Share, Or Cut Back On, Subscriptions
Subscriptions are a very popular, easy and quick way to get access to a regular service or product. You can get subscriptions for everything from underwear to beer, jewellery to TV. There is no denying they can be useful. Not only are they good for personal use, but subscriptions can also make great gifts.
Subscriptions can contribute to products and services being cheaper than if you did not have a subscription, making them a tempting option. When you are trying to save money, subscriptions can seem like the most sensible option however they can still work out to be very expensive, and you may not need them at all.
Ways To Save On Subscriptions
If you are trying to save money, cutting back, sharing or cancelling your subscriptions can help reduce your outgoings. Here are some of the best tips we’ve found to help manage subscription costs:
Pay the annual price instead of monthly cost, this can often work out cheaper if it’s an option.
Share subscriptions if allowed, for example Spotify Premium is cheaper to share than if two individuals had accounts each. If you enjoy a beer subscription, sharing the cost, and the beer, with a friend, gives you time together and cuts the cost in half.
Compare prices before you pay for a subscription. Check to see if something is already available on another platform, or if there is a bundle you can get on offer.
Unsubscribe from marketing emails to avoid temptation. Especially if you have cancelled a subscription in the past, unsubscribe from emails trying to tempt you back.
Check your subscriptions regularly so you know when renewals are due. If you have a yearly subscription, it’s easy to forget about it but you can keep on top of them by simply getting to know what you pay for regularly.
Don’t Feel Bad For Cancelling A Subscription
Don’t feel guilty for unsubscribing. It’s understandable that we all want to support businesses but when we can’t, we have to accept that. Don’t feel bad to cancelling the magazine subscription you’ve had for 5 years if you don’t read it anymore, just to keep the magazine in print. That’s not the reason you signed up to it, so don’t let guilt keep you paying.
Ask yourself if you need to keep the subscription at all. Having access to three different meditation apps will help with your mindfulness but if they all offer similar features, do you need all three? The same goes for streaming services. If you don’t watch one of them except for when a certain programme is released, you don’t need it for the rest of the year.
Borrow someone else’s subscription. No, we’re not encouraging password sharing here, we’re talking about going to a friend’s house to watch something together. For example, if you’re both paying for a streaming service and one of you regularly uses it, but one of you only uses it for one show, ask your friend if you can watch it with them.
Rotate monthly subscriptions by pausing one you won’t use for a month. Watch as much as you want from one streaming service one month, then pause it if you can. Restart a different platform you’ve paused for that month, and so on.
Look for free alternatives by using platforms such as All 4 and ITV Hub. It might mean you have to wait longer to get access to something. That is okay if you are saving the cost of a subscription.
These ten tips to help manage your subscription costs will make a difference to your outgoings, even if you only implement a couple. If you struggle saying no to a tempting subscription offer, it helps to stop and think before you sign up to something. Ask yourself, can I afford this every month? Will I actually use it? How many hours of work will this cost?
Are you trying to cut back on subscriptions to save a deposit for a house? You can talk to our team for impartial financial advice.