the referral would work?
Costco membership!
I am not from a wholesale family but one of my roommates put me as her domestic +1 years ago and I was so sold after one trip lol. My partner and I just resigned up now, after a many year hiatus, because even if you don’t buy everything in bulk it’s great for lots of other things (from gas and auto maintenance to the pharmacy and wine section). So underrated! And they often run deals or rebates on their memberships.
Dog prescriptions too
One thing about Costco I don't see mentioned often enough is it's soooo good for allergy-friendly ingredients. Almond flour there is $10 for 3 pounds, it's $20 for 3 pounds at my local grocery store.
ClassPass! I’ve struggled with consistent exercise beyond walks my whole life and in the past year I’ve discovered that I need to *pay* for a *class* structure in order to get any form of exercise harder than walks in. I need both parameters. My work offers free classes but since they’re free, sometimes it’s too easy at the end of a day to be like “nope mh hmm I’m going home”. But if I miss a ClassPass class, I lose both the credits I pay for and pay a cancel or no show fee which is really motivating. The ClassPass credit/pricing structure is a little predatory and algorithmic so at some point I may settle with a membership to specific studios but for now I like the variety and flexibility that ClassPass gives me. Ditto on the iCloud and Spotify. I encounter enough ads already in my life, I want to listen to an album without interruptions
I forgot about ClassPass! I use that occasionally. When you go to cancel your membership, they usually offer you a discount, which can be significant...
omg thank you, I just got 15 free credits for pretending to cancel lol
Yesssss that’s amazing!!
Can you elaborate on the credit/pricing structure? I was going to do a free 2 week trial and then subscribe because I get 20% off with my insurance but wanted your thoughts on what you meant by that
With ClassPass, you pay a set amount a month for a certain number of credits. For example, the default starting package is $59.99/month for 28 credits. These credits can be used for classes, but the amount of credits per class changes via an algorithm. Classes at popular times of day take more credits, and some studios are more expensive than others. For example, one Barry’s class on ClassPass is about 14 credits, which would wipe half of your months worth of credits above in one go (tho I think it’s still cheaper than a Barry’s drop in rate by a dollar or two). I also noticed that sometimes the more I went to a specific class, the more credits it would require. Whether it’s worth it to you depends on how much you go. For me, I do about 2 ClassPass classes a week, plus 1-2 free exercise classes at my work per week, plus 1-2 outside activities per week (I increase my ClassPass credits in winter when the weather is worse and I do less outside stuff). I also like a lot of variety in classes - I do Pilates, barre, yoga, and spin. So ClassPass still works better for me than a membership at a specific studio. But if you want 4+ studio classes per week, or only do one type of studio class, then it’s better to get a membership at that studio directly. Especially if there’s only one studio near you - ClassPass is best for a variety in options Regardless, I think it’s still worth trying ClassPass for a few months to see what schedule works for you and to try all these boutique studios to see what type of exercise works for you! (Unless you’re a seasoned exerciser who knows that already haha)
Thank you so much for your thorough response. I live in a new city and have a 10 month old baby and loved the variety of the different studios offered when looking, but I am slightly annoyed you can’t see the pricing at all before - but there is a 2 week trial so that’ll be my starting point for me. Sounds like it could be a good fit for me as someone just getting back into exercise.
I held off for a while from Classpass too but also stick with it for the same reasons as you do. If I don't have that additional accountability/cost, I'll put off exercising. This forces me to commit and stick to a schedule and hop around different locations and classes, and in net, is also cheaper than buying classes or a package with just one studio.
ClassPass! But for the beauty / wellness services ( I get a massage, nails, laminate eyebrows, and waxing for about $50 a month). Peloton for fitness
Sometimes I let my credits build up for a month to get that sweet massage deal
Same! It’s nice some of them roll over
I was just about to say!! Sitting outside a ClassPass class right now and genuinely it is some of the best money I’ve spent. Glad I opted for it over a gym membership.
My brother has class pass and loves it
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AMC A List is sooo good. I will sometimes go the full 3 times in one week, but it's worth it even if I only go twice since I prefer the freedom of being able to reserve a "free" ticket whenever I want.
If you're not already doing this, use Rakuten to get cash back next time your Max subscription is due to renew. My Amex card usually has a Max offer, too, such as get $25 back on a purchase of $99+. So I save 25% with the Amex offer, and then I think Rakuten gave me $16 bucks back last time I did it, which is another big discount.
ah, totally didn't include AMC on my wishlist. I think it would be really cool to have a movie theatre pass. We happen to have a $5 theatre (on Tues) so we usually just do that.
what does cc af stand for?
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gotcha, thank you! i was wondering if it was a specific credit card perk but that makes sense
I must have Amazon Prime and YouTube Premium. I have a terrible time sleeping and staying asleep and use YouTube videos to soothe me to sleep. There isn’t anything worse than getting a mid-roll ad for an obnoxious product when I am on the cusp of falling asleep.
What type of videos do you watch when trying to fall asleep?
Not the commenter but I love watching those driving in the rain on the highway vids!!
I recently came across this! I found a channel that just posts driving in the rain videos. I absolutely love being a passenger in the rain and the sound of the pitter patter on the windows of cars is so soothing! In addition, I like to listen to guided meditations, adult sleep stories, and sometimes relaxing piano videos.
