In this day and age, everything seems to be switching to a recurring subscription type platform. Have you ever stopped and thought to yourself, "I wonder how much all my recurring subscriptions are costing me?" Yea, you probably haven't but that's okay, I'm going to lay it all out here and show you how much money I've saved by cancelling recurring subscriptions I've found in the past few weeks as I get serious and ultra frugal on my path to financial independence. You're going to be mind blown by how much these actually cost you over the course of a year and will be scrambling to cancel the ones you truly don't need. So without rambling on for any longer, here's a list of the recurring subscriptions that I found while going through my statements:
- Netflix - $13.99/mo
- Microsoft Office 365 - $9.99/mo
- Audible - $14.95/mo
- Xbox Live - $9.99/mo
- Amazon Prime - $120/yr
Now you may think that it's not that many recurring subscriptions and you're absolutely right, it's not but I came to the conclusion that I don't need all of them. First on the chopping block was Audible, that was one of those free trials that you forget to cancel and then forget all about it. I tried the whole listening to audio book thing and it's just not for me. I kept having to rewind to re-listen to parts of the book that apparently went in one ear and right out the other. Now that Audible was gone, my savings a month was $14.95/mo x 12 = $179.40/yr that I'm saving, just by cancelling one recurring subscription service! Next to go was Microsoft Office, I had it while I was in college since I was a finance major and figured I should have Excel and well I just never canceled so it was costing me $9.99 a month x 12 = $119.88/yr. Just by cancelling two recurring subscription services, I've already saved a total of of $299.28 a year. The last one to get the chop was the Xbox Live subscription. I came to a realization a few months ago that I really don't game online anymore, all my friends are busy with their marriages, children/fur babies and don't really game anymore and to be completely honest I don't have that many friends. I think my Xbox live list of friends consisted of 5 people at most. That's another $9.99 x 12 = $119.88/yr. By cancelling 3 recurring subscriptions, I've saved a total of $419.16 a year. Now, you may be thinking, Jake, there's still two more on your list that you haven't mentioned. Well I decided to keep those, Amazon Prime I share with my brother, so that costs me $60 a year and Netflix I share with the whole family and I feel I get value out of both of these services. The rest I didn't value enough to keep forking over my hard earned cash every month. I highly suggest you go through your recurring subscription services and determine which ones you get value out of and if you can't think of a reason why you value it, well then you probably don't need it and should cancel.
Until next time,
On Track to FI
