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Having a lot of subscription services isn’t always a problem. Find out why I’m not going to cancel any of mine, even though I have seven of them. [[{“value”:”
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I do the occasional review of my finances to see if there are any improvements I can make. Recently, I decided to check how many subscription services I have, and there were a lot — seven total.
The cliche advice for my situation would be to cut back. Trim that down to three or four subscriptions per month, and I might save $30 or $40. But I’m not going to do that, for several reasons.
Most of them serve different purposes
Even though I have quite a few subscription services, there’s not much overlap between them. Here’s what I currently have and what I use them for:
Netflix and Max for streaming shows and moviesAmazon Prime for fast and free shipping with AmazonAudible for a library of free audiobooks and a monthly credit for one free audiobook outside of that libraryYouTube Premium to watch YouTube videos without those annoying adsSpotify to listen to music and podcastsDeliveroo Plus for food deliveries without paying a delivery fee (if you haven’t heard of this one, it’s a delivery app in Europe, where I live)
The only two that are the same type of service are Netflix and Max. I like their content libraries, so I don’t mind paying for both of them. Other than that, everything serves its own purpose.
Two are bundled together so I pay less
One of the reasons I signed up for Deliveroo Plus is because I saw that I could get it for free. I got a free 12 months of service with a membership to Amazon Prime here in France. Bundling subscription services can be a good way to save money if you know you’ll use all of them.
I use all of them
I don’t mind paying for services I use. If I found a subscription that I hardly ever used, I’d cancel it without a second thought. But the subscriptions I have are all services that I use regularly.
My wife and I watch shows on Netflix and Max throughout the week. I use YouTube Premium every day — YouTube is the second-most-visited website in the world, after all. Audible is a recent addition, but I’ve found that I really like listening to audiobooks while doing chores around the house. Overall, I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth on everything.
Some of them save time and make my life easier
A goal of mine for this year is to save time by outsourcing more tasks. It makes sense from a financial perspective. Since I’m a freelancer, being able to work more is a way to increase my income. And it also gives me more free time to relax and enjoy life.
Amazon and Deliveroo have both been helpful with this, because they offer grocery deliveries. The French version of Amazon Prime includes free deliveries from a popular chain, Monoprix. If you’re in the United States, you may have access to something similar with Amazon Fresh. It offers same-day grocery deliveries in major cities. And if not, there’s always Instacart.
This has been a game-changer for me. No spending an hour or more at the grocery store. I just add what I need to my cart, and it’s delivered to my door.
The cost isn’t holding me back financially
If I was in a tight spot financially, I’d absolutely cut back on subscriptions. But even with seven of them, they aren’t costing me that much. I pay less than $85 per month total. More importantly, they aren’t getting in the way of achieving my money goals.
I’m able to invest a large portion of my income in my brokerage account. I have enough money in my savings account, including a six-month emergency fund.
I don’t like to think small when it comes to money. At the start of the year, my focus was on ways to add at least $10,000 to my income, not how to save an extra $30 per month.
Getting rid of monthly subscriptions is popular advice. It makes sense for some people, but not for everyone. If you’re using all your subscriptions and they’re not causing you any financial harm, don’t feel like you need to cut back just because you have several of them.
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