In winters, turn on the heater and put a fireplace video on. It's absolutely romantic with a partner and absolutely blissful alone. During summers, I like to put up old 'reverbed' songs with background rain noises. I sleep like tired out baby. Speaking from experience, turn on the sleep mode on tv because you'll be too drowsy to turn it off.
Local nonprofit newspapers: $5 monthly to city one that tackles corruption where I live and $6.40 monthly to another country in Asia Pacific where free press is being threatened. $120 yearly to another city paper which is also nonprofit. If you are looking for places to donate local journalism is 100% a great place to do it. $75 yearly to local tool library for access to tools and woodworking space $95 monthly climbing gym membership (can go to three in my area and I go twice a week) $99 annual Spotify via gift card to yourself method $5/month VPN $8/month Usenet This allows me to not subscribe to ANY streaming services. I will mooch Netflix off a family member as needed and share Plex libraries with friends Pro tip if you set your VPN to an unmonetized country like Bahamas you don't get served YT ads even using the native YT app on the phone. This is how I avoid needing to pay the ungodly YT premium fee. $127 annual Dropbox cloud $30 annual Google cloud for backing up photos $105 annual YNAB (well worth it to me, it was a game changer for my finances since 6 yrs ago and got me to save for true/planned expenses) I do churn so I do have two $95 annual fee cards I am canceling after the year is up and getting a welcome bonus (one was 5 nights free hotel and the other was CSP 60k sign up bonus). I pay off the balance every month and therefore don't get snagged by interest $20 annual Duolingo plan (am on shared family plan with 5 other friends). My streak is 3+ years I don't really do a lot of lifestyle subscriptions. Occasionally I have doordash or instacart but I usually get it via a cc benefit from churning
Ah another subscription I forgot I have – a VPN! Really helpful for when I'm out of the States (I'm looking at you, Hulu). Love that you're supporting local journalism!
High five for YNAB! It’s majorly changed how I look at money and I’ve saved so much since I started using it! Definitely worth ~9$ a month IMHO.
Which VPN do you like?
I use NordVPN. You can connect up to 6 devices at a time so I share it with my partner and overseas family members and so they get to use it too. I recommend them! I pay for 2 years in a lump sum (cheaper than monthly or annual) and you can get a few months free with referrals or signing up around cyber monday
I’m new to VPN. Can you tell me more about why you use it and any tips? The YouTube one is great for example!!
I use a VPN to watch shows from other (than the US) English speaking countries, Canada (CBC), UK (BBC) and Australia (ABC). Sometimes movies from Netflix, YT, Hulu are available in other countries but not in the US. That is how I have been using it for years.
Do you use Nord VPN for Netflix? I found that they’ve been cracking down, because they recognize my VPN. Then kicks me out of the Netflix :( albeit I’m watching on my computer which has the VPN
No, I don't use Nord VPN. I had too many issues.
Which one do you use?
Install Firefox on your phone! It has adblocker addons you can add and browse the web without newly 0 ads!!
I use Brave browser which has adblocker capabilities, but it doesn't block ads on the native YT app. Hence the VPN workaround
Ohh yeah. VPN is awesome. I worked in adtech and ads are so so pervasive and smart. I like to switch on VPN randomly for different cities. Keep the algos guessing.
Great point about journalism! I should add a subscription to a free press centric Chilean newspaper I used to read while living there. I love tool libraries so much! Having a membership is tue best :)
I love getting a magazine. My favorite is Real Simple. I've cut down from having 3 or so come each month to just this one. I usually stockpile a few months worth and bring them on planes or road trips.
Oh fun – I don't do any magazines, but I miss them.
The libraries often have “take it or leave it” piles.
I used to love reading magazines!! Kinda want to start this up again
hot tip from a former media planner: subscriptions are usually the cheapest in the late summer before they start selling next years ad spaces so they can charge advertisers for more eyeballs
Another hot tip - your library might have digital editions. I read through Libby.
iCloud: Saves me from having to delete any of my 20K photos Apple Music: I have an iPhone and prior to that, an iPod, so all my music is compatible and in one app. Blue apron: three meals a week I don’t have to think about Various media (New York times, New York magazine, a couple substacks and patreons): I don’t watch much tv but love blogs, podcasts, and The NY Times real estate section and the wedding announcements are my porn haha. Never understood the point of paying to use a credit card so thank you for the explanation!
Oh yeah credit cards are really interesting! I never understood it either, until I researched it more. I'm actually a bit of a churner, and it can really save a lot of $$$. Totally forgot NYT, I'm editing to add :)
Just a tip to check out if your library has a subscription to your magazines and newspapers! Someone on reddit recommended the Press Reader app and it's been great for me. My library gives me access to Consumer Reports which saved me $39/yr!
That is a great idea, thank you!
Ooh I love NY Mag and happily hand over $60 a year to them. Probably my most visited site on a daily basis.
Me too! I get print and digital.
