Guide to managing subscriptions the smartest way
Netflix, Youtube, Spotify and a million other platforms are now taking a small amount of money every month from your pocket (if you’ve subscribed to them). Welcome to the new age of subscriptions where an average human being spends an average of $600 according to The New York Times
Statistics apart, just go to your mind and calculate the amount of money you spent on your personal subscriptions. $200 a month? $2,000 a year? Ah it’s going to be confusing for sure.
But today, at the end of this article you’ll have some ideas to monitor and save some money on your monthly subscriptions.
Track
Tracking your subscriptions is the key. Most of us don’t track subscriptions because of laziness and not getting enough time. Excuse me, you’ve TIME and you can do it.
In fact you can download an app to track your subscriptions (don’t worry, they don’t offer subscriptions). You can also use a simple spreadsheet to calculate your monthly and yearly subscriptions.
That’s how you get the number! Monitoring your subscription is as important as taking new subscriptions. Check once a month, keep a reminder (its very easy).
Important Tip : Yearly subscriptions are the culprit. Split yearly subscription amount to monthly ($100/12) and calculate the monthly expense.
Reduce
Its pretty self explanatory that you don’t need to read this article to reduce your subscriptions, but wait! We’ve an interesting tip for you.
Do not compromise your favourite subscription, they’re doing great for you. Try cancelling some subscriptions that you rarely use or a subscription that you don’t really need but you’re still paying for it.
Remove it for a month (just for a month) and see if it’s really affecting your entertainment or productivity. If it affects, get back on to it, if it doesn’t affect you, good news. You’re going to save money.
Share
Most of the entertainment subscriptions like Spotify, Netflix etc comes with multiple screen option or add a friend option. Those options will save you some really good money every month (or at least a year).
Add a close lovely friend to your subs (never add someone you don’t go along with, it’s going to be really irritating, take the word). Adding friends will make it even more fun, sharing, caring and most importantly saving.
Offers
Most of them out there provide great offers, but it’s kinda very rare. But some of the interesting options to save money happens on their website. We noticed that YouTube Premium membership is cheaper on YouTube’s website compared to the Apple’s App Store.
It’s mainly because Apple charges around 30% commission on each sale that happens on the platform which is a concern for the subscription provider. So in case if you buy from their own website, both of you will get benefited.
There are offer apps and website that provide free subscription for a month or a two for giving your contact details. Do it with care as it involves personal information.
Bottom Line
We personally recommend tracking as the most important way to understand your monthly usage. If you don’t use it, remove it. Track the payments from your Credit Card statement.
Share subscriptions with your friends and save more, look for offers. We bet that you will save at least 10% a year with proper tracking and looking for offers. Keep a goal, save more!
