I’ve been on something of subscription cancellation spree lately when it comes to my monthly bills.
Last week, I cancelled my gym membership — and it was so easy. I didn't even have to send a certified letter!
Then just yesterday, I cancelled a Netflix subscription that was still in its free trial period. I wanted to be sure I got out before they started billing me, so I marked it on my calendar as a to-do item!
Now, just today, I called Xfinity — the monopoly cable and Internet provider formerly known as Comcast — to downgrade my TV package and keep the savings going.
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Don’t let monthly subscriptions run (or ruin) your financial life
Downgrading your pay TV package doesn’t exactly fall under the category of canceling a subscription. But it can have the same effect by helping to keep more money in your pocket every month.
Waterstone Management Group recently released a highly publicized study that found the average American spends $237 per month on mobile service, pay TV and a variety of subscriptions to services like Netflix, Spotify, Match, Amazon Prime and more.
So I decided to figure out what I was paying for the monthly subscriptions in my life:
I don’t find any value in Amazon Prime, so I don’t subscribe that. I don’t have a streaming music subscription of any kind. I don’t pay for cloud storage, beauty subscription boxes, premium dating apps, meal-kit services or digital newspaper subscriptions. Heck, I’m not even a Costco member!
So $180 for subscriptions was my starting point. I wanted to get that a lot lower.
As I mentioned, I cancelled Netflix before the free trial ended and gave my gym membership the boot. Those two moves added $27 back to my life each month.
But that $113 going to Xfinity (Comcast) really got my goat!
In my house, we don’t watch anything beyond two channels — one is a classic TV channel (think Laugh-In and I Love Lucy!) and the other is a PBS affiliate with DIY craft/arts/cooking/travel shows.
So when I noticed Xfinity had a “Limited Basic” package of channels that was two tiers below the package I currently have, I knew I had to downgrade and save some money. (I had already made my up mind not to downgrade my existing home Internet speed.)
I tried downgrading via online chat at the Xfinity website, but ended up being told I would have to call in. In just a few minutes on the phone, I dropped the price of my TV/Internet bundle down from $113.49 to $60.04 (including a $5/month discount for paperless billing, which I signed up for.)
So now my monthly subscription expenses look like this…
New monthly subscription expenses
That’s $80/month less than what I’d previously been paying.
Now, I know it's easy to stay put doing what you're already doing with the monthly subscriptions in your life. Until I read the Waterstone Management Group report about monthly subscription costs, I wanted to stay put doing what I was doing, too.
But I recently figured out the "Big Why" of my financial life. I want to pay off my mortgage in 36 months. And every extra dollar — or every extra $80 — helps me get closer to that goal.
My next move will be to take a closer look at Xfinity's $12/month mobile service that's only available to customers. I potentially have the opportunity to lower the forty bucks I pay now to Cricket Wireless down to just a dozen bucks.
Remember, as I once heard somebody say on The Clark Howard Show, “If your outflow exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall!”