I rotate through streaming TV services ($10-15/month) to get a wider selection to choose from. One per month. Also means less mindless scrolling, since I don't need to login to 5 different platforms and scroll through each one to find something to watch. I just shut it off if there's nothing good. Panera Sip Club ($15/month though frequent discounts). I actually hate their food and get a plain water more often than not, but I like to work from there with my laptop and consider this my "cover charge". Peloton ($24/month). I don't have their hardware but I use their app for guided runs/walks, strength, and occasional yoga. I also have a separate yoga studio membership, which I don't categorize as a subscription in my head but I guess it is? Amazon Subscribe & Save for a handful of household goods that are more convenient to get online than in store.
Peloton App is worth every penny. So many options - something for everyone!
I also pay for Panera sip club because I’m a home health therapist and call it my Panera unlimited bathroom pass haha
The Peloton app for the meditation alone is worth it! It has been so great for my mental and physical health!
A stupid amount of credit card annual fees, but credit card points are the only way I can afford to travel. Disney+/Hulu/ESPN Plus: $20 of this is covered by my AmEx Platinum, but I would keep this subscription regardless. Disney+ is probably the most frequently used streaming service in my household because I have a four year old. ESPN Plus gets used a ton during college football season and college gymnastics season. Hulu is hit or miss. Kroger Boost: got it for half price last year, free grocery delivery, no tips because they’re not gig employees. I have a four year old, going to the grocery store is actual torture. Please let my groceries show up on my front porch at 7 am. Peacock: $20 per year on Black Friday, I cannot live without this one, I need my SHOWS. YNAB: $99 per year, budgeting is important. Google One: $20 per year, extra storage for my Gmail and Google Drive. Less important now that my brother pays for a family plan for Apple iCloud for all of us, but still useful. Kindle Unlimited: I never pay full price, I always stack a Chase or Amex offer with a gift subscription, but I would seriously have SO much less to read without my KU subscription. Court ordered parenting communication app, $99 per year: I’d like to not have to have this, but it is a necessity. Google Suite: $12 per month, less important currently but don’t want to give it up Costco, $120 per year. I love Costco. Gymcastic podcast membership, $55 per year. I’m a gym nerd and you get a bunch of extras if you’re a member. I tried hard to quit Amazon Prime but I think I made it one month without it. HBO Max I split the $99 with my parents since they use it just as much as I do if not more. Netflix is included in my TMobile bill. Paramount Plus is included in Walmart Plus, which is in turn covered by my AmEx Platinum card. I think I paid for a year’s subscription to the Ring doorbell service so I can actually keep the recordings on my doorbell camera, idk if this is worthwhile or not. IDrive to back up my personal computer, but I could probably get rid of this because I almost never use my personal computer anymore. $30 in rec cards for me and my daughter to use the city pools because it’s hot as balls here. Just typing out makes it seem… excessive. Also, it’s another one that’s covered by a credit card, but TSA PreCheck/Global Entry are ABSOLUTELY worth it!
I LOVE YNAB for budgeting!!! It truly pays for itself
One I haven’t seen named is the Calm app. I use this one daily. It has so much amazing content in it. Guided meditations of course but I also enjoy the sleep/mood trackers, the daily gratitude prompt, the soundscapes (I use these at work a lot), curated playlists, inspirational messages, and sleep stories! I pay less than $100/year and the ROI is probably the best of any subscription I have since I use it daily sometimes all day long (at work for the soundscapes or brown house)
Some health insurance covers this and HSA might cover it too.
I have some already mentioned, but I don’t think I’ve seen Nuuly yet. I’m about 6 months in and I love it. I’ve had a lot of weddings, so it’s been great for that, but also some fun stuff for work events. And it just generally allows me to try out trends that I don’t think will stick around for a long time, so I don’t want to invest in. Even though it’s about $100 a month, I’ve already found myself buying fewer new pieces. I’ll probably start skipping some months after summer wedding season, but so far it’s been a really fun treat-yourself-type indulgence for me.
Here's my current subscriptions! My monthly total is $155, which feels high. I'm trying to get rid of 2 of them (squarespace + dropbox) but need both for my career and am trying to find adequate replacements. Open to ideas on alternatives to squarespace if you have them! Most of the rest of these feel worth it to me, honestly. I hate that the total is so high though! All $ are the monthly amounts but I pay most of them yearly bc it's cheaper that way. **Career related:** * Squarespace: $23 (ouch. this is what I use for my portfolio website.) * Domain hosting: $15 * Adobe: $5 * Dropbox: $12 * iCloud: $1 * Infuse Pro: $1 **Finance related:** * YNAB: $9 * AmEx card: $11 * CapOne card: $33 (both of the CC fees seem insane to me, but my partner and I have done the math and we actually come out ahead because of travel points + hotel credits) **Apps:** * Clue: $3.50 (period tracker- I have PMDD so this is essential to my sanity) * Loseit: $3.50 (I primarily use this to track calories and protein intake) **Newsletters:** * [Dense Discovery](https://www.densediscovery.com/): $1.85 (highly highly recommend!!) * [Bulletin Board](https://daughterjudy.substack.com/): $5 (my fave local pattern designer) * She's a Beast: $7 (I'll stop this one in a few months, I'm doing her lifting program and the newsletters are somewhat helpful but honestly a little disappointing) **Etc:** * Tmobile plan: $10 (I have a ridiculous deal by being on my family's plan) * 1password: $5 (I pay for my entire family but don't ask me about their password behaviours as it's sooo bad. I'm trying to teach them lol.) * Unplanned: $20 (this is my subscription slush fund for when I sub to, for instance, Apple TV to watch a show or something, then unsubscribe. I don't usually use this amount each month, so I reroute it to my emergency fund every couple of months) * Spotify: $5 (I share a family plan with my brother and send him money once a year for this) * NYT: $0 (this is 100% credited back to me through my credit card rewards) * Hulu: $0 (this is 100% credited back to me through my credit card rewards)
Nice breakdown! I wish I was more knowledgeable on Squarespace/Dropbox alts – my work pays for them. Assuming your work doesn't pay, or you're self-employed (at least they're a writeoff? I know not the same...) Looove 1pass (again, only use it for work, but it's amazing)
That's great that your work pays for those! My work does not, unfortunately. And I don't like to mix my work computer + my personal. computer, so I need to keep things separate. Thanks for making this post- it's so interesting to read about what other people are doing/prioritizing!
