When should you get rid of your subscriptions?

How many subscriptions do you have?

I remember when my mom finally cut the cable cord we thought, “good grief, it’s about time!” She was spending a little over $200/month on channels that she not only didn’t want, but also was offended at what they were promoting! She cut the cord and we all rejoiced.

Fast forward to this past week, when we were talking about the different digital subscriptions she has access to. “I really haven’t used that one for a long time, but when I want to watch that documentary, I know I’ll want it!”

In Atomic Habits, James Clear says to make the habit easy

And subscriptions make it easy for you to set it and forget it. The average American spends $215 per month on subscription services. That doesn’t seem shocking until you multiply it for the yearly cost: $2,580!

A quick search came up with more subscriptions than I could remember on my own: 

1.  Entertainment & Media

    Streaming services: Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, etc.

    Music: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music

    Magazines & digital subscriptions: The New York Times, Kindle Unlimited

2.  Food & Meal Kits

    Blue Apron, Green Chef, HelloFresh, Home Chef

    Grocery delivery: Instacart, Amazon Fresh, Walmart+

    Coffee subscriptions: Trade Coffee, Atlas Coffee Club

3. Beauty, Fashion, & Lifestyle

    Ipsy, Stitch Fix, FabFitFun

    Dollar Shave Club, BarkBox (for pets)

4. Learning & Business Tools

    MasterClass, ClassPass, HubSpot subscriptions,

MailChimp, Calendly, Wix

From streaming to meal kits and even business improvement, these recurring charges promise us ease: Making meals, work and entertainment easy. They run in the background, making it easy for us to forget that they’re coming due. The amount shows up on our credit card, which makes it easy to forget within all the other charges. And the credit card then makes it easy for us to use it more and more with fewer and fewer limits on credit.

When your reviewed that list, did it jog your memory?

How do you take control?

Well, the fast answer is to pay attention (audit) your subscriptions. Check your Credit Card and bank statements for the past month and be sure you know each subscription is delivering on the promise it made. (Those boxed kits can clutter up your fridge as fast as they can be helpful.) Obviously, cancel the services you don’t use – but don’t forget that they’re going to make it hard to cancel! They like your money!

Set a limit for yourself and make sure you can keep it.

 The best way to take control of your subscription spending is to make it hard. I’m stealing this from my own example: In order to quit scrolling so much on social media, I logged out of all of them, and changed the password on one device, so I would have to type it in each time. Guess what happened? I didn’t feel like typing it in, and by that time, the impulse to scroll had left.

How to apply this to Subscriptions?

1. Don’t save your credit or debit card information in your web browsers.

2. Change your subscription password to something long, complex and difficult to type. Make it hard.
   Make the password a phrase to remind yourself that you don’t want to log in: ReMemb3rTHAT.Hb0.is@Waste0ftIME

3. Delete cookies and cache so the site doesn’t remember you.

4.  Block or restrict access to certain websites

But How do you know when the subscription should be cut?

1. Has it become just another thing? Is it bringing ease and joy into your life? Or is just creating mental clutter?  Often we register for something with the hope that it will bring ease into our lives, but in the end it becomes just another thing to manage.

2.   Cut it and see if you notice.
   If you have forgotten about it, you probably aren’t using it enough to warrant paying for it.

3. The reality is that you can always re-register. And most subscriptions (Walmart+, Disney+, etc) allow you to cancel your subscription even if you continue on with the year you’ve paid for. The beauty of cutting the subscription is if it really did bring ease, entertainment, or information to your life, you’ll know almost immediately.

4. If you feel that you should probably cut a subscription but are afraid to cut that one, can you cut something else that is taking your time? Sometimes we need a subscription, and it requires some attention and troubleshooting, but a different subscription (coughNetflixAmazonYoutubecough) is taking up the time we could be utilizing.

Need help taking the final step of clearing out the subscription clutter? Schedule your Free Consultation for personalized help today!

If you found this article helpful, and you’d like to say thanks, click here to buy Hannah a coffee.