On my last vacation, I started thinking about reviewing my subscriptions again. It feels like I did this recently, but a review of my blog shows that I last scrutinized my recurring charges–and wrote about it–in 2021.
Great minds think alike, and not long after I started considering this, Michelle at BoomerEcoCrusader wrote about it too.
Well! If ever there was a sign to get started, that was it.
Where is (are) the data?
For better or worse, many of these charge post to my Discover card, which helpfully has a “recurring charges dashboard.”
I knew it existed, but hadn’t looked for a while. It turns out it’s in the drop down menu on the home page. Click on the Activity heading to find the drop down ; most of the way down, after Activity & Statements, Spend Analyzer and the Year-End Summary, you can find Recurrent Charges.
Most of my monthly and yearly recurring charges were identified, but several others were missed.
Monthly charges found:
- Community Center: $125
- WW: $21.95
- Amazon Grocery: $10.59
- NYT: $24.38. However, I received an email that it is about to go up by $5 per month.
- Apple TV: $10.69.
- Apple (iCloud back up for two): $2.99
Yearly charges found:
- 2 magazine subscriptions: $85.90
- AAA membership: $146
- Amazon Prime: $147.34
- Going (travel alerts) $52.43
- Bluehost (blog hosting) $180.95
I thought there might be more charges that Discover missed, and I found a few:
- Duolingo: $85.59
- A second NYT charge, to play the daily games: $53.
Of course, as I thought more about it, I found I had recurring charges on other credit cards:
- ESPN+: $12.83 monthly
- Patreon: $14.35 monthly
- Harry & David Passport (free shipping): $31.79 for 1 year.
Latte factor?
With the exception of the community center membership, nothing on the list seems like a very expensive outlay, at least for an attending physician.
However, add everything up, and the monthly average outlay comes to $51.05 for the fees paid annually, $148.83 for everything except the community center, and $273.83 per month total.
This is the essence of the latte factor, where seemingly insignificant spending–like a daily latte–add up to a significant monthly or yearly costs.
If these treats represent a large enough fraction of a person’s take home salary, they can really hinder their ability to save money and get ahead financially.
Will $274 a month keep my from saving money and being able to retire? Right now, as I’m thinking about loosening the purse strings and enjoying more of my money, the answer is definitely not.
However, if I needed to cut back my spending to afford something (saving for retirement, saving for a down payment, paying off credit card debt), I would certainly scrutinize these subscriptions carefully.
Righting the ship
Four questions can help make decisions a little clearer:
What don’t I actually use?
ESPN+ won’t actually load satisfactorily when I want to use it to watch the tennis Grand Slams. So, really, I wasn’t using it.
Similarly, the Apple TV subscription was a charge that showed up after an introductory free few months, but I don’t think I’ve watched it for months.
Even though I can afford to waste money, it irks me to pay for those subscriptions and I canceled them as soon as I started this process. I don’t mind keeping an extra $24 in my pocket every month.
Going may go on the chopping block, as I don’t think I have actually used any of their deals yet for myself. However, I do get some enjoyment out of day dreaming about taking the trips I am sent emails about.
What do I absolutely not want to give up?
The extra iCloud storage is absolutely worth it to me, at least for now.
Also the AAA membership and my Duolingo, the latter of which I use daily.
What might not be worth it to me?
It may be time to reconsider our community center membership. We don’t use the center much since COVID started, but Mr. PiN and I think of our membership in terms of support–a sort of charitable donation. We will probably keep it for now, but if money really were tight, I think this would be cut off ASAP.
Less expensive, but possibly more annoying, are the various fees for the New York Times. I remember starting my subscription at $15 per month, and soon it will be double that. However, I do love playing Wordle every day, and being able to read articles when I like.
What can I replace with something cheaper?
Every time I have to pay for my blog, I wonder about cheaper options. And then I think about moving the blog while holding down my full time job, so nothing changes. However, I strongly suspect there are less expensive options to keep this blog publicly available.
Amazon Grocery doesn’t get ordered regularly enough that I’m sure I am saving money on delivery fees. However, Mr. PiN very much appreciates being able to skip a grocery run once or twice a month. We could look into some of the other delivery options, some of which I suspect have free memberships, to allow Mr. PiN a break periodically.
If things were really tight, I could absolutely give up my magazine subscriptions and read them through the library. It would be nice to have fewer magazines to recycle, but for now I enjoy getting something more entertaining than journals in the mail.
Current plans
For now, I may stick with canceling just 2 subscriptions for a savings of $24 per month.
However, I might start looking into cheaper alternatives for some of those services I am not particularly attached to.
I also feel very comfortable that, if money suddenly got very tight, I could probably free up an extra $150-200 per month from our budget relatively quickly.
Have you reviewed your subscriptions recently? If so, what did you find?
Thanks for the shout out. This is a terrific exercise to do from time to time.
Absolutely my pleasure.
When I wrote the post, I concluded that I was keeping most of my subscriptions; but it was pretty liberating to know that most are absolutely droppable if things get tight. I also felt very grateful that I could enjoy the benefits of so many nice-to-haves.