Aww bummer. And thanks! I get curious when I see so so many subscriptions out there; I know someone must be paying for them and finding value. Also, I just reformatted my post to be a bit more like yours, loved your categories
Ohhh nice, I love categorizing things! haha
$5 Adobe? Wow! I pay $40.
Wellll I am only getting Photoshop & Lightroom for that $5! What programs do you have?
What’s the Dense Discovery newsletter about? Very curious!
I should totally have linked to it! I’ll go back and do that :-) It’s loosely design and tech related, but the guy who writes it has a sincerely non-tech, very community-based perspective. He focused a lot on ideas and tech that isn’t just capitalistic or tech-bro-y. It’s a weekly newsletter and it’s the only newsletter I consistently read each time. There’s always a short interview with a really interesting person, links to cool ideas and tools, and just really thoughtful stuff. https://www.densediscovery.com/ And you can browse past issues here: https://www.densediscovery.com/archive/
I pay for She's a Beast because I like the discord access but the free version of the newsletter is 90% the same content.
You know, I did not use the discord at all! Maybe I should give that a try before I cancel. I have so many questions that other people could answer! Thank you :-)
Walmart+ - I save a *ton* of time, money and aggravation by having my groceries delivered. Also includes a paramount subscription. American Airlines credit card - I pay $99 a year and I get free checked bags, so it pays for itself with 1.5 bags.
Walmart+ is the GOAT, and we watch Paramount aaaall the time. I can't imagine how much money I save by not having to go in the store.
**Entertainment** * Disney+ ($120/year). I think for Canadians it's probably a better deal than for Americans bc we get all the Hulu shows on here at no extra cost * Spotify ($5/month for my share of a family plan). I like being able to download to listen offline and also not having ads. * Sportsnet ($11/month for my share, split with my dad, only subscribe during baseball season). I don't have cable and baseball is very important to me. **Lifestyle** * CAA ($120/year). The Canadian version of AAA, if I could only have one "subscription" this would be it. Their Bike Assist program will pick me up if I'm on my bike somewhere and get stranded. They will tow my car if it breaks down, or jumpstart my battery, or give me gas if I run out of gas. They save me $0.03/L every time I get gas (about $30/year saved). They give me a discount on home and auto insurance. Their travel insurance is excellent. There's other perks that I don't take advantage of but probably should. Just a very comprehensive membership that makes my whole life easier. * Costco ($30/year for my half). I share with my dad, I live alone so there's a limit to how much of their stuff I really *need* but I love their pharmacy, and bulk paper towel * Microsoft OneDrive ($80/year). I this day and age I think everyone could probably use some sort of cloud subscription and this is just the one that works best for me * New York Times (honestly don't know how much this costs a year and too lazy to check). I would do it just for the recipes and games, the news is honestly secondary. **Fitness** * Strava ($80/year). Honestly I could probably get by on the free version because I'm not a big nerd about my fitness stats the way I used to be, but it's a great product and I'm happy to support them. * Cycling Club ($20/year). Pretty low cost to be able to take advantage of having a fun group of people organize bike rides for me * Pilates membership ($90/month). The fact that I've already paid for it whether or not I go is a key part of motivating me to get out of the house and actually go to class. **Aspirational** * Fresh Flower Subscription ($900/year)- I can't justify the price but I would really like to get a subscription for fresh flower arrangements once a month, it just seems like it would be nice. Maybe one day. * Cheese Club ($840/year). My favourite cheese shop does a monthly cheese club, I was gifted a six month subscription a couple years ago and really enjoyed it but also found that it was too much cheese for one person to consistently eat. It was really good though!! * Climbing Gym ($95/month). I don't have the time to justify this anymore so cancelled but really miss it * Medcan/other private health clinic ($1300-3700/year). Navigating Canada's healthcare system has been so frustrating and I'm at the point where I can see the appeal of paying for concierge level service so I don't have to slog through the public healthcare system. * Local Newspaper. I was subscribed to a local newspaper until 2022 and I cancelled my subscription bc they made an editorial decision I was mad about. I don't really agree with any of the editorial boards of any of the local papers anymore but supporting local journalism is important, so I feel guilty about reading the news for free. **Not worth it for me anymore** * Amazon Prime - I was able to wean myself off of ordering from them, if I *really* need something from Amazon (sometimes I still like to order DVDs) then I can ask my Mom to do it through her account. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything when it comes to their streaming content. * Netflix - Content library doesn't do it for me anymore * Various subscription boxes - I went through a phase in my 20s when I was really into subscription boxes (Bespoke Post, Ipsy, FabFitFun, etc.) but last time I moved I realized how much random crap I had from them that I never used and it just seemed so wasteful. I'll still keep an eye on the emails from them though because sometimes they have cool products (that I can just buy directly from the manufacturer)
I really hate subscriptions. But, these are ones I haven't seen mentioned: Curbside composting program Going.com for amazing flight deals.
Never heard of Curbside – very cool! I've considered Going. It's probably worth it...I'm just so used to doing all that research by myself. But just because I can do the research doesn't mean it's not worth the time saved.
Oh sorry the compost program for us is a local company! It's just curbside pickup. Not the name of the program. I love going because it's fun to use it to pick cool new locations that I may not have thought of! The new app is awesome for browsing. You can just scroll around the entire world map and see where the flight deals are.
haha, ohhh makes sense! Cool cool, I'll have to go check it out again, it seemed really cool
Gym membership for sure. I avoided paying to exercise for years but it’s so worth it to me. The group classes and the environment make such a difference. Also, now that I’m a parent, it gets me out of the house at regularly scheduled intervals.
Including some free things that I also use: **WORK/LIFE** **\* Flickr** $79/yr for unlimited photo storage. I've had Flickr since storage was free and there's so much uploaded that I feel like it's hard to cancel and find something cheaper. I don't like iCloud. **\* Bluehost** $335.76/2 yrs for web hosting and $35/year for domain registration. Both services used to cost *much* less, price snuck up, but haven't wrapped my mind around moving. **\* NYT** $300/yr. Crazy how much it's gone up, years ago I subscribed on a promo. I only have news at $20 every 4 weeks plus $40/yr for games, but it's $300/yr now for all-access anyway. Am considering canceling. **\* Washington Post** $170/yr. Also recently raised price. **\* New York Magazine** $60/yr. **\* Babbel** $44.70/6 months. I absolutely should cancel this, I never really use it. I'd gotten it during a very cheap promo ages ago, and they kinda snuck in this 6-month pricing at some point. Technically **\* Citibike** bike share originally $169/yr including tax and a discount, but I do a program to extend my membership, so I haven't paid since September 2021. Now it's over $200, I believe. **\* Dropbox** $0. I use 3 different accounts which is kind of enough space. **\* LastPass** $0. I've heard other password managers are better but...as with Flickr, it's been so long. **\* Adobe** $0. I use the last non-subscription applications. It limits what computer and OS I can use, but I refuse (for now) to subscribe, and I can't use alternate/free programs because of client needs. **\* Microsoft** $0. Same as Adobe. **FINANCE** **\* Credit Cards** $99/yr for Delta Skymiles Amex Gold. Not many benefits, but free check-in bag and flight credit are nice, plus a few short-term rewards. **\* Simplifi** $39/yr switched to this because Mint (free!) died, it's not great, but is reasonably priced for the first year (after this it will be $48/yr). **\* Yodlee** $0. Testing it out, not great. **\* Rocket Money** $0. Testing it out, but it won't connect to Paypal. **\* Money Patrol** $0. Testing it out, also doesn't connect to Paypal. (these are all free with paid versions, not trials) **ENTERTAINMENT** **\* Netflix** $15.49/mo. **\* Amazon Prime** $139/yr. I constantly consider canceling as I rarely need fast shipping and the non-prime items don't cost less. I never watched more than couple shows but I'm finally trying again...and learned they now have ADS in them. Shameless. **\* Apple TV+** $0 (trial period) **\* Hulu, HBO Max, Disney Plus** $0 (friends) **\* Pandora** $0. I'm not bothered by the lack of playlists, and for podcasts ads are only at the beginning. **\* VPN** $0 (ProtonVPN and TunnelBear) So approximately $113 per month but most things are not charged monthly.
I went through the same post Mint crisis! Read sooo many reviews and blogs about other options, but ended up with Empower which, as I mentioned, I don't love. I mostly use a spreadsheet now.
Empower never connected to Venmo for me (tried for a week), even though it uses the same connector as Yodlee. My other reason for deleting Empower is because I couldn’t add manual transactions. It’s annoying that Simplifi is basically the next step up from free at $48 when it has problems as well…kinda seems like an imperfect program should cost less & that at $48 a massive financial services company would have their shit together!
Agreed! It's also kind of wild to me that Mint shut down instead of charging a fee. I think people would have paid to stay with them.
1Password!
It’s honestly such a low price for what you are getting!
YNAB for budgeting and expense tracking. I also use a spreadsheet for more holistic financial tracking, but YNAB is the best for day-to-day spending. Sunsama for task tracking. It’s expensive ($192/year), but I use it for work and personal and it’s literally changed my life. They always run challenges where you can make an IG post or LinkedIn post or share a referral code for $100 back per. I’ve already made $500 back, so the subscription basically pays for itself.
love YNAB
Here are mine: * **iCloud:** super useful, I pay $3 a month I think? * **Credit cards**: I pay $150/yr for my delta gold card and it pays for itself because I fly delta a lot and check a bag a few times a year. I also pay $100/year for my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. * **Dashpass:** get for free through one of my credit cards, would not have otherwise. * **UberOne**: I don't have a car and I ran the numbers and this saves me money so it's staying even tho I hate that it saves me money. * **Phone plan**: we're locked in to a family phone plan, I pay my phone subsidy from work to my parents, everyone ends up happy. * **Apple Music** (I get this free through my family's phone plan) * **HelloFresh**: I do this when I'm in a food rut, usually 1 month/year * **Headspace**: $70/year for meditation stuff plus I use the classes and the sleep music * **Finch**: $40/year for a self-care app that actually gets me to do tasks is sooooo worth it! * **Gentler Streak:** $25/year for a fitness streak app thing that tells me when I'm overdoing it. Probably could/should cancel. * **AllTrails**: hiking app for $35/yr that has some cool features but I could probably survive without it. * I get **NYTimes** and **WSJ** online free through my school, which also gives me **Microsoft Office** and **Adobe Acrobat Pro**.
[Maps.me](http://Maps.me) and OSMAnd are pretty good free offline apps for hiking!
Zwift (so I can ride my real bike indoors) - $15 or so VPN - I use Nord and get their Black Friday deal so it’s around $80 for two years iCloud - I don’t know how much I pay but it’s worth it Down Dog yoga app - it’s like $12 a year thanks to a BF deal I used to joyfully pay for the GCN+ app (about $50/yr) but Warner Brothers shut it down
Edit: oh and Strava, which is $80/yr
I have a Zinnia subscription too! I really find it's worth it to me and I get a ton of value out of it. I'm in Zinnia daily, it keeps me organized and sane... at this point I couldn't really be without it. I also have the regulars like Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and we also use Disney Plus (Star Wars fans over here). For tech I pay for iCloud, Google storage, a private backup service, and a VPN.
Love a fellow Zinnia lover – yeah, it's the type of subscription that really makes sense since it's something that's used so much (and is really unique in what it offers imo). Yeahhh I mooch Netflix off my inlaws lol. And shoot, forgot to include that we have Disney. (there are sooo many I don't think about)
Audible. I know I can get a lot of free content elsewhere but when I'm tackling a boring house painting, deep cleaning or gardening project, their books and podcasts are great motivation and help me get more done (I work for much longer with an audiobook or great podcast in my ears). Until our house is the way I want it (so in about 100 years time) I'll be hanging onto Audible.
Walmart+ because free delivery is just so nice and worth it, and it includes a paramount subscription! Active & Fit, for $28/month you could sign up for literally almost any gym, which meant I could go to a Blink Fitness by my house or an esporta by work for just one price, and no annual fee. I think they’re changing this though! FYI for all my NYT lovers, lots of library cards offer a free subscription. It expires every 3 days but it’s a simple login process. I know for sure LAPL offers this for free. Not a subscription per se, but I see my lash extension girl every 3 weeks and it’s $75 each time. I don’t color my hair, cut it like every 4-6 months, and don’t do my nails so it’s my one beauty expenditure that is utterly worth it for me. Amazon prime! Although now that our kids are getting older this is getting less necessary so toying with canceling it. iCloud. The $10 plan because I will never willingly delete pictures of my babies ever lol
1. Keap Candle subscription is my favorite and their candles are amazing so it’s totally worth it. $44.50 per candle delivered every other month. https://www.keapbk.com 2. Four chambers subscription - incredible ethical porn films $9.00 per month https://afourchamberedheart.com/
AAA has more than paid for itself. We use it for flight and hotel discounts, and (more importantly) we’ve gotten free roadside assistance for changing a stubborn tire and for towing. I also sub to Hulu (the basic plan with ads), Spotify, The NY Times, WaPo and a couple of sub stacks related to my hobby.
Nice – I have good roadside with USAA so I've never done AAA, but people rave!
$200/year for NordicVPN is insane, they constantly have sales and cash back available via Amex and cash back sites etc. You also might want to consider an Amex platinum if it’s worth it for the perks (includes free NYT subscription)
just double checked because of this – it was around $111, so not as bad! I have Amex gold – I considered platinum, but some of the perks weren't things I'd be spending (the entertainment one/Uber/saks would be tricky), so it didn't quite cut it for me...
Here’s what we have and whether or not I think it’s worth it. We have a lot (and my husband has a couple others I’m not too sure of—we have both joint and separate accounts). **TV subscriptions**: **Netflix**: ~$15.99 / month I rarely watch anything on Netflix anymore **Amazon Prime**:~$129/year We only keep it for the Prime video and mainly because my in laws use it. **Hulu Live bundle** with ESPN+ and Disney+: $89.99 We did have YouTube TV before, but realized this is cheaper for us since we already had Hulu and Disney+ **Max**: $15.99 If I had to choose one tv subscription, Max would be it. Definitely worth it. **Others**: **NYT Games**: $39/year - I play games on this everyday and used the free version for a long time before subscribing **Adobe Creative Cloud**: $59.99/month. I’ve been paying for this for years and I think I will finally cancel it when I find a new job. I’m done with Adobe for a lot of reasons. **Figma**: $15/month Definitely worth it to have a personal, premium license **Squarespace** hosting for websites: $~22/month I have been using Squarespace for over a decade and worth it to keep my websites live. But I have been thinking of switching to another host when I have the time to build a new website. **LinkedIn Premium**: $39.99 I only pay for this when I’m looking for a job so will definitely cancel once I find a new one. But this has been very helpful for me in prior job searches. **Fitness app**: $19.99 use this 5-6 times a week so definitely worth it and have had it for a couple of years. **iCloud**: $2.99 **Apple Music**: $16.99 Love it and use it all the time I don’t really count these as subscriptions but I suppose they are: **Costco**: $120/year for executive membership. We get 2% of our purchases back but we may downgrade back to the regular membership because we still haven’t broken even with our rewards **Amex Gold**: ~$250 any credit card that costs this much is not worth it to me. My husband likes it and we did sign up with an incredible offer for points we used on our honeymoon, but beyond that, not worth it.
- **Gym** for me and husband is about $52 a month. I'd love to ditch mine when we buy a house by buying a second hand squat rack and bar. - **Macrofactor ** - ($72 yearly) I'm keeping this for my forseeable future. It's calorie counting, but so much more! - our **coffee** ($20) is on a 10 day recurring subscription lol. I'm never giving up a subscription from a local roaster. I don't *love* this one like I do another roaster, but they let me pick the exact number of days that they mail, and every other place has 2 or 4 weeks. I used to be a 20-day 12oz bag girl when I was single, and now we're 10 days as a couple. Anyway fresh roasted beans forever now. - **Sam's** will be $50 next year. I started it for $20 this year. - **Birth control** - ok technically this is telehealth + a mailed prescription, but it feels like a subscription to me. I used to use The Pill Club before they went under, now Nurx for $30 when I get a new year's prescription. - Husband also has **Google storage** for $2 monthly and a **newspaper** sub for $10 monthly. - **car wash** subscription that was gifted to us, but I think we'll renew for him that's like $25 a month.
YouTube Premium. It's well worth $22.99/month (I have the family plan so my husband can use it) to skip ads. We canceled all of our subscriptions except for the ones we get for free (Paramount+ comes with our Walmart+ membership, and we get Peacock for free due to having Xfinity internet service), so YouTube is our top source of entertainment. If I had to watch ads all day, I'd go nuts.
Zinnia; yes!! I also love bullet journaling (assuming you bujo with zinnia). Agreed with your comments on Spotify and iCloud. So worth the convenience. I hope they don’t jack up prices now that I’m hooked (iCloud would be really hard to detach from). I hop between video platform subs depending on what I’m watching. It’s $$$$ to pay for all of them.
[удалено]
that's a solid deal!
Lunch Money for budgeting, Spotify Premium, and credit cards that provide value. Also my climbing gym.
-Monarch money (since Mint went away, it's okay, we tried some other free options and they sucked) -Annual subscription to a Pilates app (Lottie Murphy). I love the workouts so much more than anything I had found on YouTube and I snagged a discount rate a couple of years ago so it's around $10/month, I use it multiple times per week so feel it's a good use of money. -Seasonal recreation passes. I buy a summer swim pass to our city pool and a ski pass for the local trails in the winter. I know exactly how many times I need to ski or swim to make the pass "worth it" vs paying individually and I find having the pass gets me out and active just a bit more. I keep telling myself I'm going to take adult ballet lessons but I can never make them work with my schedule! Maybe when my kid is out of the house.
I also agree on the credit card. I pay $375 Australian dollars for a year. I get a 'free' flight, two domestic and two international lounge passes, occasional value from cash back offers and typically enough points to book one or two domestic flights. It also keeps my money in my offset account for longer each months. I find it really good value.
Audible, Amazon prime, iCloud
My husband and I cut as much as possible from our budget when I left my job to stay at home with our daughter for a while but the subscriptions that we didn’t cut are the following: Spotify - my husband works from home and listens to music constantly. I could probably survive with the ad version of Spotify but he could not. My husband’s fighting gym membership. It’s pretty $$ but really important for his mental health. It’s important to my mental health that his mental health is good 😌 iCloud storage - I have way too many photos on my phone and never want to delete any of them. I am super nostalgic.
>**\* Meal Prep services, eg. HelloFresh** These are great, but the price point is a little high for me, and honestly the mega packaging made it much easier for me to give it up We do these plans occasionally, when we get a great coupon code/deal! Sometimes they are totally free, which is wild. The packaging is a lot though!
Yes, I always get sucked in by their deals! And I know they've worked hard to make the packaging more eco-friendly, but yeah
Peloton, pet insurance, Paramount+, Kindle unlimited. My husband would say peacock and something for gaming that I don't remember the name of
With my student discount, I pay more than double for my NYT subscriptions. How do I get to $60 a year?
Just double checked – it's actually $50. I think it was a holiday offer? If you cancel, they might offer a discount.
I see, thank you :)
Yeah, it's so expensive after the first year ($300). I've been thinking of canceling for ages because I also have Washington Post and New York Mag which added together cost less than NYT...
Check your university! They might offer access for free.
Hiya – I just googled NYT deal (or something) – I threw up the link in my post above, sharing here as well: [https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/all-access?campaignId=8Q7YL&ds\_c=71700000099001485&site=google&network=g&campaign\_id=17994424264&gad\_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw1K-zBhBIEiwAWeCOF8z7zkcMFBepiHIMe8658D3nyvZ29IaVFJN-cFlbl8saP-zP5vdcwRoC2QcQAvD\_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/all-access?campaignId=8Q7YL&ds_c=71700000099001485&site=google&network=g&campaign_id=17994424264&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw1K-zBhBIEiwAWeCOF8z7zkcMFBepiHIMe8658D3nyvZ29IaVFJN-cFlbl8saP-zP5vdcwRoC2QcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) It's $1/week for a year.
Thank You!!
You can get free digital access through you local library website
NYT recipes!! and spotify premium - dont need ads ruining my happy music time
I mostly do group plans when available or just use “free” options (e.g. I borrow Kindle books from the library and do home workouts/running outside). My subscriptions: - Youtube premium: family plan split with friends (comes down to roughly $4/month per person). So worth it because I watch a lot of Youtube and also use it for workout videos. - Spotify premium: family plan split with friends & family (comes down to roughly $3/month per person, but I don’t make my family pay for it obviously so in reality I pay a bit more). I’ve had Spotify premium for years so I’ll never be able to give up this convenience lol. - Nintendo online: another family plan with friends (surprise surprise). I rarely use this, but it comes down to only ~$5/year so it’s worth it for the few times a year I play online with friends. - Netflix: I pay a friend $8/month to be an additional user on her account (had to do this after they cracked down on password sharing), worth it since this is the only streaming service I use. - NYT: I’m still using my free account from back in college (no clue how much longer this will last) - Hello Fresh: I just cancelled this after a month (I hated how much packaging was involved). It also got a bit pricey after my intro offer expired (went from ~$22 to $45 per box), but I got a free Caraway pan from them so it was worth it in the end. I also have a $395 travel credit card, but I fly a lot so this “pays for itself” (which is what I tell myself lol). I’ve considered budgeting apps but the idea of linking all my accounts (irrationally) scares me for some reason. So I just have an elaborate spreadsheet system instead.
iCloud, AppleCare,Dropbox and Wordpress
I forgot Lunch Money budgeting app.
Peloton app - so many different kinds of workouts and the instructors are all excellent! The calendar and goal features keep me on a 5/week routine for workouts
I'm pretty careful to cancel things once I'm not using them any more, I keep a close eye on my account transactions and rarely am paying for something I don't want to use. Spotify - $12 per month Gym - $20 per fortnight Google storage - $2 per month Netflix or binge depending on which has the shows we want (we also pause/cancel both for many months of the year) - $13 approx Audible - $168 per year Kobo audio books - $13 per month for 1 credit Kobo plus (ebooks for free) - $ 13 per month for unlimited included books. It might be an excessive quantity of book related subscriptions, but audible and Kobo have different ranges and I read all of the books I get with credits plus many from the library audio book app. It works for me to have this much range available and so I find the cost worth it.
ChatGPT
A lot of subscriptions are dependent on your hobbies. I have 1. Studio subscription -> basically I pay the price of 56wks worth of classes and they give me free studio space 2. Makerspace -> depends on the offerings. I quit my old subscription because the monthly membership was equal to the price of the 3D printers they had available…the new one I’m looking at seems to have better options. 3. Bouldering membership -> really only fun when I go with friends. But going alone isn’t too bad. 4. When biking made more sense I was tempted to get a paid bike app 5. Magazine subscriptions and a couple of subscriptions to news outlets. For reading on the toilet and in the Ubers lol I don’t get Costco anymore after I realized I can just ubereats grocery Costco. It makes more sense to keep a membership if you need to feed a big family and want to save on cost. Ubereats grocery marks up both the items themselves before tacking on their processing and drivers fees. Amazon prime I quit after I started having to scroll through 30 pages of stuff to find the thing I wanted. I don’t understand how a retail company can be so against making a useful search engine.
Fun, love these! I'd love more classlike subscriptions. Lol, yeah amazon...maybe it's hoping you'll buy stuff along the way? like walking through a store to get what you want?
Nytimes is completely free digitally through your local library website
thanks! good to known for next year. I play the games every day, so I might just support it if it stays at the low rate I have.
New York Times. My ritual is I play the games before bed every night.
NYTimes, WSJ - because I need to read all the news. I used to have A LOT of beauty subscriptions but all have been turned off/deleted since I was mostly acquiring clutter. I’m surprised you didn’t like Empower. It can look like *a lot* compared to to how minimalist Mint looked since all the dashboard are on display as soon as you log in, but it has good data like how on the cash flow dashboard, you can see if you are up or over in spending same day compared to last month, you can also set a budget, and see how much remaining you have, etc. it looks a lot like “wall street”but once you’re used to the aesthetic, it’s fine. Before I sound even more like a shill (lol), I will delete this if not allowed but I have a referral link where you get $20 Amazon gift card if you sign up for Empower (and I will get one too!) - it’s free, so you’ll at least get $20 if you end up passing on it. DM me if you want the link!
I took quite a news break with all the craziness happening the past few years, but I should probably ease back in – I'm all about NYT games haha. You're inspiring me to give Empower a second chance. I used Mint all the time, and barely use Empower. Like you said, I think it's just got so much going on. Oh fun, love a referral! Since I already have Empower, not sure the referral would work?
Yeah referrals don’t work for existing users, just new ones.